Congress sends Covid support draft to Trump, unclear whether or not he’ll signal it

Congress officially began on Thursday to send a massive Covid-19 aid deal and state funding package to President Donald Trump, who has not yet said whether he will sign it.

The Covid relief effort includes roughly $ 900 billion in spending on programs to help businesses and individuals suffering from the recession caused by the public health crisis, as well as spending on measures to contain the virus.

The state funding aspects of the bill are about $ 1.4 trillion and are necessary to keep the government from shutting down from Monday.

“The bipartisan COVID relief and collective bill has been enrolled,” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Wrote in a post on Twitter. “The House and Senate are now sending this important piece of #ForThePeople legislation to the White House for the President to sign. We urge him to sign this bill to bring immediate relief to hard-working families!”

The bill will be flown to Palm Beach, Florida and is due to depart around 4 p.m. ET, a senior Republican Senate adviser told NBC News.

Located at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, the legislature’s month-long efforts to reach an agreement on the Covid-19 on Tuesday, the day after the legislature passed both houses of Congress Help to get in control.

Trump said the $ 600 direct payments approved by the bill were too small and called for the size of the checks to be increased to $ 2,000. The president also questioned parts of the state funding law related to foreign aid. He did not explicitly threaten a veto.

These comments surprised lawmakers on both parties. It was widely expected that Trump, who did not take part in recent talks leading up to the bipartisan deal, would sign the bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin led negotiations for the White House on aid from Covid.

To save the deal at the last minute, House Democrats tried Thursday to increase direct payments to $ 2,000 in line with Trump’s demands. Republicans in the chamber tried to get Congress to reconsider the foreign aid aspects of the spending package. Both steps, which took place in a short pro forma meeting, failed.

Coronavirus legislation would be Congress’s second major effort to provide a lifeline to those economically affected by the downturn after the laws passed in March.

In addition to paying $ 600 to most Americans, the bill would increase unemployment by $ 300 a week, extend the federal eviction moratorium, and allocate nearly $ 9 billion to ongoing vaccine distribution efforts.

While Congress could potentially override a presidential veto, it is not clear whether it would. And some provisions are designed to maintain programs that could end in the coming days while Trump decides whether to approve the legislation. For example, up to 12 million people will currently lose unemployment benefits on Saturday, the day after Christmas.

Democrats have announced they will be pushing for a third auxiliary bill, and President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he will come up with his plan early next year. It will be inaugurated on January 20th.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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