President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion Covid-19 relief bill into law, averting a government shutdown and extending unemployment benefits to millions of Americans. The signing came days after Trump suggested he would veto the legislation, demanding $2,000 direct payments to Americans, instead of $600. CNBC's Diana Olick reports. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: [ Ссылка ]
The House will vote Monday on increasing the second round of federal direct payments to $2,000 as Democrats embrace President Donald Trump’s calls to put more money in Americans’ pockets.
The measure would boost the stimulus checks in the year-end coronavirus relief and government funding package to $2,000 from $600. The vote comes a day after Trump signed the more than $2 trillion pandemic aid and full-year government spending bill into law.
The Democratic-held House will first try to pass the payments in a fast-track procedure that needs two-thirds support, according to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office. If it fails, the chamber will then move to approve it through a longer process that will only require majority support. In that case, it would only need Democratic support to pass.
Last week, the president called the legislation a “disgrace.” He waited days to sign the package after he received it from Congress. Trump claimed he opposed the bill — which his Treasury secretary helped to negotiate and which included many of his White House’s budget priorities — because it included too little direct money to Americans and too much foreign aid.
When asked whether the $600 payments were still on course to go out starting this week as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin previously said, a senior Treasury official said the department expects to make the payments on the same timeline he discussed.
Trump has pushed for $2,000 payments in recent days. In a statement explaining his decision to sign the legislation Sunday, he noted that the House and potentially the Senate could move to approve larger cash deposits. However, most Republicans in the GOP-held Senate have opposed even a $1,200 check.
Trump’s gambit caps a chaotic eight months of efforts in Washington to send another round of coronavirus relief. Americans waited months for more help after financial lifelines that aided them through the early months of the pandemic expired over the summer. Trump’s delays in signing the year-end bill cost an estimated 14 million jobless Americans a week of unemployment benefits after two key relief programs briefly expired.
The president’s signature prevented a government shutdown that would have started Tuesday. More delays also would have jeopardized a federal eviction moratorium, which the bill extends by a month through Jan. 31.
Democrats have called the relief bill a down payment and plan to push for more aid after President-elect Joe Biden takes office Jan. 20. As they had called for larger direct payments throughout aid talks, they jumped on the president’s support for $2,000 deposits.
On Monday, Biden also told reporters he backs $2,000 payments.
In a statement Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called on Trump to put more pressure on his party to back the payments during Monday’s vote.
“Every Republican vote against this bill is a vote to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny the American people the relief they need,” she said.
In his own statement Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he is “glad the American people will receive this much-needed assistance as our nation continues battling this pandemic.” However, he did not mention any plans for bringing up the $2,000 payment bill if the House passes it.
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