President Trump will on Saturday sign executive orders aimed at providing relief to Americans struggling with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News has learned.
Trump is expected to announce the presidential action during a 3:30 p.m. news conference at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, NJ, before heading to the Hamptons for fundraising events.
Trump blamed Democrats Friday for stalemate over the coronavirus deal in Congress and said he would take matters into his own hands. Earlier this week, he outlined executive orders that would extend improved federal unemployment benefits, keep payroll taxes up until the end of the year, extend a moratorium on layoffs, and help with student loan payments.
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“The president is taking action to provide relief to unemployed Americans, including actions to provide relief,” an administration official told Fox News Saturday.
One-sided trading has its limits and could pose legal challenges. Trump’s mandates are narrower in scope than the vibrations of dollars that Congress is mulling over for a massive stimulus to the virus-damaged economy. Congress controls new federal spending and Trump has already predicted side-by-side legislators will have consequences.
“We’ll see, yes, most likely we will dress,” Trump told reporters Friday.
House Democrats already handed over their $ 3 trillion coronavirus relief certificate in May. The House GOP last month proposed a $ trillion plan, although the measure did not lead to a vote, as Republicans were divided over whether more help was needed.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Speaker Chuck Schumer have been in talks with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin all week, but the two sides are far apart.
Democrats accused the GOP of not understanding the gravity of the crisis and of trying to “nickel and dime” warring Americans, while the White House accused Democrats of not willing to compromise.
Trump’s actions will not address some of the major issues that congressional proposals sought to address, including another round of $ 1,200 incentive checks, support for schools to reopen safely, an infusion of cash to state and local governments with revenue, food aid, new corporate legal protection and post-vote money for the 2020 elections.
Because of provisions in the constitution that confer the power of the legislature to exercise, the White House simply cannot pull hundreds of billions out of the air without the approval of Congress.
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But the Trump administration believes it has access to $ 140 billion that it can “reprogram.” That includes $ 80 billion in untapped money from the major coronavirus bill signed into law in March and $ 40 billion from the Disaster Relief Fund.
The White House believes it could divert some of that funding without congressional blessing, similar to how Trump declared a national state of emergency on the border with Mexico in 2019 to shift billions of dollars from the Pentagon budget to to help pay for a boundary wall.
Pelosi and Schumer expressed skepticism earlier this week about Trump’s executive powers.
“You can’t move that much money,” Pelosi said. “We’re talking about a big investment.”
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Democrats want the White House to continue negotiations with Congress on a major package.
“A better way to do that is [to] to come to an agreement that meets the needs of the American people – a much better way, “Schumer said.
The need for relief came as millions of Americans lost out on the $ 600-a-week federal unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July. A partial moratorium on eviction on properties with mortgages by government also expired at the end of last month.
There are about 110 million Americans living in rental housing; up to 23 million tenants – or 20 percent – are at risk of eviction by Sept. 30, according to an analysis by the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project.
With the additional $ 600 in unemployment benefits now officially paid off, some 24 million Americans say they have little to no chance of paying next month’s rent, according to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Payments for rent and mortgages are typically the largest monthly expense for Americans: One in four tenant families pays more than half of their income for rent, a rate that is even higher in cities like San Francisco and New York, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Fox Merks’ Mark Meredith, John Roberts, Jon Decker, Chad Pergram and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
