Washington Update: Trump Imperils Virus Bill With Late Demand for Bigger Checks

President Donald Trump’s surprise attack Tuesday on Congress’s historic coronavirus relief package left aid for millions of Americans hanging in the balance as the pandemic continues to batter the nation.

The famously unpredictable president slammed the $2.3 trillion bill as a “disgrace” less than 24 hours after Congress approved the legislation with overwhelmingly bipartisan votes. Trump demanded larger stimulus payments for individuals and called for eliminating “wasteful and unnecessary items,” but he didn’t say whether he would veto it.

Trump’s last-minute demands nonetheless sent shockwaves through Washington. In addition to $900 billion in pandemic-related measures, the package includes $1.4 trillion to fund government operations through next September. If the president doesn’t sign the legislation by Dec. 28, government funding would lapse after midnight that day, triggering a partial shutdown.

The angst might run deepest among the president’s fellow Republicans, who preferred a smaller pandemic relief package closer to $500 billion. They agreed to a $900 billion effort in the end, pressured by the political costs of holding up the relief package just weeks before a crucial runoff election for Georgia’s two Senate seats, which will determine control of that chamber.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly seized on Trump’s call for $2,000 in individual stimulus payments -- well above the $600 included in the relief bill -- and said the House would try to pass this additional measure during a pro forma session on Thursday, a move that could be blocked by a single member of Congress.

That bill would be a standalone measure to strike all references of $600 in the current legislation, to be replaced with $2,000, according to two people familiar with the plan. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was said he was on board and challenged Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to agree.

Increasing the payment amounts to $2,000 would increase the cost of this provision to more than $500 billion, a significant increase from the more than $160 billion the Joint Committee on Taxation projects the current $600 payments to most Americans will cost.

While many Senate Republicans are likely to balk at such a request, Missouri Republican Josh Hawley had joined with progressives to call for direct payments of at least $1,200. His proposal was blocked in the Senate last week by Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican.

The Covid-19 relief deal took more than six months to form and was only sealed after a frantic weekend of negotiations between congressional leaders staring down the end of this Congress. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s top allies, urged him sign the existing bill to get relief to struggling businesses and families.

Virus cases continue to soar in the U.S. -- more than 18 million people have been infected and more than 322,000 have died -- and job growth has slowed, which increased the sense of urgency on Capitol Hill.

If Trump vetoes or declines to sign the measure, it would suspend benefits from the previous Covid relief bill that expire at the end of the month, including a moratorium on evictions and extended unemployment insurance for those who lost their jobs during the pandemic -- all of which were addressed in the giant package approved Monday night.

It would also mean stimulus checks would not go out in the days after Christmas, as Trump’s own aides had promised, businesses would not receive access to additional loans, and no new funding for vaccine distribution, schools and airlines would be approved.

“I am asking Congress to amend this bill,” Trump said in a video announcement posted to Twitter. “Send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package. And maybe that administration will be me, and we will get it done.”

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