Outgoing US President Donald Trump signed a new $ 900,000 million stimulus plan for the US economy on Sunday after declining it for several days and millions of people losing their unemployment benefits. .
Trump signed the $ 2.3 trillion bill at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where he is vacationing Sunday afternoon, the White House confirmed.
That package, known as the omnibus, includes the second stimulus plan approved in the US this year and $ 1.4 trillion to fund the government through September 2021.
After five days of refusing to sign the bill and demanding changes, Trump apparently backed out to avoid running out of funds for the administration Monday night and preventing hundreds of thousands of employees from suspending their pay.
“I sign this omnibus and covid-19 package with a resounding message that makes it clear to Congress that wasteful articles of law must be cut,” Trump said in a statement.
The president assured that even though he is signing the bill, he still hopes Congress will pass an amendment to the point that is considering sending a one-time payment of $ 600 to millions of taxpayers to offset the devastation of the pandemic.
After his own administration negotiated the $ 600 amount, Trump demanded to raise that amount up to $ 2,000, recalling in his statement that the House of Representatives planned to vote Monday to make that change. something Republican leaders are against. .
Trump assured that the Senate, controlled by the Republicans, will “begin the process of voting to increase the checks to $ 2,000.”
But in a subsequent statement, Mitch McConnell, Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, thanked Trump for signing the bill, without mentioning any possible Senate vote to make changes.
Trump also assured that he will return the government’s funding plan in underlined parts to Congress to make changes, but it is not clear that lawmakers will change anything.
Trump’s change of mind came five days after he threatened to block the law on Tuesday if several points were not changed, from increasing direct payments to Americans to reducing foreign aid.
His refusal to sign the law saw two programs offering unemployment benefits to between 10 and 14 million Americans expire this Sunday, and will now be renewed when the law comes into effect.
Trump’s blocking of the bill was criticized by several members of his party, and had it lasted until January 1, it would have resulted in the end of a national veto on evictions, which would affect about 30 million Americans.
The bailout that Trump signed includes an unemployment subsidy of $ 300 a week, 325,000 million in aid to businesses (275,000 million of which for payroll), 45,000 million for public transportation, 82,000 million for schools and thousands of million in food stamps, tenant assistance and vaccine distribution.