On Christmas Eve, members of the U.S. House of Representatives refused to make many changes to the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act containing $2.3 trillion in epidemic relief. Prior to that, President Donald Trump (R-Texas) called for raising direct deposits to Americans from $600 to $2,000 per person, but the proposal could not gain congressional consensus.
On Thursday (Dec. 24), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said it was “House Republicans who brutally stripped $2,000 of the president’s support. A day earlier, Pelosi said she and the House majority Democrats “support the $2,000 payment proposal for Americans,” but that the bill would need to be amended by consensus in Congress to pass.
In response, House Republicans did not comment publicly Thursday.
Meanwhile, Congress is not prepared to make changes to overseas aid funding, which has previously come under fire, in a bipartisan manner.
A day earlier, Trump announced his refusal to sign the new 5,000-page payment bill, denouncing it as containing hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid that has nothing to do with helping the domestic epidemic or stimulating the economy.
In response, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Congress will convene on Dec. 29 to challenge the president’s veto. If more than two-thirds of Congress agrees to a veto, the bill will go directly into effect.
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to reconvene next Monday (Dec. 28) to vote on a veto of the contact defense bill. The congressional side has declined to make changes to the bill, banking on a vote to be completed on Monday.
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