The rare House Christmas Eve rally lasted just minutes, with help for millions of Americans awaiting Trump’s signature on the bill. Unemployment benefits, eviction protection, and other emergency relief, including smaller $ 600 checks, are at risk. Trump’s rejection of the $ 900 billion package, which is tied to a $ 1.4 trillion bill in government money, could lead to a federal shutdown at midnight on Monday.
“We are not letting the government shut down nor are we letting the American people down,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., The majority leader.
The optics seem dreadful to Republicans and the outgoing president as the nation suffers through the worst holidays many can remember. Families are isolated by COVID precautions, and millions of American homes are destroyed without adequate income, food, or shelter. The death toll of more than 327,000 viruses is on the rise.
Trump is ending his presidency as he started it – sowing confusion and reversing promises as he disputes elections and courting a federal shutdown over demands his own party in Congress will fail to fulfill.
WATCH: In Twitter video, Trump suggests not to sign the COVID waiver bill
The Republican leaders of Congress have been left almost speechless by Trump’s scorching work at the end of the year.
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy helped negotiate the year-end deal, a valued bipartisan compromise, which received widespread approval in the House and Senate this week after the White House assured GOP leaders Trump supported it.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin boasted that the $ 600 checks agreed by all parties to Americans would be in the mail within a week.
Instead, Washington is now rushing to a crisis with COVID aid on the verge of collapse as the president is in his Mar-a-Lago club. He lashed out at GOP leaders for refusing to participate in his efforts to reverse the election Joe Biden won when Electoral College votes were counted in Congress on January 6.
“The best way out is for the president to sign the bill,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri said Thursday. “And I still hope he decides that.”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mnuchin race to save end-of-year legislation and discuss options.
Democrats will recall House lawmakers to Washington for a vote Monday on Trump’s proposal, with a roll-call appeal that would record all members as support or rejection of the $ 2,000 checks. They are also considering voting on an emergency measure on Monday to at least prevent a federal shutdown. It would keep the government going until Biden is inaugurated on January 20. Lawmakers will also be asked to override Trump’s veto on a defense bill.
After chairing the brief House session, an exasperated Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., That COVID aid could collapse.
‘It’s Christmas Eve, but it’s not a quiet night. Not everything is calm. Nothing is clear to many, ”she said on Capitol Hill.
A town hall where she hosted the night before “made people cry, people were terrified of what’s going to happen,” she said. A dad recently told her to tell his kids there wouldn’t be Santa Claus this year.
The president’s push to increase direct payments for most Americans from $ 600 to $ 2,000 for individuals and $ 4,000 for couples boosts Democrats’ support but splits the GOP with a politically tough test of their loyalty to the president.
Click here to open our stimulus check calculator and see how much you could receive.
Republican lawmakers traditionally refuse the big spending and never fully embrace Trump’s populist approach. Many are against larger $ 2000 checks because they are overpriced and poorly targeted.
During a Wednesday House teleconference, Republican lawmakers complained that Trump threw them under the bus, according to one Republican during the private conversation, and granted anonymity to discuss it. Most had voted in favor of the package, and they urged GOP leaders to visit the cable news shows to explain its benefits, the person said.
Still, the president has found common ground with Democrats, particularly leading liberals who back the $ 2,000 payments as the best way to help troubled Americans. Democrats only settled with the lower number to compromise with the Republicans.
Even if the House is able to approve Trump’s $ 2,000 checks on Monday, that measure would likely die in the GOP-controlled senate, set to resume in session Tuesday.
The president’s unpredictable demands are driving more Trump-related headaches for Georgia GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are fighting for their political lives – and for continued GOP control of the Senate – in a pair of January 5 Georgia run-off elections. They are forced to choose whether to support or contradict Trump, which may anger voters on all sides.
Thursday’s clash occurred as the Democrat-controlled House convened for a routine pro forma session, scheduled before Trump’s sudden moves, when lawmakers expected no business to be done.
Instead, the 12-minute House session turned into a procedural brawl as Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, sought the unanimous approval of all House members to pass the bill with Trump’s proposal. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who was not present in the nearly empty room, declined.
House Republicans then tried, and failed, to gain unanimous approval for their own proposal to rethink the routine financing of foreign aid that Trump had cited as one of his main objections to the overall spending package.
The year-end package that Trump has railed against as a “shame” is the product of months of work. It would institute a temporary supplemental unemployment benefit of $ 300 a week, along with another round of grants for hard-hit businesses, restaurants and theaters, and money for schools. Money has been raised for health care providers and to help with the distribution of COVID vaccines. Trump targeted foreign aid funds in the package he has agreed to in the past and asked for in his annual budget.
The final text of the more than 5,000-page bill took days to compile, but Pelosi announced on Thursday that it was completed and sent to the White House for Trump’s signature.
The timing of the end of the year complicates planning. Even if Trump doesn’t formally veto the package, he could drop it with a “pocket veto” at the end of the congressional session.
The Senate approved the massive aid package Monday by 92-6 votes after the House approved it against 359-53. Those vote totals would be enough to override a veto if Trump decided to take that step.
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