Trump signs virus aid bill after panning $600 stimulus checks

President Donald Trump signed a bill containing $900 billion in pandemic relief, the White House said, triggering the flow of aid to individuals and businesses and averting the risk of a partial government shutdown on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump signed a bill containing $900 billion in pandemic relief, the White House said, triggering the flow of aid to individuals and businesses and averting the risk of a partial government shutdown on Tuesday.

In addition to aid to stem the economic effects of the pandemic, the legislation Congress passed Monday also includes $1.4 trillion in government spending to fund federal agencies through the end of the fiscal year in September. The government had been operating on temporary spending authority that expires after the end of the day Monday.

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Daniel S. Alter is a shareholder in the New York office of Murphy McGonigle P.C. specializing in fintech regulatory matters and was the former general counsel of the New York State Department of Financial Services.

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Nate Fleming works as an analyst at Forrester Research on the CIO team, covering software and services that enable the product development organization. He writes research for business-minded CIOs, CTOs, VPs of product development, and VPs of engineering who are seeking software and services support in an era of democratized product development that requires modern product development methodologies, cross-functional collaboration, as well as data-driven processes and product design. Nate has done extensive research, inquiry, and advisory covering the dynamics of the product lifecycle management (PLM) software market and the software product development services market, rounding out a coverage area that seeks to enable stakeholders bringing both physical and digital products to market.

Nate’s recent research at Forrester focuses on the democratization of the PLM software space, including a TechRadar™ that covers the range of technology functionalities that comprise the PLM software suite today and over the next five years. His software product development services coverage includes a Forrester Wave™ evaluation that outlines how services partners are helping customers implement customer-facing digital platforms that put software at the center of their brand. These two spaces coalesce in Nate’s research on the convergence of physical and digital product development and what that means for organizations looking to create or integrate with internet-of-things (IoT)-enabled products.

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Prior to becoming an analyst, Nate was a researcher and senior research associate on the application development and delivery (AD&D) and CIO teams.

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Nate holds a B.A. in history from Ithaca College.

The combined $2.3 trillion package was the product of intense negotiations, from which Trump was largely absent until he surprised lawmakers of both parties by demanding bigger stimulus payments for individuals after the bill was already passed.

Trump said in the statement announcing the signing that the GOP Senate had agreed to vote on increasing the $600 individual payments and two other, unrelated matters dealing with social media and his unfounded allegations of voter fraud.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office
Zach Gibson/Pool via Bloomberg

His delay in signing it means those aid payments will likely be later than Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had promised and may cut a week from the supplemental unemployment benefits that were part of the package and scheduled to end in March.

The virus relief package will likely be the last major legislation signed by Trump, whose re-election hopes were dashed in large part due to his handling of the pandemic.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he will push for even more stimulus after taking office early next year, but it remains unclear whether Republicans in Congress would go along. Control of the Senate will be determined by the outcome of two runoff elections in Georgia on Jan 5.

Lawmakers approved the government funding and additional relief at the last possible moment before they were set to leave Washington for a year-end break. Business leaders have called on Congress to pass more stimulus for months, saying that restaurants, theaters, mom-and-pop stores and airlines were being decimated by closures and restrictions as Covid-19 cases spiked in the U.S.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a relief deal on Sunday after more than a week of frantic talks sparked by a bipartisan group of senators who drafted their own compromise proposal and urged their leaders to act. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, representing the administration, also was involved in the talks.

Trump surprised even his fellow Republicans on Tuesday by tweeting a video saying that he wanted Congress to increase the size of stimulus payments for individuals to $2,000, from the $600 in the bill Congress passed. He also complained about federal spending on foreign aid and international programs, even though those funds were allocated as part of the bipartisan appropriations process for funding the government.