The unemployment assistance pandemic, a lifeline for 7.3 million American workers unemployed because of the coronavirus, expired at midnight on Sunday after President Donald Trump continued to resist signing the $ 2 package. , 3 trillion that combines government funding with Covid-19 relief.
The bill, the result of lengthy negotiations between the two parties and the Trump administration, which the President himself largely ignored, includes a $ 900 billion Covid-19 stimulus package that would extend these unemployment benefits – $ 114 to $ 357 weekly payments to unemployed workers and to themselves – employees whose business has stagnated.
That package would also extend the federal eviction moratorium, which is due to expire on December 31. Without an extension, millions could face an immediate housing crisis.
The legislation would also finance the federal government until September 2021. Without Trump’s signature, the government will close at midnight on Tuesday.
After Congress passed the bill with great bipartisan support last Monday, Trump threw Washington into chaos by suddenly raising an objection to the size of a new round of direct payments, which came as news to his own advisers who negotiated them with Congress. He demanded that lawmakers raise the amount to $ 2,000, and also criticized other elements he called “pork” included in the giant spending package, including annual payments of routine foreign aid.
Trump reiterated his criticism of the bill on Saturday, tweeting, “I simply want our great people to receive $ 2,000, instead of the meager $ 600 that are now in the account.”
Covid-19’s aid package currently includes $ 600 in direct payments to Americans who earned less than $ 75,000 in the previous fiscal year.
The amount represented a compromise between Democrats, who wanted bigger checks, and Republicans, many of whom were opposed to additional direct payments.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who proposed the $ 600 checks and personally negotiated the stimulus package with Congressional leadership, said in an interview with CNBC on December 21 that Americans could see the checks quickly. This requires the president to sign the bill.
The House, where Republicans prevented Democrats from hastily voting to increase the value of checks to meet the president’s demand, should consider a palliative measure on Monday to prevent a federal closure and keep the government running until President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
Biden asked Trump to sign the bill in a strong statement on Saturday, calling the president’s failure to make it an “abdication of responsibility” with “devastating consequences”.
Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Also criticized the president for not signing the bill on Sunday, saying: “Time is running out”.
Trump should sign the bill “because you don’t get everything you want, even though you are the president of the United States,” he said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday”.
If the project were simply the stand-alone measure of government funding, Toomey said, “I would almost certainly vote against it.”
“But I think Covid’s relief measures are very, very important,” said Toomey, adding: “People are unemployed, certainly not through their own fault. I think we need extended unemployment benefits, I think we need another round of PPP loans, which are actually grants to small businesses to keep their workforce part of their business, and time is running out. “
Toomey, who said he did not agree with $ 2,000 checks, added that he remains hopeful that Trump will approve the bill and avoid closing.
“I think the president did not explicitly say that he is going to veto this project, I consider that a sign of hope,” said Toomey. “I think that when he leaves office, I understand that he wants to be remembered for defending big checks, but the danger is that he will be remembered for chaos, misery and erratic behavior if he allows it to expire. So I think the best thing to do, as I said, is to sign this and then defend the subsequent legislation. “
Trump has spent the holiday at Mar-a-Lago, his private resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and on Sunday visited his golf course, Palm Beach International Golf Club, according to the traveling press report.