Time is running out for President Donald Trump to sign the stimulus package approved by Congress as law.
Not only would about 12 million Americans lose their unemployment benefits if Trump did not sign the $ 900 billion bailout measure by midnight Saturday, but there would also be a week-long lapse if the president decided to put the pen down on paper after the aforementioned period. That’s because the $ 300 weekly unemployment insurance supplement cannot go into effect until the week that starts after the account is signed.
Supplementary unemployment benefits only last until mid-March, regardless of when they start. This means that a one week delay would shorten the payment period for recipients from 11 to 10 weeks.
Millions are also expected to have their eviction protections expiring at the end of the year, which would spur the stimulus.
As of Saturday afternoon, Trump had not yet signed or vetoed the bill.
“It is underhanded and cruel for the president now to refuse to sanction him and potentially end this brutal year by inflicting even more pain and suffering on families in need,” said Richard Neal (D-Mass), chairman of the House Manners and Resources Committee. . said in a statement. “The Republican leadership in Congress must join the call to sign this legislation – which they helped write and vote for – to extend this crucial aid.”
Photo by SAMUEL CORUM / AFP / Getty
Trump launched the fate of the stimulus, which was attached to a vital financing package that would also prevent a government shutdown on Tuesday, in complete turmoil because of its sudden demand earlier this week for $ 600 individual checks included increased to $ 2,000.
The president who is leaving office – who spent his vacation at his resort in Mar-a-Lago in South Florida and playing golf, although millions are desperate for help – suggested that he would veto the legislation without increasing checks.
Despite Trump’s demands, Congressional Republicans are opposed to increasing direct payments. House Republicans blocked an attempt by Democrats on Thursday to write $ 2,000 checks. A taped vote will be held on Monday, where the Democratic-led House is expected to approve the provision and send it to the Republican-controlled Senate. The Republican leadership in the upper house has indicated that it will not consider the measure.
Trump also demanded that hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid – which was included at his request – be withdrawn from the annual budget.
Despite the drop in benefits and the potential backwardness that millions of Americans face, Trump did not seem concerned. He was seen playing golf on one of his courses in South Florida, undermining his own claim and that of White House officials that he “would work tirelessly for the American people” during the holidays.
Direct payments were capped at $ 600 in response to Republican opposition for additional spending and Trump silence, as government advisers who helped negotiate the deal were forced to guess what the president wanted while he remained absent from the negotiations. . Democrats pushed for $ 1,200 checks.
“I just want to give our great people $ 2,000 instead of the meager $ 600 that is now in the account,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. “Also, stop the billions of dollars in ‘pork’.”
A solution still remains elusive. The stimulus was passed in Congress by a veto-proof majority, and lawmakers could presumably guarantee the same overwhelming bipartisan support to override the presidential veto.
However, depending on when Trump would veto the bill, Congress probably would not be able to overturn his decision for probably a week or two, well after unemployment benefits are set to expire.
Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), a close ally of Trump who played golf with the president on Christmas Day, has since said he is “convinced [Trump] is more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $ 2,000 per person. “