How Trump compromised the stimulus dilution

In order to save time for a $ 2.3 trillion package to get to the president’s office, Congress on Monday approved a temporary seven-day spending bill, which Trump signed. This means that government funding will run out at the end of Monday, although both chambers are due to hold a formal session and can approve another short-term funding bill in the absence of Mr. Trump’s signature on the funding bills for the entire year.

What if he didn’t sign it?

Mr Trump has not explicitly said that he would veto the legislation if the changes he demanded are not made, but he may not be forced to. The legislation was passed with support from more than two-thirds of both the House and Senate, easily crossing the threshold required to override the veto if it did indeed do so.

But there is an oddity in the calendar that leaves the rules a bit. Legislation can become law 10 days after the bill is registered even without a presidential signature. But because the timeframe overlaps with the end of the current Congress on January 3, and the 117th Congress convened, a “pocket veto” can still be used, said Josh Hoder, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Government Affairs. .

All legislation is dying with Congress, so without Mr. Trump’s signature in the next 10 days, the massive legislation will have to be reintroduced and voted on a second time, leading to further delays in funding the government and providing relief to Americans and the companies struggling.

What do Republicans think?

Republicans have long resisted spending more than a trillion dollars on another relief package, but they need Mr.Trump’s supporters to ensure they win both run-off races in the Senate in Georgia on January 5th. It would cost them control of the Senate.

The two Republican candidates in Georgia, Senator Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue, had already declared the passage of the Coronavirus Relief Bill a victory, but they had also pledged allegiance to the president, who called the bill a “stigma.”

Even so, a number of Republicans will likely resist an increase in the amount of direct payments after months of insisting that the relief package be as small as possible. In the days before a bipartisan deal was struck, Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, halted attempts to raise the payments to $ 1,200.