President Trump signed the expansive $2.3 billion government funding and coronavirus relief bill Sunday night, averting a government shutdown that would have taken effect Tuesday and releasing $900 billion in aid meant to offset the damage wrought by business closures.
The package easily passed both houses of Congress Monday night but was delayed after Trump threatened to veto it unless the size of direct checks to Americans was increased to $2,000 from $600 — a figure reached after weeks of negotiation between Democrats eager to increase the sum and Republicans voicing concerns about further adding to the deficit.
Trump’s eleventh-hour demand was embraced by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who used the threat, announced on a tweet, to cast Republicans as tight-fisted and insensitive to the plight of Americans struggling through a once in a generation pandemic.
Trump painted his Sunday night concession, which came just one day after increased unemployment benefits lapsed for millions of Americans, as a hard-fought victory, saying he had extracted commitments from congressional leadership to vote on a separate bill on Monday that will increase direct aid from $600 to $2,000 per-person.
The relief bill extends unemployment benefits for another eleven weeks for the 12 million participants in two central relief programs. It also extends through mid-March the additional $300 extended to all Americans collecting unemployment benefits. However, because Trump did not sign the bill by the Saturday deadline, those in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs likely won’t receive this week’s installment.
The $1.4 billion omnibus bill funds the government through mid-September also drew Trump’s scorn. Shortly after it passed Congress, Trump attacked the funding bill as overly-generous to foreign countries, despite calling for the foreign aid in his own White House budget.
The president also touted in his statement a commitment from Senate leadership to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields digital publishers from liability for content posted by third-parties. Section 230 “will be reviewed and either be terminated or substantially reformed,” according to Trump’s statement.
Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday after demanding that Section 230 be substantially reformed or repealed as part of the defense bill, some version of which has passed annually for more than five decades. Trump’s veto prompted Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to make good on his promised to schedule an override vote in the event that the president rocked the boat in his final days in office.
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