1) Urgent: the $2,000 stimulus check bill & veto override effort on the defense bill

The House of Representatives meets today in a rare session between Christmas and New Year’s. Two things on the docket today.

2) A bill to authorize $2,000 direct payment checks, in accordance with the President’s push last week and an override attempt of the annual defense bill.

We don’t expect any action in the House until the late afternoon and no votes before 5 pm et.

3) First up, the House debates the bill to provide $2,000 direct payment checks. The House will treat this bill as a “suspension” measure. That means they can rush it to the floor. But the trade off is a 2/3 vote for passage.

4) Note that many Republicans opposed such a plan for direct payments. Fox is told by a member of the GOP leadership that the House will likely get the 2/3 vote necessary for passage.

5) Watch to see how many Republicans, who were against additional direct payments, will now support the President on this issue.

Also in the queue is a vote to override the President’s veto of the annual defense bill. That will entail a debate and then a vote.

6) Mr. Trump has vetoed nine bills so far during his presidency, including the defense bill. The President opposes the legislation because it renames bases named after Confederates.

7) In the COVID/government funding bill, President Trump railed against extra provisions in that bill. But Mr. Trump insisted that lawmakers tack on an unrelated provision in the defense bill – or he would veto it.

8) Yet, the President wanted Congress to add unrelated language to the defense bill to terminate Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Section 230 grants tech firms a legal shield from lawsuits over information posted to their sites.

9) The House and Senate both approved the final version of the defense bill by overwhelming supermajorities. The vote in the House was 335-78 with one member voting “present.” The Senate vote was 84-13. Both votes were well above the 2/3 threshold to potentially override a veto.

10) But even though many Republicans supported the final version of the defense measure, some of noted they will stand with the President and vote to sustain his veto.

With 414 members voting on the defense bill, they needed 277 yeas to override.

11) But the 2/3 bar is based on how many members are present and voting on the bill today. So, the 2/3 necessary to override isn’t known until the vote takes place.

12) If the House votes to override, the measure goes to the Senate. But if the House fails to override, the bill is dead and the President’s veto is sustained.

13) The Senate could debate/vote on the veto override as early as tomorrow. But such an expedited process would require the cooperation of all 100 senators to speed up the process. If the Senate does it by the book, the veto override may not unfold in the Senate until December 31

14) Yes. You read that right. New Year’s Eve.

The last successful veto override came in late Sept 2016. Congress overrode President Obama’s veto on a bill to allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. That was the only time Congress overrode a veto an Obama veto