WASHINGTON – The fate of the $ 900 billion pandemic aid will remain in the limelight over the Christmas break after House Democrats tried and failed Thursday to more than triple the size of relief checks and then adjourned the House through Monday until they try again.
President Trump’s implicit threat on Tuesday to reject an auxiliary compromise that both houses overwhelmingly passed unless lawmakers agreed to raise the law’s $ 600 direct payment checks to $ 2,000 has continued to mess up Congress and at the same time an already volatile economic recovery shattered. Mr Trump retired Wednesday for his Florida home in Mar-a-Lago without saying another public word about the fate of the relief bill, leaving both parties to guess whether he really intended to oppose the long-belated move who also owns the pandemic aid, vetoed and funds to keep the government open last Monday.
The Democrats’ Christmas Eve gambit on the floor of the house was never going to pass, but party leaders hoped to bond Republicans – choosing between the president’s desires for far more and their own propensity for modest spending.
Republicans rejected the motion of Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Maryland Representative Steny H. Hoyer, for unanimous consent to pass a measure that meets Mr. Trump’s demand for $ 2,000 checks. Without the support of both Republican and Democratic leadership, such inquiries cannot be answered on the floor of the House. Republicans then failed to make their own request to review the foreign aid provisions of the spending legislation, which Mr Trump had also objected to, although most of the items came almost dollar for dollar from his own budget request.
California spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi issued a statement Thursday promising to hold a roll-call vote on the direct payments law on Monday, saying that voting against it would “deny families’ financial plight and deny them the necessary relief. ”
With government funds set to expire at the end of the day on Monday, House lawmakers are also considering the possibility of another emergency bill – which would be the fifth such spending measure this month – to prevent a shutdown, Hoyer said.
On Thursday, the Government Publishing Office was due to finish printing the nearly 5,600-page package and send it to Capitol Hill for congressional signatures. The legislation was due to be flown to Mar-a-Lago by the afternoon for Mr. Trump to sign, according to a person familiar with the plan.
Meanwhile, Republican leaders wondered aloud why Congress was still grappling on Christmas Eve with a matter they believed had finally settled on Monday night.
“There’s a long list of positive things we’d talk about today if we didn’t talk about it,” Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, a member of the Republican leadership, told fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill. “And I think it would be to the president’s advantage if we talked about his performance instead of questioning decisions made late in the administration.”
The law on pandemic and government spending, passed in both chambers this week with overwhelming support from both parties, contains the first significant federal aid since April. If the president doesn’t sign it, millions of Americans will lose access to two federal unemployment programs on Saturday that were expanded by $ 2.2 trillion under the $ 2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed in March.
Updated
Apr. 24, 2020 at 1:58 am ET
A number of additional relief efforts, including an eviction moratorium, expire later this month, and other temporary relief efforts that are protecting millions of Americans from the brunt of the economic fallout from the pandemic will expire with no action shortly after the New Year.
Ahead of two runoff elections in Georgia’s Senate, Mr Trump also forced a difficult situation for his party and instituted yet another loyalty test for his most dedicated voters, which depends on a $ 2.3 trillion package being rejected, in part by senior officials White House representatives negotiated.
The president “doesn’t care about people,” said Michigan Democrat Representative Debbie Dingell, who got more emotional after telling calls from voters asking for federal assistance during the holiday season. “He sowed more fear. He threw kerosene in the fire. “
Ordinary Republicans are also frustrated. On Wednesday evening, Ohio Republican Anthony Gonzalez argued that House Republicans stood by Mr. Trump for four years.
The second stimulus
Answers to your questions about the stimulus calculation
Updated December 23, 2020
Legislators agreed to a plan to provide $ 600 stimulus payments and distribute $ 300 federal unemployment benefits for 11 weeks. Here you can find out more about the bill and what’s in it for you.
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- Do I get another incentive payment? Individual adults with adjusted gross income on their 2019 tax returns of up to $ 75,000 per year would receive a payment of $ 600, and heads of household up to $ 112,500 and a couple (or someone whose spouse died in 2020) would receive up to to earn $ 150,000 per year Get double the amount. If they have dependent children, they will also receive $ 600 for each child. People with incomes just above this level would receive a partial payment that decreases by $ 5 for every $ 100 of income.
- When could my payment arrive? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that he expected the first payments to be made before the end of the year. However, it will take a while for everyone to receive their money.
- Does the agreement concern unemployment insurance? Legislators agreed to extend the length of time people can receive unemployment benefits and restart an additional federal benefit that is on top of the usual state benefits. But instead of $ 600 a week it would be $ 300. That would take until March 14th.
- I am behind on my rent or expect to be soon. Do I get relief? The deal would provide $ 25 billion to be distributed through state and local governments to help backward tenants. In order to receive support, households would have to meet various conditions: the household income (for 2020) must not exceed 80 percent of the regional median income; At least one household member must be at risk of homelessness or residential instability. and individuals must be eligible for unemployment benefits or face direct or indirect financial difficulties due to the pandemic. The agreement states that priority will be given to support for lower-income families who have been unemployed for three months or more.
“If he thinks he’s going on Twitter and destroying the bill that his team negotiated and that we supported on his behalf, more people will be brought to his side in this election fiasco, I hope he’s wrong, although I think we’ll see, “said Mr. Gonzalez wrote on Twitter.
On behalf of the Republicans, Virginia Representative Rob Wittman attempted and failed Thursday to consider a separate motion for a review of annual foreign affairs spending because Mr. Trump had also objected to the use of those funds. (That legislation had also secured the support of 128 Republicans when it passed the house on Monday.)
But the Republican leaders were also not particularly keen to renegotiate the spending portion of the bill. Senator Blunt said he believed Mr Trump was confused about the separation between the pandemic aid part and his own administration’s proposed foreign aid part in the state spending part.
“Certainly the negotiated foreign aid rules would not benefit if that part of the bill were opened, and frankly, if you start opening part of the bill, it is hard to defend not opening the entire bill. It took us a long time to get to where we are. I think reopening this bill would be a mistake, ”Blunt told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday.
“The best way out is for the president to sign the bill, and I still hope he decides that.”
Speaking at a press conference following the unsuccessful petitions, Hoyer said House Democrats only approved the $ 600 economic compromise checks because Republicans, including President’s Representative Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, insisted on that number.
“Mr. Mnuchin suggested that a lower number might have been appropriate,” Hoyer told reporters. When asked if it was a mistake to tie the aid package and spending omnibus together as different spending provisions were merged, Hoyer noted : “Perhaps the only mistake in believing President and Secretary Mnuchin was when we were told that the bill should be passed and would be signed by the President of the United States.”
