“The key highlights are getting more loans to businesses because small businesses, the hallmark of our economy, are just struggling,” Rep. Greg Murphy (North Carolina) said. “It gives them a lifeline, a lifeline until spring that will hopefully, when people are vaccinated well, return to a better economy.”
Second stimulus checks: see how much money you can receive under the new stimulus bill
Trump announced Sunday night that he had signed the $ 900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package and the accompanying $ 1.4 billion government spending bill, but he did so while also saying Congress needed to make changes to the bill.
Trump, whose own advisers were the architects of the dual agreement, shocked everyone earlier this week by threatening not to sign the bill. He calls it a “disgrace” and calls for the abolition of wasteful spending, as well as an increase in stimulus tests on individual Americans – who worked primarily through his own representatives.
“Treasury Secretary (Steve) Mnuchin was there to represent the White House,” White House correspondent Jonathan Karl said of the Capitol Hill negotiations. ‘It is he who recommends the payment of $ 600. The politics here are completely confused. ‘
The bill deserves support from all three North Carolina Democratic congressmen – Rep Alma Adams, Rep GK Butterfield and Rep 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.
More about how NC lawmakers voted:
“I think there’s a happy medium,” said Representative Murphy, which includes Greenville and East North Carolina. “I really wish we could hone it to where those only affected get money. Unfortunately, many of the stimulus controls (of the CARES law) went on to buy televisions or luxury items when they would be used to rent. It’s a balance. “
According to the U.S. Census data from July, 62 percent of the individuals who used the checks or planned to use the majority of the expenses were $ 1,200. The numbers from the US Census’ Household Pulse survey showed that the majority of people used the money to buy food, household supplies and means of payment. Across the state, less than ten percent of residents plan to spend the cash on electronics, games, sports equipment or donations to charity.
According to the numbers from the US census ‘Household Pulse survey’, most people used the money to buy food, household supplies and means of payment. Across the state, less than ten percent of residents plan to spend the cash on electronics, games, sports equipment or donations to charity.
In light of economic hardship and the spread of disease, lawmakers on Sunday urged Trump to sign the legislation immediately and then follow up on Congress with more. That’s what Congress will have on its pocket when it returns on Monday.
“Finally, while I was imperfect, I supported both parts of the package … because Secretary Mnuchin asked us to support it,” Rep. David Rouzer, a Republican congressman representing parts of Johnston County, wrote on his website. ‘Whether he’s hurting the president now, I’ll probably never know. But I know this: we all took him at his word with the understanding that he was speaking for the president. ‘
Rick Klein, political director of ABC News, said Trump’s fruitless bargaining does have tangible consequences for the timely distribution of aid.
“This is not the time to take a break,” he said. “It’s the holiday, the end of the month when people have bills to pay. Cities and countries have people who do not 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 Employment Law Project, an employee advocacy group, told the AP. “Now there is a question about when it will be paid out.” It is possible the Labor Department will interpret the law to allow payments for the week ending January 2, Evermore said. But if the bill was signed on Saturday, payments could clearly start again this week.
And it will likely take two to three weeks for states to update their computer systems to resume utilities and pay out the extra $ 300, Evermore said, a process that could have started earlier, after Congress passed the bill about a week ago. approved for the first time.
Klein says, however, that Capitol Hill has enough optimism about the fact that Congress has reached an agreement at all – and that the momentum is needed for more success under the incoming Biden government.
‘This bill started in the middle and it’s rare these days. This is a dual group that said it was the framework to get things going, and then leadership got involved. This is the same remedy that Biden tends to and hopes he can carry it out. It will not be an extreme in any of the parties and people who want to solve problems in the Biden way.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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