WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s push for $ 2,000 COVID-19 relief checks is now in the Senate after the House overwhelmingly voted to meet the president’s demand to increase the $ 600 grants, but the Republicans have shown little interest in increasing spending.
The result is highly uncertain ahead of Tuesday’s session. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to publicly address the way he plans to address the issue. But Democrats, who share a rare priority with Trump, have seized the opportunity to force Republicans to vote with difficulty, either to support or challenge the outgoing president.
After bipartisan approval by the House, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer warned, “There’s no good reason for Senate Republicans to get in the way.”
“There is strong support for these $ 2,000 emergency checks from all corners of the country,” Schumer said in a statement Monday. He called on McConnell to make sure the Senate helps “meet the needs of American workers and families asking for help.”
The House count was an impressive turnaround. A few days ago, Republicans blocked Trump’s sudden demands for larger checks during a brief Christmas Eve session as they defiantly refused to sign the broader COVID-19 aid and funding law.
While Trump spent days smoking from his private club in Florida, where he spends the holidays, dozens of Republicans figured it was better to partner with Democrats to raise the stipend for pandemics instead of spending the president and outgoing voters counting. with the money. Democrats led the step, 275-134, but 44 Republicans joined almost every Democrat with approval.
Senators were due to return to Tuesday’s session amid similar, strong GOP divisions between those who aligned themselves with Trump’s populist instincts and others who adhere to what had been more traditional conservative views against government spending. . Congress had agreed to payments under $ 600 in a pledge on the big year-end relief bill that Trump reluctantly signed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “Republicans can choose: vote for this legislation or vote to deny the American people the biggest salaries they need.”
The confrontation could end up being more of a symbol than a substance if Trump’s effort comes in the Senate.
Legislative action during the rare holiday week session can do little to change COVID-19’s more than $ 2 trillion federal relief and spending package Trump signed the law on Sunday, one of the most important bills of its kind that provides relief to millions of Americans.
This package: $ 900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $ 1.4 trillion to fund the government agencies: they will be handing out cash for a long time to businesses and individuals and will avoid the shutdown of the federal government that would otherwise have begun on Tuesday, in the midst of a public health crisis.
But the result will define Trump’s Republican Party, focusing on Georgia’s second-round election on Jan. 5, where two Republican senators meet in the fight for their political lives against Democrats in a couple of races that they will determine which party the Senate controls next year.
Along with Monday and Tuesday’s vote to overturn Trump’s veto of a global defense bill, it is potentially a final showdown between the president and the Republican party he leads as he imposes new demands and discusses election results. presidential elections. The new Congress is to be sworn in on Sunday.
Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, a Republican on the Roads and Media Committee, acknowledged the split and said Congress had already approved many funds during the COVID-19 crisis. “Nothing in this bill helps anyone get back to work,” he said.
Aside from $ 600 direct checks to most Americans, the COVID-19 bill portion is experiencing a weekly increase in the pandemic unemployment benefit (this time $ 300 through March 14), as well as a popular payroll protection program subsidizes companies to keep workers payroll. It expands protection against evictions and adds a new rent assistance fund.
The COVID-19 package attracts and expands Washington’s previous efforts. It offers billions of dollars for the purchase and distribution of vaccines, for tracking contacts with viruses, public health departments, schools, universities, farmers, food pantry programs and other institutions and groups that are struggling in the pandemic.
Americans earning up to $ 75,000 will qualify for direct payments of $ 600, which are gradually eliminated at higher income levels, and there is an additional payment of $ 600 per dependent child.
Meanwhile, part of the government funding of the bill keeps federal agencies across the country running 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 everywhere for his eleven-hour demands. The bipartisan bill negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had already been passed by the House and Senate by a wide margin. Lawmakers had thought they had Trump’s blessing after months of negotiations with his administration.
The president’s defiant refusal to act, advertised in a heated video tweeting just before the Christmas holidays, caused chaos, a lapse in the unemployment benefits of millions of people and the threat of a government shutdown in the pandemic. It was another crisis of its own, resolved when it finally signed the bill.
In his statement on the signing, Trump reiterated his frustrations with the COVID-19 relief bill to provide only $ 600 checks to most Americans and complained about what he considered unnecessary spending, especially in foreign aid, much proposed by its own budget.
While the president insisted he would send Congress “a redefined version” with the spending items he wants to eliminate, these are just suggestions to Congress. Democrats said they would resist those cuts.
For now, the administration can only start working by sending the $ 600 payments.
Most House Republicans simply set aside Trump’s push, 130 of them voting to reject higher controls that would accumulate $ 467 billion in additional costs. Another 20 House Republicans, including California minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump confidant, skipped the vote, despite pandemic procedures that allow lawmakers to vote for representation to avoid traveling to the Capitol. McCarthy was recovering at home from elbow surgery, his office said.
A day after the signing, Trump was returning to the Florida golf course, 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.