The Senate Wednesday took a step toward overriding President Trump’s veto of a critical defense spending and policy bill.
Lawmakers voted to advance Trump’s veto message to the Senate floor, setting up a final vote on New Year’s Eve that will likely override the president for the first time in his tenure.
Congress convened this week for an unusual post-Christmas session in order to address Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the Defense Department’s spending levels and policy initiatives for the coming fiscal year. Trump objects to the bill for several reasons but is mainly demanding the bill include language that would end a lawsuit liability shield enjoyed for decades by social media giants who regularly censor the president and other conservative voices.
Republicans largely agree with Trump that the liability shield should be eliminated or reformed, but they don’t want it tangled up in a defense bill, which is considered “must-pass” legislation each year.
The House voted to override Trump’s veto on Monday with the help of most Republicans. Senate GOP lawmakers are also poised to defy Trump, although a few have indicated they will uphold his veto.
In addition to seeking the lawsuit shield language, Trump objected to a provision in the defense bill requiring the renaming of military installations named after Confederates and language limiting his ability to withdraw U.S. troops overseas.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said the Defense bill “should stay vetoed,” and indicated he would not allow fast consideration of the veto override vote, which would have allowed the Senate to complete business much earlier this week.
Hawley and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, want the Senate to take up a bill that would boost a new round of stimulus checks from $600 per individual to $2,000. The House passed the bill with the consent of more than 40 Republicans on Monday. The checks were included in a $900 billion COVID-19 aid measure Trump signed into law on Sunday, and now there is a growing effort to increase them.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked consideration of the legislation and instead introduced a bill that combined the check increase with language Trump is seeking to strip away Big Tech lawsuit protections as well as a provision to create a commission to examine election integrity.
Democrats rejected the Kentucky Republican’s bill, which makes it unlikely any new stimulus check legislation will pass ahead of the new Congress, which convenes on Sunday at noon.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, called on McConnell to take up the House-passed bill that increases the stimulus checks to $2,000.
Trump has also sought an increase in the checks, although he said it should be coupled with the rescission of some of the “wasteful” fiscal 2021 spending that passed along with the aid bill.
“It would have bipartisan support in the Senate if Mitch McConnell would only allow it to come to the floor instead of being an obstructionist to those checks going to the American people,” Pelosi said.
Many Republicans oppose simply passing an increase in stimulus checks, which would come with a $464 billion price tag.
Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he’d block fast consideration of the bill if McConnell brings it up because it’s not targeted to the people who need it the most but is instead provided to everyone earning up to $75,000, including those who have not lost their jobs.
