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The Democratic-led US House of Representatives voted 275-134 to meet president Donald Trump’s demand for $2,000 (€1,636) Covid-19 relief checks on Monday, sending the measure on to an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Mr Trump last week threatened to block a massive pandemic aid and spending package if Congress did not boost stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000 and cut other spending. He backed down from his demands on Sunday as a possible government shutdown brought on by the fight with lawmakers loomed.
But Democratic lawmakers have long wanted $2,000 relief checks and used the rare point of agreement with Mr Trump to advance the proposal – or at least put Republicans on record against it – in the vote on Monday.
One hundred and thirty Republicans, two independents and two Democrats opposed the increase on Monday.
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On Sunday, the US president signed into a law the $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package to restore unemployment benefits to millions of Americans and avert a federal government shutdown in a crisis of his own making, while still demanding $2,000 checks.
It includes $1.4 trillion in spending to fund government agencies and $892 billion in Covid relief.
It is not clear how the measure to increase aid checks will fare in the Senate, where individual Republican lawmakers have said the higher amount would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the latest relief bill.
The Senate is due to convene on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday made no mention of Senate plans for a vote, after welcoming Mr Trump’s signing of the relief bill.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed nearly 330,000 people in the United States and led to widespread economic hardship, with millions of families relying on unemployment benefits and Covid relief funds.
Mr Trump, who leaves office on January 20th after losing November’s election to President-elect Joe Biden, backed down from his earlier threat to block the bill, which was approved by Congress last week, after he came under intense pressure from lawmakers on both sides.
The Republican president, who golfed on Sunday and remained out of public view even as the government crisis loomed, had demanded that Congress change the bill to increase the size of stimulus cheques for struggling Americans to $2,000 from $600 and also cut some other spending.
It was not immediately clear why Mr Trump, who has refused to concede defeat to Mr Biden, changed his mind on the stimulus package. His resistance had threatened to inject further chaos into the final stretch of his presidency.
After signing the bill behind closed doors at his beachside club, Mr Trump sought to put the best face on his climb-down, saying he was signing the bill with “a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed”.
“Much more money is coming,” he insisted in a statement, though he provided nothing to back this promise.
With less than a month left in office, Mr Trump is expected to gain little or no traction with lawmakers to make changes.
White House officials have been tight-lipped about the president’s thinking, but one source said some advisers had urged him to relent because they did not see the point of refusing.
Many economists agree the financial aid in the bill should be higher to get the economy moving again but say that immediate support for Americans hit by coronavirus lockdowns is still urgently needed.
Unemployment benefits being paid out to about 14 million people through pandemic programmes lapsed on Saturday but will be restarted now that Mr Trump has signed the bill.
The package includes $1.4 trillion in spending to fund government agencies. If Mr Trump had not signed the legislation, then a partial government shutdown would have begun on Tuesday that would have put millions of government workers’ incomes at risk.
The relief package also extends a moratorium on evictions that was due to expire on December 31st, refreshes support for small business payrolls, provides funding to help schools reopen and aid for the transport industry and vaccine distribution. – Reuters