WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)\u2014President Donald Trump signed a $900-billion pandemic relief package Sunday, ending days of drama over his refusal to accept the bipartisan deal that will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and avert a federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n
The massive bill includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as money for cash-starved transit systems and an increase in food stamp benefits.<\/p>\n
Trump announced the signing in a statement Sunday night that spoke of his frustrations with the COVID-19 relief for including only $600 checks to most Americans instead of the $2,000 that his fellow Republicans rejected. He also complained about what he considered unnecessary spending by the government at large. But Trump\u2019s eleventh-hour objections created turmoil because lawmakers had thought he was supportive of the bill, which had been negotiated for months with White House input.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,\u201d Trump said in the statement.<\/p>\n
While the president insisted he would send Congress \u201ca redlined version\u201d with items to be removed under the rescission process, those are merely suggestions to Congress. The bill, as signed, would not necessarily be changed.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers now have breathing room to continue debating whether the relief checks should be as large as the president has demanded. The Democratic-led House supports the larger checks and is set to vote on the issue Monday, but it\u2019s expected to be ignored by the Republican-held Senate where spending faces opposition.<\/p>\n
Republicans and Democrats swiftly welcomed Trump\u2019s decision to sign the bill into law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe compromise bill is not perfect, but it will do an enormous amount of good for struggling Kentuckians and Americans across the country who need help now,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. \u201cI thank the President for signing this relief into law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats are promising more aid to come once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, but Republicans are signaling a wait-and-see approach.<\/p>\n
In the face of growing economic hardship, spreading disease and a looming shutdown, lawmakers on Sunday had urged Trump to sign the legislation immediately, then have Congress follow up with additional aid. Aside from unemployment benefits and relief payments to families, money for vaccine distribution, businesses, cash-starved public transit systems and more is on the line. Protections against evictions also hung in the balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the president is doing right now is unbelievably cruel,\u201d said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. \u201cSo many people are hurting. … It is really insane and this president has got to finally … do the right thing for the American people and stop worrying about his ego.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said he understood that Trump \u201cwants to be remembered for advocating for big checks, but the danger is he\u2019ll be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior if he allows this to expire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toomey added: \u201cSo I think the best thing to do, as I said, sign this and then make the case for subsequent legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same point was echoed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who\u2019s criticized Trump\u2019s pandemic response and his efforts to undo the election results. \u201cI just gave up guessing what he might do next,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said too much is at stake for Trump to \u201cplay this old switcheroo game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get the point,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand what\u2019s being done, why, unless it\u2019s just to create chaos and show power and be upset because you lost the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington had been reeling since Trump turned on the deal. Fingers pointed at administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, as lawmakers tried to understand whether they were misled about Trump\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow to be put in a lurch, after the president\u2019s own person negotiated something that the president doesn\u2019t want, it\u2019s just\u2014it\u2019s surprising,\u201d Kinzinger said.<\/p>\n
Kinzinger spoke on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union,\u201d and Hogan and Sanders on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Mascaro and Taylor reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Alexandra Olson in New York contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)\u2014President Donald Trump signed a $900-billion pandemic relief package Sunday, ending…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":335871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[17540,313],"class_list":["post-335856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-associated-press","tag-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}