Pressure is mounting on the Republican-led Senate to follow the House, which voted overwhelmingly on Monday to meet the president’s demand to increase checks by $ 600 as the virus crisis worsens. An increasing number of Republicans, including two senators in the January 5 runoff election in Georgia, said they would support the larger number. But most Republican senators are opposed to more spending, even if they are also afraid to upset Trump.
The result is highly uncertain towards the rare holiday week session.
“We should not postpone until the Senate holds a vote,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, in making a motion to refer it to the vote.
McConnell, who said little publicly about Trump’s request, objected, but gave almost no indication of his future plans.
“The Senate will start a process,” said the Republican leader. He said he plans to bring the president’s demand for the $ 2,000 checks and other remaining issues “in focus”.
The clash launched Congress into a chaotic end of the year session, just days before new lawmakers took office in the new year. It is avoiding action on another priority – overturning Trump’s veto in a comprehensive defense bill that has been passed every year for 60 years.
The president’s last-minute pressure for greater checks deeply divides Republicans, who are divided between those who align with Trump’s populist instincts and those who adhere to what were more traditional conservative views against government spending. Congress agreed to payments under $ 600 in an agreement on the major end-of-year relief bill that Trump reluctantly signed.
Liberal senators led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont who support humanitarian aid are blocking action on the defense bill until a vote can be taken on Trump’s demand for $ 2,000 for most Americans.
Georgia’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, announced on Tuesday that they support Trump’s plan for further checks as they face Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the second round that will determine which party controls the Senate.
“I am very happy to support the president,” said Perdue on Fox News. Loeffler said in an interview with Fox that she also supports reinforced relief checks.
Trump tweeted his demands before the Senate session on Tuesday: “$ 2,000 for our great people, not $ 600!”
The House vote on Monday night was an impressive turnaround. A few days ago, during a brief Christmas Eve session, Republicans blocked Trump’s sudden demand for bigger checks, as he refused to sign COVID-19’s broader aid and end-of-life financing bill. year.
While Trump spent days furious at his private club in Florida, where he is on vacation, dozens of Republicans calculated that it was better to join the Democrats to increase pandemic payments instead of challenging the president and voters who are stepping out of office relying on the money. Democrats led approval, 275-134, but 44 Republicans joined almost all Democrats in approval.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “Republicans have a choice: to vote on this legislation or to vote to deny the American people the higher salaries they need.”
The confrontation could end as more of a symbol than substance if Trump’s effort fails in the Senate and can do little to change the relief from COVID-19 and the federal spending package that Trump signed on Sunday.
That package – $ 900 billion in aid from COVID-19 and $ 1.4 trillion to finance government agencies – will deliver long-sought money to businesses and individuals and prevented a federal government shutdown that would have otherwise started Tuesday.
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Along with votes this week to overturn Trump’s veto on a broad defense project, it is potentially a final confrontation between the president and the Republican Party he leads, while imposing new demands and challenging the results of the presidential election. The new Congress is due to be sworn in on Sunday.
Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the Republican in the Ways and Means Committee ranking, acknowledged the split and said Congress had already approved large funds during the COVID-19 crisis. “Nothing in this project helps anyone to get back to work,” he said.
In addition to $ 600 direct checks for most Americans, the COVID-19 portion of the account relives a weekly increase in pandemic unemployment benefits – this time $ 300, through March 14 – as well as the popular Protection Program Payment Checks for companies to keep payroll workers. It extends eviction protections by adding a new rent assistance fund.
Americans who earn up to $ 75,000 qualify for direct payments of $ 600, which are eliminated at higher income levels, and there is an additional payment of $ 600 per dependent child.
President-elect Joe Biden told reporters at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, that he supported $ 2,000 checks.
Trump’s sudden decision to sign the bill came as he faced growing criticism from lawmakers on all sides about his last-minute demands. The bipartisan project negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had already been approved by the House and the Senate by a wide margin. Lawmakers thought they had Trump’s blessing after months of negotiations with his government.
The president’s defiant refusal to act, released with a heated video he tweeted just before the Christmas holiday, has created chaos, a drop in unemployment insurance for millions and the threat of a government shutdown due to the pandemic. It was another crisis created by himself, resolved when he finally sanctioned the bill.
In his signature statement, Trump repeated his frustration with the relief bill COVID-19 for providing only $ 600 checks to most Americans and complained about what he considered unnecessary spending, particularly on foreign aid – much of it proposed for your own budget.
While the president insisted that he would send Congress “a scaled version” of the spending items he wants to remove, these are only suggestions to Congress. Democrats said they would resist these cuts.
For now, management can only start work by sending the $ 600 payments.
Most House Republicans simply ignored pressure from Trump, 130 of them voting to reject the bigger checks that would add $ 467 billion in additional costs. Another 20 House Republicans – including California minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump confidant – missed the vote, despite pandemic procedures that allow lawmakers to vote by proxy to avoid trips to the Capitol. McCarthy was recovering at home from elbow surgery, his office said.
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