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.
John G. Bruno serves as Aon’s Chief Operating Officer as well as Chief Executive Officer of Aon’s Data & Analytic Services Solution Line, which includes the firm’s technology-enabled Affinity and Human Capital Solutions businesses. Bruno joined Aon in September 2014 and has served in several leadership positions with increasing responsibility including Executive Vice President of Enterprise Innovation & Chief Information Officer and Chief Operations Officer & head of Aon Business Services.
Prior to joining Aon, Bruno was Executive Vice President, Industry & Field Operations and Corporate Development for NCR Corporation, where he led all of NCR’s lines of business inclusive of financial services, retail, hospitality, travel, telecom and technology, interactive printer solutions and small business.
Throughout his 30-year career he has held senior business and technology leadership positions with increasing responsibilities with Fortune 500 companies including United Parcel Service, Cisco Systems, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. Bruno currently serves on the Board of Directors for Global Payments
Amid the economic crisis, many people are looking for sources of cash and can no longer afford their insurance premiums.
Steve Shorrock is president of Veris Settlement Partners and LifeVentures Corp. He was previously president and CEO of Banker’s Life Insurance Co.
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.
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.