Trump vetoes annual defence bill

Washington, Dec 24: US President Donald Trump has vetoed the USD 740.5 billion annual defence bill, saying that certain provisions in it posed risk to the national security even as the House geared up to override the veto with bipartisan support.
The US Congress last week passed the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021. It was passed in the US House of Representatives by a vote of 335-78-1 and in the Senate by a vote of 84-13. “Your failure to terminate the very dangerous national security risk of Section 230 will make our intelligence virtually impossible to conduct without everyone knowing what we are doing at every step. The Act fails even to make any meaningful changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, despite bipartisan calls for repealing that provision,” Trump said in a statement justifying his move to veto the bill on Wednesday.
Trump’s rare presidential move drew sharp reactions from the top American lawmakers, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi describing it as a reckless decision.
Trump said the Act also includes language that would require the renaming of certain military installations. The Act also restricts the president’s ability to preserve our nation’s security by arbitrarily limiting the amount of military construction funds that can be used to respond to a national emergency, he said. (PTI)