Congress Overrides President Trump's Veto of Annual Defense Authorization Bill

What’s the story?

• Congress can celebrate New Year’s Day with its first successful override of a veto issued by President Donald Trump after the Senate voted 81-13 on Friday to enact the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021. The override means that Congress has enacted an NDAA for 60 consecutive fiscal years.
• Trump vetoed the bill and cited several issues with the legislation, including constraints it placed on the president’s ability to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Germany, and South Korea; provisions requiring the renaming of military bases named after Confederates; and a lack of reforms to liability protections for social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Act.
• The bipartisan conference report for the FY2021 NDAA, which is named in honor of retiring House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member William “Mac” Thornberry (R-TX), initially passed Congress on veto-proof majorities of 335-78 in the House and 84-13 in the Senate. The House voted 322-87 to override Trump’s veto on December 28th.
• Prior to this override, the last successful override of a presidential veto occurred in 2016 when Congress voted to override President Barack Obama’s veto of legislation that allowed the victims of terrorism and their families to sue foreign governments that sponsored responsible terror groups.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: The National Guard via Flickr / Public Domain)