Second Stimulus Bill Flown to Florida for Donald Trump Signature After House GOP Block $2,000 Payments

This week, the second stimulus check bill needed to be flown to Florida for President Donald Trump to consider it while he was staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The president went down to his commercial property for Christmas, forcing the $900 billion stimulus package to be transported down south for his consideration. After all that, Trump is still delaying the legislation.

Trump is refusing to sign the 5,593 bill he received from Congress in Florida on Christmas Eve, according to a report by Business Insider. The Trump administration helped concoct this compromise between the Republican-controlled United States Senate and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives after an eight-month stalemate, yet at the last minute, the president is demanding more money. His stalling is adding precious days to the amount of time desperate Americans will go without aid amid the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant recession.

The legislation before Trump is the U.S. Congress‘ yearly spending omnibus, which includes federal funding for the entire year. In this case, that includes $900 billion for coronavirus relief, which lawmakers have been trying to reach an agreement on since May. Both sides agreed that this package would hold Americans over until January when they acknowledged that the new Congress would pursue another bill under President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.

Trump is now insisting at the last minute that the stimulus check in this bill go from $600 to $2,000, which Democrats support but Republicans have blocked. Additionally, Trump is complaining about the military spending bill, which does not repeal liability shields for social media companies, like he asked. It also orders that military bases named after Confederate leaders be renamed.

The House is reconvening on Monday to vote on whether or not to increase the stimulus check to $2,000, but if they do so Republicans are threatening to block it. Even then, Trump has not made it explicitly clear whether he will finally sign the bill one way or another.

The stimulus bill passed with an overwhelming majority in the House and the Senate, so normally the legislatures could bypass Trump’s signature after 10 days and override a veto. However, because it is the end of the legislative session, Trump could theoretically kill the bill by ignoring it in what is called a “pocket veto,” according to a report by The Hill. In that case, Americans would be left with no financial aid whatsoever until late January.