GOP STIMULUS bill seeks to restore Pentagon cash diverted to border wall.
WASHINGTON — The GOP Senate’s new $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill restores hundreds of millions of dollars in Pentagon spending that the Trump administration redirected to help pay for President Donald Trump’s border wall.
Navy planes and ships and Air Force aircraft that the Trump administration canceled earlier this year so the money could go to pay for the wall have reappeared in the GOP bill that was introduced on Monday. The programs are part of $30 billion in defense spending in the GOP bill that Democrats are already objecting to. Republicans are defending the spending as important to protect jobs and help the Pentagon cope with impacts of coronavirus.
Senate Republicans, led by Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., are working to restore spending on some of the programs they deemed most critical — although Democratic objections make it uncertain whether the spending will make it into any final bill.
Apart from the money aimed at restoring programs cut to pay for the wall, the Pentagon spending in the coronavirus bill includes money for an array of other weapons systems, as well as money to help the Pentagon defray costs related to the coronavirus. That includes about $10 billion for a program aimed at reimbursing contractors for costs incurred keeping workers on payroll when they had to shut down because of the coronavirus.
A Shelby aide, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal thinking, defended the spending in the bill as necessary to support programs important to the Pentagon and members of Congress — and protect jobs that might otherwise be lost as Pentagon operations slow because of the coronavirus.
“It protects all of the downstream supplier base and those are the place that are hurting the worst,” the aide said.
House Democrats, however, made clear they do not support the Pentagon spending in the Senate GOP’s bill.
“While doing nothing to address food security or provide payroll protection for state and local workers in critical jobs, Senate Republicans have instead splurged on weapons systems,” said House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
Senate Republicans’ coronavirus relief proposal also came under attack from a coalition of hunger advocates Tuesday for not extending funding for food assistance programs.
Republicans’ Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act [the HEALS Act] does not expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, nor does it extend the Pandemic EBT program, a debit-card benefit for households with children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals. The Pandemic EBT program expired at the end of June.
In a statement, a coalition of hunger groups called on Congress not to adjourn without strengthening SNAP and extending Pandemic EBT.
The proposal does offer doubling the tax deduction for business meals.
Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, said the pandemic has caused a dramatic uptick in the number of adults who say they cannot feed the children in their household. She said the consequences of food insecurity vary depending on a child’s age.
“A 7-year-old missing two meals is alarming,” she said. “But a 1- or 2-year-old missing two meals has long-term consequences for health and development. They really need steady, consistent access to nutrition.”
And the Pandemic EBT program was not just about alleviating hunger, Dean said. Many school districts require families to visit meal sites for pickup, which puts parents and their children at risk of infection from the virus.
With Pandemic EBT, families can order food online and avoid in-person pickup. Hunger advocates are also worried that with the move to remote learning, many school cafeterias may stop offering meals altogether.
The differences over the next coronavirus aid package are vast: Democrats propose $3 trillion in relief and Republicans have a $1 trillion counteroffer. At stake are millions of Americans’ jobless benefits, school reopenings and eviction protections.
Key to the debate is the $600 weekly unemployment benefit bump that is expiring for millions of jobless Americans. Republicans want to set it at $200 a week. Democrats have shown flickers of willingness to curb the federal aid but are refusing to go that low.
Defending cuts to unemployment assistance, Republicans said the federal supplement is too generous, on top of state benefits, and people should not be paid more while they are at home than they would if they were on the job.