Democrats in the US Congress will seek to push through pandemic relief payments of $2,000, in an effort to increase aid for Americans that has put the lawmakers in a rare alignment with President Donald Trump.
The Republican president last week threatened to block a $2.3tn pandemic aid and spending package if Congress did not boost stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000 and cut other spending.
Trump backed down from his demands on Sunday as a possible government shutdown brought on by the fight with lawmakers loomed.
But Democratic lawmakers who have a majority in the House of Representatives and have long wanted $2,000 relief cheques hope to use the point of agreement with Trump to advance the proposal – or at least put Republicans on record against it – in a vote today.
It was unclear why Trump, who leaves office on January 20 after losing November’s election to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, retreated from his threat to block the bill and signed it.
Global markets were buoyed after Trump approved the package.
Wall Street’s main indexes hit record highs yesterday as Trump’s signing of the aid bill bolstered bets on an economic recovery and drove gains in financial and energy stocks.
Voting in Congress is expected to start late in the afternoon, and to run into the evening.
Lawmakers will also seek to override Trump’s recent veto of a $740bn bill setting policy for the Defence Department.
If successful, that would be the first veto override of Trump’s presidency.
The House vote on stimulus cheques will require a two-thirds majority, or more than 280 votes, meaning it would need Republican support to pass as the Democrats only have 233 seats in the chamber.
Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans, who control the Senate, oppose the higher relief payments, and Trump may not have the influence to budge them.
Georgia Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who face crucial Senate run-offs next month that could determine who controls the chamber, welcomed Trump’s move, without saying whether the payments should be increased.
“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, Covid relief is again on its way to millions of Georgia families and businesses who need it most,” they said in a joint statement that echoed Trump in criticising the Democrats for prioritising “wasteful, irresponsible spending over the welfare of the American people”.
The Covid-19 respiratory disease is caused by the coronavirus.
Trump played golf in Florida yesterday and has remained out of public view even as a government crisis loomed.
After signing the bill behind closed doors at his beachside club in Florida, Trump sought to put the best face on his climb-down, saying that he was signing it with “a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed”.
“Much more money is coming,” he said in a statement, though he provided nothing to back this promise.
Americans are living through a bitter holiday season with a pandemic that has killed nearly 330,000 people in the United States and a daily death toll now well over 3,000, the highest since the pandemic began.
Unemployment benefits being paid out to about 14mn people through pandemic programmes lapsed on Saturday, but will be restarted now that Trump has signed the bill.