Trump has indicated he will sign stimulus and government spending bill into law, averting shutdown
By Seung Min Kim, Jeff Stein, Mike DeBonis and Toluse Olorunnipa
Dec. 27, 2020 at 7:26 p.m. EST
BREAKING:
President Trump has indicated that he will sign the stimulus bill into law before Monday night’s deadline and avert a government shutdown, two people familiar with his plans said Sunday evening, a move that would release $900 billion in stimulus funds as soon as possible. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remained fluid and they weren’t authorized to disclose Trump’s plans. They said Trump had repeatedly changed his mind on the matter.
Trump’s decision to sign the bill came less than a week after he demanded changes to it and had suggested he would refuse to sign it into law. The government was set to shut down on Tuesday if Trump did not sign the bill into law. The spending package also included a new round of stimulus checks, unemployment aid, and small business assistance, among other things.
Trump hinted that there had been a development on Sunday, when he wrote on Twitter that there was “Good news on Covid Relief Bill. Information to follow!” Congress overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan bill on Monday night, and Trump released a video on Tuesday demanding changes. He said, among other things, that the bill should have authorized stimulus checks of $2,000 per person instead of the $600 payments that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had secured. Trump also wanted spending cuts to be included in the package.
Before the video was posted, Mnuchin had said that the stimulus checks could be sent as soon as this week. It’s unclear whether the roughly week-long delay would push back the issuance of the payments.
Read more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/27/trump-stimulus-shutdown-congress/
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