The result is highly uncertain on the way to Tuesday’s session. Senate leader Mitch McConnell has declined to publicly explain how he intends to address the issue. But Democrats, who share a rare priority with Trump, have seized the opportunity to force Republicans into a tough vote to support or defy the outgoing president.
After a bipartisan House approval, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer warned, “There is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way.”
“There is a lot of support for these $ 2,000 emergency checks from all over the country,” Schumer said in a statement late Monday. He called on McConnell to ensure that the Senate helps “meet the needs of American workers and families crying out for help.”
The House count was a stunning turn of events. A few days ago, Republicans blocked Trump’s sudden demand for bigger checks at a short Christmas Eve rally because he defiantly refused to sign the broader COVID-19 support and funding bill at the end of the year.
While Trump smoked for days from his private Florida club where he spends the holidays, dozens of Republicans calculated it would be better to get in touch with the Democrats to raise the pandemic allowance rather than beat the outgoing president and voters who were on counted the money. Democrats led passage, 275-134, but 44 Republicans joined nearly all Democrats for approval.
Senators would return to the session on Tuesday amid similar, grim GOP divisions between those who align with Trump’s populist instincts and others who cling to some more traditional conservative views against government spending. Congress had settled for smaller payments of $ 600 in a compromise on the grand financial statements Trump reluctantly signed into law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “Republicans have a choice: either vote for this legislation or vote to deny the American people the higher pay they need.”
The showdown could become more symbol than substance if Trump’s Senate effort fails.
Legislative action during the rare holiday week session could do little to change the $ 2 trillion plus COVID-19 relief package and federal spending package Trump signed into law on Sunday, one of the largest bills of its kind providing relief to millions of Americans.
That package – $ 900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $ 1.4 trillion to fund government agencies – will bring long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and prevent a federal government shutdown that would otherwise have begun Tuesday in the midst of the public health crisis.
But the outcome will set Trump’s GOP and shed a spotlight on Georgia’s Jan. 5 election round, where two Republican senators battle their political life against Democrats in a few races that will determine which party controls the Senate next year. .
Along with Monday and Tuesday’s votes to override Trump’s veto on sweeping defense law, it may be a final showdown between the president and the Republican party he leads as he sets new demands and disputes the results of the presidential election. The new convention will be sworn in on Sunday.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the Republican who holds the Ways and Means Committee rankings, acknowledged the division, saying that Congress had already approved sufficient funds during the COVID-19 crisis. “Nothing in this bill will get anyone back to work,” he said.
Aside from the $ 600 direct checks to most Americans, the COVID-19 portion of the bill is reviving a weekly pandemic boost to unemployment benefits – this time $ 300, through March 14 – as well as a popular salary protection program with subsidies to companies to provide employees keep payrolls working. It expands eviction safeguards and adds a new rental assistance fund.
The COVID-19 package builds on a previous Washington effort. It provides billions of dollars for vaccine purchase and distribution, virus detection, public health departments, schools, universities, farmers, food supply programs, and other institutions and groups struggling during the pandemic.
Americans earning up to $ 75,000 are eligible for the $ 600 direct payments, which are phased out at higher income levels, and there is an additional $ 600 payment per dependent child.
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Meanwhile, the government funding portion of the law keeps federal agencies going nationwide without dramatic changes until Sept. 30.
President-elect Joe Biden told reporters at an event in Wilmington, Delaware that he supported the $ 2,000 checks.
Trump’s sudden decision to sign the bill came as he faced escalating criticism from lawmakers on all sides for his eleventh-hour demands. The bipartisan bill negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was well past the House and Senate. Lawmakers had thought they had Trump’s blessing after months of negotiations with his administration.
The president’s defiant refusal to act, published with a heated video he tweeted just before the Christmas holidays, sparked chaos, the lapse of millions of unemployment benefits and the threat of government shutdown during the pandemic. It was another crisis of his own origin, which was resolved when he finally signed the law.
In his statement on the signing, Trump reiterated his frustrations with the COVID-19 emergency bill for providing checks as low as $ 600 to most Americans and complained about what he considered unnecessary expenditure, particularly on foreign aid – a large part of which part by its own budget.
While the president has insisted that he send Congress “a redefined version” of editions he wants to be removed, those are just suggestions to Congress. Democrats said they would resist such cuts.
For now, the administration cannot begin sending the $ 600 payments.
Most of the House Republicans just took the pressure off Trump, 130 of them voted against the higher checks that would bring in $ 467 billion in additional costs. Another 20 House Republicans – including California minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump confidant – skipped the vote, despite pandemic procedures allowing lawmakers to vote by proxy to avoid trips to the Capitol. McCarthy was recovering from elbow surgery at home, his office said.
A day after signing, Trump was back on the golf course in Florida, the state where he is expected to move after Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20.
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Colvin reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.
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