President Donald Trump has now signed an enormous spending package giving relief to the pandemic situation and funding the government agencies until at least September. The cost comes it at $2.3 trillion with $900 billion going to pandemic relief and $1.4 trillion to spend on the government agencies, transit system, and even giving an increase for food stamp benefits, per a report on AP.
Trump gave Congress a stipulation, stating the following “I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed.” He also stated that he plans to send Congress a “redlined version” with a list of items he wants removed. However, since he signed the bill, nothing actually has to be changed. If Congress does not wish to change anything, then they don’t technically have to now that Trump has signed off on it.
The president wanted Americans to receive $2,000 payments instead of $600 and that could no longer be an option. However, with Trump’s signature and room to continue negotiations, there’s still a slight chance that something is removed and the payments are increased from $600 to $2,000, but it’s certainly not guaranteed.
Democrats are supporting the higher payments while Republicans who hold the Senate appear to be mostly ignoring the calls for $2,000, despite it having somewhat of a bipartisan support coming from numerous Democratic Senators and the non-Democratic President himself.