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WASHINGTON: A surprise fight over pandemic relief will face a crucial federal funding deadline next week, as Democrats side with President Donald Trump in his demand for $ 2,000 payments to the majority of Americans and Republicans take up their criticism of public spending.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning a full vote Monday on pandemic aid that includes the $ 2,000 payments Trump says he wants, replacing the $ 600 in the original legislation. Republicans blocked Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s attempt to make that change Thursday.
Trump renewed his insistence on the larger sum on Friday as he spends Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago resort, temporarily finding common cause with Pelosi as he maneuvers a vote that will force Republicans to accept the larger payments or break with Trump. . But unlike the speaker, Trump did not explicitly draw attention to the fact that it was Republican lawmakers who refused to spend more.
“Why wouldn’t politicians want to give people $ 2000, instead of just $ 600?” Trump said in a tweet: “Give our people money!”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, wears a protective mask while speaking during a press conference in Washington, DC, USA, Thursday, December 24, 2020
Pelosi blamed the Republican Party on Thursday after the failure of an initial tactic to cash $ 2,000 checks as part of the Covid relief package.
“House and Senate Democrats have repeatedly fought for greater controls for the American people, which House and Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected, first, during our negotiations when they said they would not exceed $ 600 and now, with this act of callousness on the Floor, ”Pelosi said in a statement.
The showdown over stimulus payments comes after months of intense negotiations that ultimately yielded a commitment to inject $ 900 billion into the US economy. Those measures were combined with $ 1.4 trillion in annual public spending. , and now the whole package is in limbo.
Trump has not explicitly said he would veto the legislation, which Congress finished processing on Thursday after it was passed by both houses on Monday. The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The bill was sent to Florida, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Trump played a round of golf on Christmas Day at his private club in West Palm Beach with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an ally of the president who urged him to sign the measure.
If the president does not do so on Monday night, the government, which now operates with temporary funds, would begin a partial shutdown starting Tuesday. The House could try to pass another interim funding measure on Monday if Trump hasn’t acted.
The president tweeted a video Tuesday criticizing the $ 2.3 trillion bill. His call for payments of $ 2,000, which most Republicans rejected as too expensive, surprised Republican lawmakers.
“Republicans in Congress and the White House cannot agree on what they want,” Hoyer told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill. “Surely, the president of the United States, whether he is in Mar-a-Lago or elsewhere, should have empathy for the suffering, apprehension and deep anguish that people are feeling this Christmas Eve.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the Republican leadership, said there were not enough Republican votes in the Senate to approve the $ 2,000 payments.
“I hope the president looks at this again and comes to the conclusion that it is best to sign the bill,” Blunt told reporters.
The House will meet again Monday to vote on the Cash Act, a bill introduced by Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal to increase stimulus checks to $ 2,000. Democrats will have a video conference before the vote to discuss Congress’s response to the pandemic, according to a person briefed on the plan.
On Thursday, Republicans tried to seek unanimous consent on a measure to examine taxpayer money spent on foreign aid, but Democrats blocked that measure. In his complaint Tuesday about the government spending bill and Congressional combined virus aid, Trump criticized federal resources spent on international programs, even though such spending was included in his budget and was allocated as part of the bipartisan appropriations process.
Trump’s conflict with Congress escalated further this week with his Wednesday veto of the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed both houses by wide bipartisan margins earlier this month. The House plans to vote to override Trump’s veto on Monday, and the Senate will do the same on Tuesday. It would be the first time that Congress has annulled Trump. – Bloomberg
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