Republicans in the United States Senate are reportedly playing a waiting game when it comes to the next stimulus check and President Donald Trump‘s possible veto. Two Republican aides told The Hill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not given any guidance on how his party should respond to the president’s threats to veto their new bills. However, McConnell has previously vowed to override a presidential veto of the U.S. military spending bill.
The Senate and the House of Representatives finally passed a coronavirus pandemic aid bill this week, but it was tied into their yearly government spending bill. Although the Trump administration took part in the negotiations for the bill, the president is now threatening to veto it for a few disparate reasons. However, since the bill passed with an overwhelming majority, Congress theoretically has the power to override his veto. Trump has already vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act — the military funding portion of the bill — and McConnell has already said that he would call the Senate back for a rare emergency session to override that veto on Dec. 29.
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“In the event that President Trump does elect to veto this bipartisan bill, it appears the House may choose to return after the holidays to set up a vote to consider the veto… In the event that the president has vetoed the bill, and the House has voted to override the veto, the Senate would have the opportunity to process a veto override at that time,” McConnell said on the floor early Tuesday morning.
Trump claimed that he was ordering a veto of the NDAA in order to anger the Chinese government. He was also reportedly upset that the bill did not repeal liability shields for big tech companies like he asked, and that it ordered military bases named after Confederate leaders to be renamed.
As for the stimulus bill, his reasoning is less clear. Trump has raged against the $600 stimulus check included in the bill, saying that it is too small, as have many of his political rivals and the American people themselves. However, this last-minute complaint contradicts the actions of his administration throughout these arduous seven-month-long negotiations.
Trump technically may not need to veto the bill in order to make it fail, either. The Constitution gives the president 10 days to consider a bill passed by the U.S. Congress before signing it into law. If he does not act in that time, the bill automatically becomes law, however, since Congress has adjourned “sine die,” this bill would fail in what is reportedly called a “pocket veto.” This would leave the American people hanging until late January for more pandemic aid.
