Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus Tuesday said they will vote to uphold a presidential veto of a critical defense measure in support of President Trump, who wants the bill to include language to punish social media firms.
The move could block the National Defense Authorization Act from becoming law later this month if Trump follows through with a repeated threat to veto the bill and Congress cannot come up with a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override the president.
And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican and a staunch Trump ally, said he would not vote to override the veto. It’s not clear how many Republicans will join McCarthy beyond members of the Freedom Caucus. So far, only House Republican Conference Chairman Liz Cheney, who represents Wyoming, said she would vote yes on an override vote. But it is likely that other GOP members of the House Armed Services Committee will join her.
Dozens of House Democrats earlier this year voted against the House version of the bill, which now includes GOP provisions as part of a compromise. The new version could draw even more “no” votes than the 37 Democrats who voted against the measure in July.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, told reporters Tuesday he is unsure if the House currently can produce the two-thirds majority on Tuesday that would signal to Trump that he can’t win a veto fight.
“That’s an open question,” Jeffries said when asked about the vote count, adding that he is confident the Democratic whip operation can produce “a good vote.”
The House currently stands at 430 members, which means a veto override would require roughly 286 votes, depending on who shows up in the chamber or votes by proxy. The measure passed, 295-125, in July.
While it is expected to pass today and that the Senate will clear it for Trump’s consideration later this week, Trump said he won’t sign the bill unless a provision is added to strip out lawsuit liability protection for Big Tech.
Trump and many Republicans believe Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides the broad lawsuit protections, needs reform or complete elimination due to the actions of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms to censure or block conservatives on their sites. Trump is frequently censored on Twitter.
Republican leaders say they agree with the president about reforming Section 230 but said the effort to change the law should not be entangled with the annual defense policy bill, which the military relies on for critical planning.
But the House Freedom Caucus has a history of bucking the GOP leadership, particularly when it comes to standing up for Trump. The caucus includes dozens of Republican members who, if they vote against the bill, would send a strong signal to the president that his veto stands a chance of being upheld.
A Freedom Caucus spokesman said all but one member of the roughly 40 lawmakers in the group intend to vote against the defense bill.
“The majority of our members believe the NDAA, as it stands, is flawed,” Freedom Caucus spokesman Robert Donachie told the Washington Examiner. “Today, Freedom Caucus members will highlight those reasons, offer support for President Trump’s commitment to veto the NDAA, and will address calls from some within our conference to override the president’s veto.”
Freedom Caucus members are opposed to a number of provisions in the defense bill, including the lawsuit liability shield.
