LIVE: Democrats Urge GOP Leaders to Meet Trump's Plea for $2,000 Covid Stimulus Checks

(Dec. 23) 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.

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