By Adam Edelman - NBC News
President Donald Trump continued to push this Friday to increase the amount of the direct payments check included in the massive stimulus package for the COVID-19 pandemic to $ 2,000, but did not give any indication if he would finally sign the project agreed by the Congress that includes a check for $ 600 and threatened to veto last Tuesday.
[Follow our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic]
"I made a lot of calls and had meetings at Trump International in Palm Beach, Florida. Why don't politicians want to give people $ 2,000, instead of just $ 600? It wasn't their fault, it was China. Give our people the money! ! "Trump tweeted.
The coronavirus relief legislation was sent from Washington late Thursday night and arrived at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the president is vacationing.
"The need is tremendous": A Christmas Eve marked by precariousness
Dec. 24, 202002: 06
Earlier,
lawmakers were still waiting to see how Trump would proceed with the $ 900 billion end-of-year budget and COVID-19 aid package that both houses of Congress passed earlier this week
.
That bill included a new round of $ 600 direct payments and aid for unemployed Americans, families and businesses struggling with the pandemic.
[A bleak Christmas for the unemployed waiting for the check]
Trump has condemned the bill, saying that it includes too many provisions that have nothing to do with the pandemic and that it
is too stingy with payments to average Americans.
Following Trump's initial comments on Tuesday that he wanted to increase the per person payment amount to $ 2,000,
House Democrats rushed to schedule a vote Thursday to increase payments
as they were asking for from the beginning and as demanded by the president.
But Republicans blocked the bill, casting further doubt on the future of any near financial relief for millions of Americans who are in deep trouble right now.
[Republican congressmen block the $ 2,000 check proposal supported by Trump and Democrats]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Lower House Democrats would vote Monday on a separate bill that would provide direct payments of $ 2,000 per person.
Trump's comments on Tuesday created a political storm in Washington, as lawmakers spent months negotiating a deal on the biggest and most highly anticipated legislation of the year,
leaving many frustrated that Trump had waited so long to voice his concerns afterward. having been mostly outside the negotiation process.
Before Trump spoke, all the signals he had sent and the expectations there was that he
intended to sign the measure
as soon as it reached his desk.
White House advisers said the same.
What will happen to the checks?
Will they be $ 600 or $ 2,000?
Will they arrive before the end of the year?
Dec. 24, 202003: 14
A senior Senate Republican on Thursday urged Trump to sign the bill, adding that he
did not support the increase in payments.
"The best way out of this is for the president to sign the agreed-upon bill, and I still hope that's what he decides to do," Roy Blunt, senator from Missouri and chair of the Republican Policy Committee of the United States, told reporters. Senate.
["The need is tremendous": A Christmas Eve marked by precariousness]
When asked if a bill to increase direct payments checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000 would get
the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate
on Monday, Dec. 28, Blunt said,
"No, it wouldn't."
Legislation already passed by Congress includes two bills that were combined: one was the COVID-19 Stimulus and Relief Bill, and the other was a large
budget
bill
to fund the Government through September.
If the spending bill is not passed, the government will have to start closing as of Tuesday.