The United States’ House of Representatives on Monday voted to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a $740 billion (Rs 54.29 lakh crore) defence policy bill, reported Reuters. The bill, known as National Defense Authorization Act, was voted 322-87, in which 109 Republicans joined the Democrats to overrule the veto.

The bill would now go to the Republican-led Senate, where a vote is expected to take place this week. If the Senate passes the bill, it would become a law, making it the first veto of Trump’s presidency. As many as 212 Democrats and an Independent also voted to override the bill, according to AP. Twenty Democrats, 66 Republicans and an Independent opposed it.

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Trump had rejected the defense bill last week, saying it failed to limit social media companies, which he claims were biased against him during the country’s presidential polls. The president has also opposed the renaming of military bases that honour pro-slavery Confederate leaders. Without providing any evidence, Trump also claimed that the biggest beneficiary of the defense bill would be China.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcomed what she called “an overwhelming bipartisan” vote to override Trump’s veto. “The president must end his eleventh-hour campaign of chaos and stop using his final moments in the office to obstruct bipartisan and bicameral action to protect our military and defend our security,” Pelosi said in a statement, according to Reuters.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, said he believed the Senate would also reject Trump’s veto. Representative Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, urged his party members ahead of the vote not to side with Trump. “The world is watching what we do,” he said. “I would only ask that as members vote, they put the best interests of the country first. There is no other consideration that should matter.”

The defense bill includes 3% pay raise for US troops and grants over $740 billion in military programmes and construction. The bill had earlier passed both chambers of the Congress with margins more than the two-thirds majorities needed to override the president’s veto if needed. However, Trump had vetoed it anyway and the bill was sent back to Congress.