Senate Republicans in the dark on Trump’s veto plans, as president snubs millions of jobless Americans

Griffin Connolly
Senator Pat Toomey and other Republicans do not know the president’s plans for the $900bn Covid relief bill. (Getty Images)
Senator Pat Toomey and other Republicans do not know the president’s plans for the $900bn Covid relief bill. (Getty Images)

The stalemate between Donald Trump and Senate Republicans over the value of Covid stimulus checks has already caused millions of jobless Americans to lose their federal unemployment supplement, and it could yet result in a government shutdown unless the dispute is resolved.

But no one on Capitol Hill has been given any indication of whether Mr Trump will actually follow through on his threat to veto a $2.3trn joint Covid relief and government spending funding package if lawmakers don’t raise the amount of individual stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000.

“I really don’t know,” Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said on Fox News Sunday.

Mr Toomey was one of the chief negotiators of the $900bn Covid relief bill that passed both chambers of Congress last week with sweeping bipartisan, veto-proof majorities.

He urged Mr Trump, who has spent several of the last days on his golf course in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, to sign the bill into law to avert a government shutdown that would go into effect on Tuesday.

“You don’t get everything you want, even if you’re president of the United States,” Mr Toomey said. “I think the Covid relief measures are really, really important.”

Mr Trump’s own White House was integrally involved in the negotiations for the $900bn Covid relief package that sends $600 stimulus checks to Americans making less than $75,000 per year; unlocks hundreds of billions of dollars in federal lending for small and medium sized businesses; reauthorises a federal unemployment supplement of $300 per week for jobless people on top of what they get from their state unemployment benefits; and unleashes billions of other dollars in economic aid to combat the pandemic.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Mr Trump’s viceroy to the Capitol on Covid legislation over the last several months, was one of the five principal negotiators of the bill as it wended its way through Congress before Christmas.

Administration officials were reportedly blindsided by Mr Trump’s veto threat last week — issued in a Twitter video — after they had been telling Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others that Mr Trump would be signing the bill.

No one — Republicans, Democrats, nor Mr Mnuchin — thought the bill was perfect, with Democrats pointing out that it does not include any emergency relief for state and local governments and Republicans noting the absence of a shield protecting businesses, health care providers and school systems from liability lawsuits related to Covid exposure.

The federal unemployment supplement lapsed on Saturday without Mr Trump’s signature reauthorising the $300-per-week programme, leaving millions of jobless Americans hanging.

Federal agencies would also shut down — forcing hundreds of thousands of government workers to miss paychecks — if Mr Trump doesn’t sign the legislation in the next couple days.

The outgoing president will “be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behaviour if he allows this to expire,” Mr Toomey said on Sunday.

“I understand the president would like to send bigger checks to everybody. … I think what he ought to do is sign this bill and then make the case,” Mr Toomey said. “I don’t agree with $2,000 to people who have had no lost income whatsoever, but the president’s free to make that case,” highlighting most Republicans’ concerns with the $2,000 proposal.

The House will return to Washington on Monday and the Senate on Tuesday to override Mr Trump’s veto last week of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $740bn bill outlining the US military’s budget.

They could stay longer throughout the week for more override votes if Mr Trump vetoes the so-called “Coronabus” legislation that includes the $1.4trn omnibus government spending bill and $900bn in Covid aid.

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