U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) talks to reporters about the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) during a conference release at the United States Capitol in Washington on November 12, 2020.
Hannah McKay | Reuters
House Democrats will try to approve direct payments of $ 2,000 on Thursday as the fate of a congressional-approved coronavirus relief package remains in balance.
The party will focus on sending cash to Americans after President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to oppose a more than $ 2 trillion pandemic aid bill and federal funding to send $ 600 in deposits. instead of $ 2,000. The proposal, which Congress approved Monday after Trump took no part in the talks in which lawmakers drafted it, included $ 900 billion in coronavirus relief.
The bill included direct payments of $ 600, rather than the $ 1,200 passed as part of the CARES bill in March, because the majority of Trump’s Republican party aimed to limit the overall cost of the plan. In criticizing year-end legislation, Trump also pointed to spending on foreign aid, which Washington includes each year in funding bills.
The House will try to approve the $ 2,000 payments during a proforma session, a brief meeting of the House where few members usually attend. Democrats intend to pass the measure by unanimous consent, which means any lawmaker can block it.
Democrats have called on Trump to sign the coronavirus relief law and government funding and support the separate cash payment plan.
“If the president really wants to join us in $ 2,000 payments, he should make an appeal [House Minority] Leader [Kevin] McCarthy accepted our request for unanimous consent, “she wrote Wednesday in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the two top congressional Republicans, and their aides have been silent on Trump’s demand for larger checks.
But McCarthy, in a letter Wednesday afternoon to his fellow Republicans, described a counter-note his party planned to make Thursday that it would try to modify the foreign aid component of the spending bill.
It is possible that each party will end up blocking the other’s proposal in a showdown that would leave the bill with direct payments of $ 600 that went unchanged on Monday.
It’s unclear who would be eligible for $ 2,000 payments to the Democrats ’plan. In the government aid and funding bill, people who earn up to $ 75,000 and couples who file jointly up to $ 150,000 will receive the full $ 600.
If Trump vetoes the legislation, Congress may have enough support to overturn his action. However, depending on how quickly the more than 5,000-page bill arrives in your office after formal registration, you could let it die by refusing to sign it before the new session of Congress begins on the 3rd. from January to noon.
Along with direct payments, the bailout package adds a $ 300 weekly unemployment supplement, expands unemployment benefit extension provisions, and a federal eviction moratorium, directs $ 284 billion to Program Loans wage protection and puts more than $ 8 billion into the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines among other provisions. If Trump does not sign the legislation in the next few days, about 12 million people would lose their unemployment benefits on Saturday and the government would close on Tuesday.
Many economists and Democrats have deemed the $ 900 billion relief plan inappropriate after months of inaction on Capitol Hill. Democrats have said they plan to push for another bill after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20.
They have cited more direct payments and state and local government aid as top priorities.
—Reuters contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check for updates again.
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