Another major piece of legislation that Congress is working on, one which has been passed and been signed into law by whomever has been President for the past 59 years, is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As we explained last week, that’s the annual bill that authorizes the pay for members of the U.S. military as well as other important issues dealing with the Department of Defense.
President Trump was threatening to veto it because it directs the Defense Department to rename military posts and bases that are named for Civil War Confederate generals. Trump also demanded that a provision that would affect social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter be included in the bill.
Republicans as a whole did not object to the renaming provision and they agreed with Democrats that the NDAA was not the place for the social media provision that Trump wants. As a result, both houses of Congress passed the NDAA last week with majorities that are large enough to override Trump’s threatened veto.
Nonetheless, this weekend the President said he will carry out his threat and veto the bill. It is not clear if all Republican members of Congress who voted for the bill will do so again and override Trump but there were large enough majorities in both houses that they could lose a few votes and still override.
If Trump does, in fact, veto the bill it is likely Congress will attempt to override it this week although the timing of the override attempt may hinge on whether an agreement of government funding can be reached this week.
