WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s campaign for greater $ 2,000 COVID-19 relief contracts ceased in the Senate when Republicans blocked a quick vote proposed by Democrats and split within their own ranks over spending houses or the White House.
The roadblock imposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday may not be sustainable. Trump wants the Republican chamber to follow the House and raise the checks for millions of Americans by $ 600. A growing number of Republicans, including two senators in by-elections on January 5 in Georgia said they would support the larger amount. But most GOP senators have opposed more spending, even though they are wary of Trump.
Senators will be there again on Wednesday as McConnell is a way out of the political band, but the outcome is very uncertain.
“There’s one more question left today: Do Senate Republicans join the rest of the United States in $ 2,000 checks?” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said when he made a motion to vote.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said some of the $ 600 payments may have been sent directly to U.S. bank accounts by Tuesday night. Mnuchin tweeted that paper checks will start going out on Wednesday.
The $ 2,000 checks showcase threw Congress into a chaotic year-end session just days before new lawmakers swear in the new year. It prevents acting with a different priority – to overthrow Trump’s veto on a comprehensive defense bill that has been approved for 60 years.
To say the least, McConnell has indicated an alternative approach to Trump’s checks that may not divide his party so badly, but may not lead to action at all.
The GOP leader passed new legislation late Tuesday linking the president’s demand for bigger checks to two other Trump priorities – revoking protection for tech companies like Facebook or Twitter that the president has complained about are unfair to conservatives, as well as the establishment of a dual commission to review the 2020 presidential election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
“The Senate will begin a process,” the IDP leader said. He said little more, only that he would “focus” on the president’s demand for the $ 2,000 checks and other remaining issues.
The president’s last minute for bigger checks leaves Republicans deeply divided between those who agree with Trump’s populist instincts and those who stick to what were more traditional conservative views on government spending. Congress decided on smaller $ 600 payments in a compromise over the big year-end bill that Trump reluctantly signed.
Liberal senators led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who supports relief aid, are blocking action on the defense bill until a vote on Trump’s $ 2,000 demand for most Americans.
“The working class of this country today is facing more economic desperation than ever before since the Great Depression in the 1930s,” Sanders said as he also tried to force a vote on the emergency relief. “Working families now need help.” But McConnell objected to it a second time.
The GOP blockade is causing unrest for some because the virus crisis is exacerbating nationwide and Trump is stepping up his unexpected demands.
Georgia’s two GOP senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, announced on Tuesday that they support Trump’s plan for bigger checks, as they face Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in run-off elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. .
“I am delighted to support the President,” Perdue told Fox News. Loeffler said in an interview on Fox that she also supports the increased lighting tests.
Trump reiterates his demand in a tweet before Tuesday’s Senate session: “$ 2000 for our great people, not $ 600!”
Following Trump, Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida, among the party’s potential hopeful presidents in 2024, are leading the party toward the president.
“We have the votes. Let’s vote today, “Hawley tweeted.
Other Republicans have pawned the larger checks, saying the price of nearly $ 400 billion is too high, the relief is not aimed at the needy and Washington has already sent out sufficient amounts of COVID aid.
“We have spent $ 4 billion on this issue,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
The House voted late Monday to approve Trump’s request was an incredible twist. Just a few days ago, during a brief Christmas session, Republicans blocked Trump’s sudden demand for bigger checks because he defiantly refused to sign the broader COVID-19 bill on aid and funding for the year-end.
While Trump spent days away from his private club in Florida, where he spends the holidays, millions of Americans withdrew their unemployed aid and the country risked a federal government on Tuesday.
Dozens of Republicans have calculated that it is better to liaise with the Democrats to increase pandemic payments, rather than counting the outgoing president and voters on the money. House Democrats lead through, 275-134, but 44 Republicans joined almost all Democrats for a strong two-thirds vote of approval.
It’s highly likely that McConnell will vote on both the measures adopted by the House, which support Trump’s $ 2,000 checks, as well as his own new version linking it to the repeal of the technology companies ‘liability screen in’ section 230 ‘. of the Communications Act as well as the new commission for reviewing presidential elections.
It is a process that ensures that no account succeeds.
Trump’s pressure may erode in the Senate, but the debate over the size and scope of the package – $ 900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $ 1.4 trillion to fund the government agencies – is likely to be one last confrontation before the new Congress is sworn in on Sunday.
For now, the $ 600 checks will be delivered, along with other assistance, among the largest rescue packages of its kind.
The COVID-19 portion of the bill revives a weekly pandemic unemployment benefit increase – this time $ 300 to March 14 – as well as the popular salary protection program for grants to businesses to keep workers on the payroll. It expands eviction protections and adds a new fund for rental assistance.
Americans earning up to $ 75,000 qualify for the direct $ 600 payments, which are phased out at higher income levels, and there is an additional payment of $ 600 per dependent child.
Biden supports the $ 2,000 checks and said Tuesday that the aid package is only an “installment” on what he plans to deliver once in office.
Economists said a $ 600 check would help, but it is far from the spending power a $ 2,000 check would provide for the economy.
“It will make a big difference if it’s $ 600 versus $ 2000,” said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s.
The president also objected to the funding of foreign aid requested by his own government and promised to send a new version to Congress with spending items he wants to remove. But these are merely proposals to Congress. Democrats have said they will resist such cuts.
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Colvin reports from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press authors Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Ashraf Khalil in Washington and Matt Ott in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this report.