WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s push for $ 2,000 COVID-19 relief checks now falls to the Senate after the House overwhelmingly voted to meet the president’s demand to raise the $ 600 stipends, but Republicans showed little interest in increasing spending.
The outcome is highly uncertain for Tuesday’s session. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell declined to address publicly how he plans to deal with the issue. But Democrats, sharing a rare priority with Trump, took the opportunity to force Republicans into a difficult vote to support or challenge the outgoing president.
After bipartisan approval by the House, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned: “There is no good reason why Senate Republicans get in the way.”
“There is strong support for these $ 2,000 emergency checks from all over the country,” said Schumer in a statement late on Monday. He asked McConnell to ensure that the Senate helps “meet the needs of American workers and their families who cry out for help”.
The Casa count was an impressive turnaround. A few days ago, Republicans blocked Trump’s sudden demands for bigger checks during a brief Christmas Eve session, as they refused to sign the broader COVID-19 aid and the holiday financing bill.
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 link up with Democrats to increase the pandemic stipend than to upset the president and voters who are stepping down with money. Democrats led approval, 275-134, but 44 Republicans joined almost all Democrats in approval.
Senators were scheduled to return to the session on Tuesday amid similar and rigid Republican divisions between those who align with Trump’s populist instincts and others 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.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “Republicans have a choice: to vote on this legislation or to vote to deny the American people the highest salaries they need.”
The confrontation may end up being more of a symbol than substance if Trump’s effort fails in the Senate.
Legislative action during the rare holiday week session may do little to change the $ 2 trillion federal spending and relief package of more COVID-19 Trump signed the bill on Sunday, one of the biggest bills of its kind, providing relief for millions of Americans.
That package – $ 900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $ 1.4 trillion to finance the government agencies – will deliver long-sought money to businesses and individuals and avoid a federal government shutdown that would have otherwise started Tuesday, amid the public health crisis.
But the outcome will define Trump’s Republican Party, highlighting the second round of Georgia’s election on January 5, where two Republican senators are in the fights of their political lives against Democrats in two contests that will determine which party will control the Senate next year. .
Along with Monday and Tuesday’s votes to overturn Trump’s veto of a broad defense project, it is potentially a final showdown between the president and the Republican Party he leads while imposing new demands and disputing 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 direct checks of $ 600 for most Americans, the COVID-19 part of the bill revives a weekly increase in pandemic unemployment benefits – this time $ 300, until March 14 – as well as a popular Retirement Program. Payments Protection for concessions to companies to keep workers on payroll. It extends eviction protections by adding a new rent assistance fund.
The COVID-19 package attracts and expands on an earlier Washington effort. It offers billions of dollars for vaccine purchase and distribution, for virus contact tracking, public health departments, schools, universities, farmers, food pantry programs and other institutions and groups facing difficulties in the pandemic.
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.
Meanwhile, the government’s funding portion of the bill keeps federal agencies operating across the country without dramatic changes until September 30.
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 red version” of the spending items he wants to remove, these are only suggestions to Congress. Democrats said they would resist these cuts.
For now, the administration can only start working with sending the $ 600 payments.
Most House Republicans simply ignored pressure from Trump, 130 of them voting to reject the taller checks that would accrue $ 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.
The day after signing, Trump was back on the golf course in Florida, where he is expected to move after Biden’s oath on January 20.
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Colvin reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. The Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.