The US Senate bucked outgoing President Donald Trump during a rare Friday session, approving a defense spending bill the commander-in-chief has vowed to veto.
TRUMP HAS VOWED TO VETO THE BILL
The 84-13 vote now sends the gargantuan $731 billion bill to the president’s desk. It cleared the House of Representatives on Tuesday, and in both chambers has secured a veto-proof majority.
The president could still exercise his veto powers, but that would almost certainly set up an embarrassing defeat in the waning days of his presidency.
Trump, now in his lameduck period, has vowed to veto the bill because it contains certain provisions he has voiced disapproval of while lacking others he has demanded. But a large chunk of his Republican partisans in both chambers bucked his threats in voting for the bill.
Trump has lambasted a requirement within the bill that the Defense Department rename military installations that bear the name of Confederate generals. The confederacy was a separatist movement that fought against the US in the mid-1800s to maintain the right to own Black people as slaves.