“The highlights are getting more loans to businesses because small businesses, the hallmark of our economy, have just struggled,” said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-North Carolina). “This provides them with a lifeline, a lifeline towards spring that hopefully when people get well vaccinated will return to a better economy.”
Second Stimulus Check: See how much money you can receive with the new stimulus bill
Trump announced Sunday night that he had signed the $ 900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package and the accompanying $ 1.4 trillion government spending bill, but he did so while saying that Congress had to make changes to the bill.
Trump, whose advisers were the architects of the bipartisan deal, shocked everyone earlier in the week by threatening not to sign the bill. He called it a “misfortune” and called for the elimination of unnecessary spending, as well as an increase in stimulus controls for every American, which his own representatives worked to decrease in the first place.
“Treasury Secretary (Steve) Mnuchin was up there representing the White House,” White House correspondent Jonathan Karl said of the Capitol Hill negotiations. “He’s the one who recommended paying $ 600. Here the policy is totally mixed up.”
The bill garnered the support of three North Carolina Democratic congressmen: Representative Alma Adams, Representative GK Butterfield, and Representative David Price. Both Republican senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, also voted “yes.”
Among the ten North Carolina Republicans in the House of Representatives, Ted Budd and Dan Bishop were the only two to vote against the package.
Learn more about how NC lawmakers voted:
“I think there’s a happy medium,” said Rep. Murphy, whose district includes Greenville and eastern North Carolina. “I wish we could improve this as far as the people affected are the only ones getting money. Unfortunately, many of the stimulus controls (of the CARES Act) went to buy TVs or luxury items when they should have used for rent. It’s a balancing act. “
U.S. Census data from July showed that 62 percent of people who received checks used or planned to use most of the $ 1,200 in expenses. Household Pulse survey figures from the U.S. census showed that most people used the money to buy food, household supplies and pay for utilities. Across the state, less than 10 percent of residents planned to spend money on electronics, games, sports equipment or donate to charity.
Household Pulse survey numbers from the U.S. census show that most people used the money to buy food, household supplies and pay for utilities. Across the state, less than 10 percent of residents planned to spend money on electronics, games, sports equipment or donate to charity.
Faced with economic hardship and the spread of disease, lawmakers urged Trump on Sunday to sign the legislation immediately and then have Congress monitor it. This is what Congress will have when it returns on Monday.
“In the end, despite being imperfect, I supported both parts of the package … because Secretary Mnuchin asked us to give it,” wrote Rep. David Rouzer, a Republican congressman representing parts of Johnston County. on your website. “I’ll probably never know if he was a scoundrel to the president. But I know: we all trusted him in his word understanding that he was speaking for the president.”
Rick Klein, political director of ABC News, said Trump’s unsuccessful negotiation means tangible consequences for the timely distribution of aid.
“It’s not the time to have an interruption,” he said. “It’s the holidays, at the end of the month, when people have bills to pay. Cities and states have people who don’t work during the holidays. It’s harder to start and stop these things.”
“The date was really unfortunate,” Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Labor Law Project, a workers ’advocacy group, told AP. “Now there’s some question about when this is paid for.” The Department of Labor may interpret the law to allow payments for the week ending Jan. 2, Evermore said. But if the bill had been signed on Saturday, payments could have restarted this week.
And it’s likely to take two to three weeks for states to upgrade their computer systems to resume aid programs and pay the extra $ 300, Evermore said, a process that could have begun sooner after Congress approved the bill about a week ago.
Still, Klein says there is enough optimism on Capitol Hill that Congress has reached an agreement, and there could be the impetus needed to be more successful under the Biden administration.
“This bill started in the middle and that’s weird these days. It’s a bipartisan group that said that was the framework for getting things going and that leadership was then involved. That’s the same thing. means that Biden tends and hopes he can carry out. They will not be extremists on either side or on people who want to solve problems the Biden way and that is the point of view of the centrists.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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