House Passes NDAA With Veto-Proof Majority In Face Of Trump Threats

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Tuesday despite President Trump’s threats to veto the bill. The massive bill allocates $740 billion for military spending and includes amendments that could block planned troop drawdowns from Afghanistan and Germany.

President Trump has threatened to veto the NDAA because it does not include a provision to repeal Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Section 230 gives tech platforms immunity from liability over the content published by third party users. The president also objects to an amendment that would remove Confederate names from US military bases.

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The final tally for the votes on the bill was 335-78-1, which is well over the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto. The Senate is expected to vote on the NDAA sometime this week.

Ahead of the vote, President Trump wrote on Twitter: “I hope House Republicans will vote against the very weak National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which I will VETO. Must include a termination of Section 230 (for National Security purposes), preserve our National Monuments, & allow for 5G & troop reductions in foreign lands!”

Out of the 196 Republicans in the House, 140 voted in favor of the bill. Rep. Liz Cheney (D-WY), who crafted the amendment to block the Afghanistan withdrawal, commented on the NDAA on Monday. “We ought to pass the NDAA and the president should not veto it. And we should override it,” she said.

I hope House Republicans will vote against the very weak National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which I will VETO. Must include a termination of Section 230 (for National Security purposes), preserve our National Monuments, & allow for 5G & troop reductions in foreign lands!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2020

Cheney teamed up with House Democrats to include the Afghanistan amendment on the bill. 

The amendment was proposed after The New York Times published a thinly-sourced story that claimed Russia paid bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan, a claim that was never substantiated.