Republican-led Senate, rebuking Trump, overrides the defense bill veto
For the first time in his almost four years in office, President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans in the Senate overrode his veto on Friday, pushing through a defense policy bill against his heavy opposition weeks before he leaves office.
The Senate, sitting in a rare New Year's Day session, voted 81-13 to secure the two-thirds majority required with bipartisan support to override the veto. Eight past vetoes have been upheld.
The Friday session, widely seen as the last before a new Congress is sworn in on Sunday, also appeared to end for now a push by Democrats to increase COVID-19 relief checks from $600 to $2,000 sought by Trump.
Senator Bernie Sanders again joined Democrats in a bid to force a vote on higher payments, only to be blocked by Republicans.
Republican lawmakers have largely stood by the president during his turbulent White House term.
Since losing his re-election bid in November, however, Trump has lashed out at them for not fully backing his unsupported claims of voter fraud, for rejecting his demand for bigger COVID-19 relief checks, and for moving to override his veto.
The vote in the Republican-led Senate followed a similar vote on Monday in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which voted 322 to 87 to override Trump's veto.
A president has the power to veto a bill passed by Congress, but lawmakers can uphold the bill if two-thirds of both houses vote to override the veto.
Both houses of Congress had easily passed the legislation in early December by strong majorities, but Trump, citing a litany of objections, vetoed it on December 23.
"It's time for us to deliver this bill," Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said at the start of Friday's session. "It's our chance to remind brave service members and their families that we have their backs."
Democrats in both chambers had slammed Trump's veto. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it "an act of recklessness."
Speaking on the Senate floor on Friday, Senator Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said the bill was "essential" in bolstering the nation's cybersecurity against the type of widespread targeted attack that recently hit both the government and some private companies.
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