Trump relief orders create confusion
Officials defend president’s executive actions on pandemic aid; top Dems call for more talks
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s attempt to circumvent Congress to provide coronavirus relief in the absence of a broad agreement resulted in confusion and uncertainty Sunday for tens of millions of unemployed Americans and countless businesses seeking aid after critical benefits lapsed.
As negotiations with congressional Democrats remained at an impasse, administration officials were on the defensive a day after the president’s legally questionable executive actions, at times contradicting each other as they sought to explain how the measures would work and how quickly Americans could see any form of relief.
In a series of TV appearances Sunday, they insisted Americans would get the aid promised by Trump, including a $400 weekly supplement to unemployment checks.
But that funding will be contingent on agreement from state officials, who already are struggling amid budget shortfalls caused by the economic crisis, and the siphoning of aid from a federal fund for disaster relief in the middle of what’s expected to be an active hurricane season.
The measures Trump signed Saturday were intended to revive unemployment benefits, address an eviction ban, provide relief for student borrowers and suspend collection of payroll taxes after two weeks of talks between congressional Democrats and administration officials failed to produce a deal.
the patchwork of moves was less significant than what the president described in his news conference, and the plan appeared unlikely to have immediate, meaningful impact on the sputtering economy, in part because it provided no direct aid to struggling businesses.
Because Congress has the constitutional authority to allocate federal spending, Trump is likely to need legislation to deliver additional financial relief to American families and businesses.
Democrats swiftly criticized Trump’s actions as an example of executive overreach, saying the measures offered thin support for struggling Americans and warning that the nation’s social safety net could be jeopardized while the coronavirus continues to spread.
After two weeks of huddling with Trump’s top advisers on Capitol Hill in an effort to hammer out a deal, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen.
Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called for talks to resume.
“The president’s meager, weak and unconstitutional actions further demand that we have an agreement,” Pelosi said on “Fox News Sunday.”
She rejected the suggestion that she had erred by holding out for Democratic priorities.
Schumer, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” declared that “the president’s executive orders, described in one word, could be paltry, in three words, unworkable, weak and far too narrow.”
Trump’s top economic advisers struggled on the Sunday talk shows as they tried to justify the president’s authority to bypass Congress, which retains the constitutional power of the purse, to redirect billions of dollars.
They argued that Democrats, who first approved a $3.4 trillion stimulus package in May, were unwilling to compromise, particularly on sending additional aid to state and local governments.
Treasury Secretary SteBut ven Mnuchin urged Pelosi and Schumer to consider a more narrow package that addressed the issues where there was agreement, saying negotiators had resolved most provisions except for reviving unemployment benefits and distributing money to state and local governments.
“We don’t have to get everything done at once,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.” “What we should do is get things done for the American public now, come back for another bill afterward.”
He insisted that White
House lawyers approved the moves as legal and dared Democrats to take the White House to court to stop money from being released to jobless Americans.
Several critical provisions are also left unaddressed without a broader deal, including a lapsed federal program for small businesses, another round of stimulus checks, aid to schools confronting the beginning of the academic year and funds for state and local governments reeling from the toll of the pandemic.