“The main highlights are getting more loans to businesses because small businesses, the hallmark of our economy, have just been struggling,” said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-North Carolina). “This gives them a lifeline, a spring lifeline that hopefully, when people are properly vaccinated, will move back into a better economy.”
Second stimulus checks: see how much money you could receive under the new stimulus account
Trump announced Sunday night that he had signed the $ 900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package and its associated $ 1.4 trillion in government spending, but he did so while also saying Congress needed to make changes to the bill.
Trump, whose own advisers were the architects of the bipartisan agreement, shocked everyone earlier this week by threatening not to sign the bill. He called it “a disgrace” and called for the elimination of wasteful spending and an increase in stimulus checks for individual Americans – who were trying to cut down on his own representatives in the first place.
“Secretary of the Treasury (Steve) Mnuchin represented the White House up there,” said Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent for ABC News about the Capitol Hill negotiations. He recommended the payment of $ 600. Politics is completely confused here. ‘
The bill received the support of all three North Carolina Democratic congressmen – Rep. Alma Adams, Rep. GK Butterfield and Rep. David Price. Both Republican senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, also voted “yes”.
Of the 10 North Carolina Republicans in the House of Representatives, Ted Budd and Dan Bishop were the only two to vote against the package.
More on how NC lawmakers voted:
“I think there is a happy medium,” said Rep. Murphy, whose district includes Greenville and Eastern North Carolina. “I really wish we could tighten this up to where those affected are the only ones getting money. Unfortunately, a lot of the incentive checks (from the CARES law) went to buy televisions or luxury items when they should have rented. balancing act. ‘
Data from the July U.S. Census showed that 62 percent of those who received checks used or planned to use most of the $ 1,200 spent. Figures from the US Census Household Pulse survey showed that a majority of people used the money to buy food, household items and utilities. Statewide, less than 10 percent of residents planned to spend the money on electronics, games, sports equipment, or donate to charity.
Figures from the US Census Household Pulse survey show that a majority of people used the money to buy food, household items and utilities. Statewide, less than 10 percent of residents planned to spend the money on electronics, games, sports equipment, or donate to charity.
In the face of economic hardship and spreading disease, lawmakers on Sunday urged Trump to sign the legislation immediately, and have Congress succeed with more. That’s what Congress will have in store when it returns on Monday.
“Ultimately, although imperfect, I supported both parts of the package … because Secretary Mnuchin asked us to support it,” wrote Rep. David Rouzer, a Republican Congressman representing parts of Johnston County, on his website. “I’ll probably never know if he made fun of the president. But I know this: we all took him at his word with the understanding that he spoke on behalf of the president.
Rick Klein, political director for ABC News, said Trump’s fruitless negotiations have tangible implications for the timely distribution of aid.
“This is not the time to have a breakdown,” he said. “It’s the vacation, the end of the month when people have to pay bills. Cities and states have people who don’t work on vacation. It’s harder to start and stop these things.”
“The date was really unfortunate,” Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, an employee advocacy group, told the AP. “Now there is a question when this will be paid out.” It’s possible the labor department is interpreting the law to allow payments for the week ending Jan. 2, Evermore said. But if the bill had been signed on Saturday, payments could clearly have started over this week.
And it will likely take two to three weeks for states to update their computer systems to resume the utilities and disburse the additional $ 300, said Evermore, a process that could have started earlier, after Congress passed the law about a week ago. first approved.
Still, Klein says there’s enough optimism about Capitol Hill due to the fact that Congress came to an agreement at all – and that there could be some momentum needed for more success under the upcoming Biden administration.
“This bill started halfway through and that’s rare these days. This is a bipartisan group that said this is the framework to get things going and that’s when leadership got involved. That’s the same middle Biden strives for and hopes he will get it. It will not be extremes in both parties and people who want to solve problems the Biden way and that is the position of centrists. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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