US House of Representatives President Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tells reporters about the results of the U.S. presidential election in 2020 and the continuing coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) during a press conference at the US Capitol USA in Washington, November 12, 2020.
Hannah McKay | Reuters
House Democrats will try to approve direct payments of $ 2,000 on Thursday, as the fate of a congressionally approved coronavirus aid package is at stake.
The party will send money to Americans after President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to oppose more than $ 2 trillion pandemic aid and a federal funding account because he sends $ 600 instead of $ 2,000 in deposits. The proposal – which Congress approved on Monday after Trump took no role in the negotiations in which lawmakers drafted it – included $ 900 billion in coronavirus relief.
The bill included direct payments of $ 600, instead of the $ 1,200 sum passed as part of the CARES Act in March, because most of Trump’s Republican Party aimed to limit the overall cost of the plan. In criticizing the year-end legislation, Trump also pointed to spending on foreign aid – which Washington includes in its financing accounts every year.
The House will attempt to approve payments of $ 2,000 during a pro forma session, a brief meeting of the House where normally only a few members attend. Democrats intend to approve the measure by unanimous consent, which means that any lawmaker can block it.
Democrats have asked Trump to sanction the coronavirus relief and the government’s financing project and support the separate cash payment plan.
“If the president really wants to join us in payments of $ 2,000, he must appeal [House Minority] Leader [Kevin] McCarthy agrees with our request for unanimous consent, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Wrote to Democrats on Wednesday.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, the two main Republicans in Congress, and their advisers were silent about Trump’s demand for bigger checks.
But McCarthy, in a letter on Wednesday night to his Republican colleagues, described a countermovement that his party planned to make on Thursday that would seek changes in the foreign aid component of the spending account.
Each side may end up blocking the other’s proposal in an impasse that would leave the account unchanged with direct payments of $ 600, approved on Monday.
It is unclear who would be eligible for payments of $ 2,000 under Democrats. In the government aid and financing account, individuals who earn up to $ 75,000 and couples who go into the process together who earn up to $ 150,000 would receive a total of $ 600.
If Trump vetoes the legislation, Congress may have sufficient support to overturn his action. However, depending on how quickly the 5,000-page bill gets to your desk after formal registration, it could potentially let you die by refusing to sign it before the new Congress session starts on 3 January at noon.
Along with direct payments, the bailout package adds a federal unemployment supplement of $ 300 a week, extends the unemployment benefits expansion clauses and a federal eviction moratorium, directs $ 284 billion for Protection Program loans Salary and puts more than $ 8 billion in the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, among other provisions. If Trump does not sign the legislation in the next few days, about 12 million people will lose unemployment insurance on Saturday, and the government will close on Tuesday.
Many economists and Democrats found the $ 900 billion aid plan inadequate after months of inactivity on Capitol Hill. Democrats said they plan to push for another relief bill after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
They cited more direct payments and help from state and local government as their top priorities.
—Reuters contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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