After delaying for nearly a week and under pressure from all
sides, US President Donald Trump finally signed a massive $900 billion stimulus
bill Sunday, in a long-sought boost for millions of Americans and businesses
battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
The package “providing coronavirus emergency response and
relief” is part of a larger spending bill that, with Trump’s signature, will
avoid a government shutdown on Tuesday.
“I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits,
stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP (Paycheck
Protection Programmes), return our airline workers back to work, add
substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more,” the
president said in a statement from his Christmas vacation at his Mar-a-Lago
resort in Florida.
The turnaround came after a day marked by calls from all
sides of the political spectrum for action to avert an economic and social
disaster, especially for America’s vulnerable populations.
Two federal unemployment benefit programs approved in March
as part of an initial Covid-19 relief plan expired at midnight on Saturday,
cutting off an estimated 12 million Americans, according to The Century
Foundation think tank.
The relief package, which was first passed by Congress on December
21, extends those benefits as well as others set to expire in the days ahead.
But for days, Trump had refused to put his signature on it,
calling the bill a “disgrace” and catching both Democrats and Republicans off
guard with his complaints, which came after months of negotiations.
Influential Republican senator Mitt Romney said he was
“relieved” at the signing. “Help is now on the way to workers, families, and
small businesses across the country who are desperately in need,” he tweeted.
Earlier Sunday, he had urged Trump to “immediately sign or
veto the COVID-19 relief package so Congress can act before it’s too late.”
– Crucial aid –
In his statement Sunday, the president continued to push for
the $600 direct payments to US taxpayers spelled out in the bill to be more
than tripled, and argued the legislation included too much excess spending on
unrelated programs.
He has not said why he waited until the bill was already
approved to make his views known.
The new stimulus package extends federal aid to the
unemployed until mid-March, and provides guaranteed loans and billions of
dollars in aid to small businesses, restaurants, hotels, airlines and other
companies.
It extends the moratorium on evictions of people unable to
pay their rent, suspends foreclosures and provides funds for the distribution
of Covid-19 vaccines.
The aid is essential to the world’s largest economy, hit
hard by restrictions put in place to halt the spread of Covid-19.
“I applaud the President’s decision to get billions of
dollars of crucial COVID-19 relief out the door and into the hands of American
families,” tweeted Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called the bill “a down
payment on what is needed to crush the virus, put money in Americans’ pockets
& honor our heroes.”
“We must quickly take further action,” she added in a tweet.
– ‘Chaos and misery’ –
Romney was not the only politician to have urged the
president to change course Sunday.
“I understand he wants to be remembered for advocating for
big checks, but the danger is he’ll be remembered for chaos and misery and
erratic behavior if he allows this to expire,” Republican Senator Pat Toomey
told Fox News on Sunday.
Senator Bernie Sanders said that “what the president is
doing right now is unbelievably cruel.”
“Many millions of people are losing their extended
unemployment benefits,” he said on ABC.
“They’re going to be evicted from their apartments because
the eviction moratorium is ending.”
Sanders said increased direct payments could be approved in
the coming days.
Democrats in Congress sought Thursday to approve a measure
to increase the direct payments in line with what Trump wants, but Republicans
blocked it.
It was seen largely as a theatrical move with little hope of
passage designed to expose the rift between Republicans and the outgoing
president.
(AFP)
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