A surprise scuffle over COVID-19 pandemic relief is set to run up against a crucial federal funding deadline next week as Democrats side with US President Donald Trump in his demand for US$2,000 payments to most Americans, and Republicans take up his criticism of government spending.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning a full floor vote tomorrow on pandemic aid that includes the US$2,000 payments that Trump says he wants, replacing the US$600 in the original legislation.
Republicans blocked US House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s attempt to make that switch on Thursday.
Photo: AP
Trump renewed his insistence Friday on the larger sum, while spending Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago resort, temporarily finding common cause with Pelosi as she maneuvers a vote that would force Republicans to accept the bigger payments or break with Trump.
However, unlike the speaker, Trump did not explicitly call attention to the fact that it was Republican lawmakers who had balked at spending more.
“Why would politicians not want to give people US$2000, rather than only US$600?” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Give our people the money!”
Pelosi on Thursday pinned the blame on Republicans after the failure of an initial gambit to pivot to US$2,000 checks as part of the relief package.
“House and Senate Democrats have repeatedly fought for bigger checks for the American people, which House and Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected — first, during our negotiations when they said that they would not go above US$600 and now, with this act of callousness on the Floor,” Pelosi said in a statement.
The standoff over stimulus payments comes after months of intense negotiations finally yielded a compromise to inject US$900 billion into the US economy — including forgivable loans for small businesses, supplemental unemployment benefits, support for renters facing eviction and funds for vaccine distribution. Those measures were combined with US$1.4 trillion in annual government spending, and now the entire package is in limbo.
Trump has not explicitly said he would veto the legislation, which the US Congress on Thursday finished processing after it passed both chambers on Monday.
On Christmas, he played a round of golf at his private club in West Palm Beach with US Senator Lindsey Graham, an ally of the president who has urged him to sign the measure.
If the president does not do so by tomorrow night, the government — now operating under temporary funding — would begin a partial shutdown starting on Tuesday. The House might attempt to pass another stopgap funding measure tomorrow if Trump has not acted.
Millions of Americans yesterday saw their jobless benefits expire because of the president’s refusal to sign the package.
Without his signature, about 14 million people could lose those extra benefits, US Department of Labor data showed.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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