Senate

Senate to vote Monday on overriding Trump’s Saudi arms deal vetoes

by Jordain Carney - 07/25/19 5:28 PM ET

The Senate will vote Monday evening to try to override President Trump’s vetoes of resolutions blocking his arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Senators locked in the override votes Thursday as they wrapped up their work for the week. Under the deal, senators will vote on the three vetoes on Monday evening starting at 5:30.

The veto override attempts are widely expected to fall short after the initial resolutions of disapproval passed with 51 and 53 votes — well short of the 67 votes needed to override a veto.

{mosads}Trump vetoed the three resolutions of disapproval on Wednesday.

“This resolution would weaken America’s global competitiveness and damage the important relationships we share with our allies and partners,” he wrote in veto messages to Congress released by the White House on Wednesday evening.

The resolutions marked the third, fourth and fifth time Trump was forced to issue a veto this year. Trump also vetoed a resolution earlier this year that would have forced him to withdraw U.S. troops in or affecting Yemen unless they were fighting al Qaeda.

The 22 arms sales, estimated to be worth more than $8 billion, would provide weapons to Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

Trump used an “emergency” provision of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) to sidestep the 30-day notification to lawmakers about a pending sale.

Under the AECA, lawmakers can block an arms sale with only a simple majority, instead of the 60 votes normally needed to pass legislation in the Senate. But they still need two-thirds of both chambers to override a veto.

Tags arms sale Donald Trump Saudi Arabia Saudi arms deal Veto override