House lawmakers in both parties voted Monday to increase the amount of money provided in a new round of federal stimulus checks, agreeing with a request from President Trump to bolster direct payments aimed at helping individuals and families during the pandemic.
The measure would provide $2,000 to individuals and $4,000 for couples, which is significantly higher than the $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples provided in a relief measure Congress passed this month.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has not signaled whether he will bring up the House bill, but it’s unlikely to win much GOP support because it does not include new offers and would simply add to the deficit.
Trump signed the coronavirus aid package and government funding bill Sunday but sent it back to Congress with a request to bolster the checks to $2,000 and rescind some of the spending. The $900 billion package was bundled with a $1.4 trillion measure that funds the government through fiscal 2021.
Trump told Congress he would utilize the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to make the recissions. The act allows the president to “impound funds when he transmits a ‘special message’ in accordance with the ICA,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said Sunday. “I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill. I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP, return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more.”
Democrats seized on Trump’s declaration last week that he wanted to bolster the checks to $2,000, but the party largely ignored the second part of his request to slash funding he deemed wasteful.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Trump to order the GOP to back the House bill increasing the stimulus checks to $2,000.
“The President must immediately call on Congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and to join him and Democrats in support of our stand-alone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000, which will be brought to the Floor tomorrow,” Pelosi said Sunday. “Every Republican vote against this bill is a vote to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny the American people the relief they need.”
