Trump signs massive government funding measure, relief from COVID

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) – President Donald Trump has signed a $ 900 billion pandemic relief package that will deliver long-sought money to businesses and individuals. It also prevents a government shutdown.

Trump announced the signature in a statement late on Sunday.

The massive bill includes $ 1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities, such as money for cashless transit systems and an increase in food stamp benefits.

Democrats are promising more help when President-elect Joe Biden takes office, but Republicans are signaling a wait-and-see approach.

THIS IS AN UPDATE OF LATEST NEWS. The previous history of the AP follows below.

The fate of a COVID-19 relief and spending bill at the end of the year remained in doubt on Sunday, while millions of people lost unemployment benefits, the government rushed toward a standstill in the middle of a pandemic and legislators begged President Donald Trump to act.

Trump surprised members of both parties and interrupted months of negotiations when he demanded last week that the package – already approved by the House and Senate by wide margins and believed to have Trump’s support – to be revised to include greater relief checks and cost reduction.

If he continues his opposition, the federal government will run out of money at 12:01 pm on Tuesday, while he spends the holiday playing golf in Florida.

On Sunday night, Trump offered the most vague of updates, tweeting, “Good news about Covid Relief Bill. Information to follow! The White House did not answer questions about what he meant.

In the face of growing economic difficulties and the spread of disease, lawmakers urged Trump on Sunday to sign the legislation immediately and then Congress to follow up with additional help. In addition to unemployment benefits and aid payments to families, money for vaccine distribution, businesses, cashless public transport systems and much more is at stake. Protections against evictions are also at stake.

“What the president is doing now is incredibly cruel,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “So many people are suffering. … it’s really insane and this president has to finally … do the right thing for the American people and stop worrying about his ego. “

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said he understood that Trump “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.”

Toomey added: “So I think the best thing to do, as I said, is to sign this and then defend the subsequent legislation.”

The same point was echoed by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican who criticized Trump’s response to the pandemic and his efforts to undo the election results. “I just gave up on guessing what he would do next,” he said.

Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said there was a lot at stake for Trump “playing that old trading game.”

“I don’t understand,” he said. “I don’t understand what is being done, why, unless it’s just to create chaos and show power and be upset because you lost the election.”

Trump, who spent much of Sunday at his golf course in West Palm Beach, has given no indication that he plans to sign the law as he spends the last days of his presidency furious. In fact, his dissatisfaction with the legislation seems to have only increased in the past few days, as he criticized it both privately to club members and publicly on Twitter.

Days ago, Democrats said they would call House legislators back to Washington for a vote on Monday over Trump’s proposal to send $ 2,000 relief checks instead of the $ 600 approved by Congress. But the idea is likely to die in the Republican-controlled Senate, as it did among Republicans in the House during a rare Christmas Eve session. Democrats also considered voting on Monday an interim measure designed to keep the government running until President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20.

Washington has been staggering since Trump opened the deal, without warning, after he gained wide approval in both houses of Congress and after the White House assured Republican leaders that Trump would support him.

Instead, he attacked the bill’s plan to provide $ 600 COVID-19 relief checks to most Americans – insisting it should be $ 2,000 – and questioned the expenditures included in a government financing bill for $ 1.4 trillion to keep the federal government operating until September.

And already, his opposition had consequences, as two federal unemployment benefits programs expired on Saturday.

Lauren Bauer of the Brookings Institution calculated that at least 11 million people would lose help immediately as a result of Trump’s failure to sign the legislation; millions more would exhaust other unemployment benefits in weeks.

How and when people are affected by the lapse depends on the state in which they live, the program in which they count and when they signed up to receive benefits.

In some states, people with regular unemployment insurance will continue to receive payments from a program that extends benefits when the unemployment rate has exceeded a certain threshold, said Andrew Stettner, an unemployment insurance specialist and senior researcher at the Century Foundation.

Some 9.5 million people, however, relied on the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which expired entirely on Saturday. This program provided unemployment insurance for freelancers, concert workers and others who are not normally eligible. After receiving their latest checks, these recipients will be unable to request further assistance, said Stettner.

Fingers have been pointing at government officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, as lawmakers try to understand whether they have been misled about Trump’s position.

“Now, to get into trouble, after the president’s own person negotiated something the president doesn’t want, it’s just – it’s surprising,” said Kinzinger. “But we will have to find a way out.”

Kinzinger spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union”, and Hogan and Sanders on ABC’s “This Week”.