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(CNN) – President-elect Joe Biden has asked President Donald Trump to sign the Covid-19 bipartisan relief bill, warning that any further delay has “devastating consequences” for Americans.
Trump has yet to sign the $ 900 billion joint aid package and government spending bill that Congress passed this week, saying the bill does not provide enough money in direct payments and includes “wasteful items and unnecessary, “even though it largely meets his administration’s budget. proposal.
Biden argued on Saturday, the day unemployment benefits for more than 12 million Americans who lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic will expire, that the bill is “critical” and “must become law now.”
“It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families do not know if they will be able to make ends meet due to President Donald Trump’s refusal to sign an economic relief bill passed by Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan majority,” he said . it said in a statement. “This abdication of responsibility has devastating consequences.”
With the aid package left unsigned by the president, expanded unemployment benefits will run out on Saturday, government funding will expire on Monday, a moratorium on evictions will expire next week, federal small business loans will not be reactivated, and direct payments of $ 600 to certain Americans will be delayed.
CNN previously reported that the bill was in Mar-a-Lago on Friday morning, according to an official familiar with the matter.
Trump has not explicitly said that he will veto the bill, which was approved by Congress on Monday with a large veto-proof majority. The deal was reached only after both sides gave up on some of their key demands, and direct stimulus controls proved to be a major sticking point throughout the negotiations.
Biden, who will not take office until Jan. 20, called the bill a “first step and down payment for more actions” that are needed early next year to “jumpstart the economy and contain the pandemic.”
He added that he was “encouraged” by seeing Congress heed America’s demands for bipartisan commitment and action amid the pandemic.
“President Trump should join them and make sure millions of Americans can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads this Christmas season,” the president-elect said.
This story was first published on CNN.com ‘Biden Warns of’ Devastating Consequences ‘for Trump to Sign Covid Aid Package’
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