MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

With Trump debilitated and Republicans divided, Congress running the US

The 275 votes for passage meant the stimulus proposal narrowly exceeded the two-thirds of votes cast needed

The Democratic-led US House of Representatives voted 275-134 to meet President Donald Trump’s demand for US$2,000 Covid-19 relief checks on Monday, sending the measure on to an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate.

But even as Democrats helped secure approval for what the Republican President sought on stimulus payments, they spearheaded a House vote just a short time later to override his veto of a separate US$740 billion defense policy Bill. The rebuke, in Trump’s final weeks in office, would be the first veto override of his presidency if seconded by the Senate this week.

Trump last week threatened to block a massive pandemic aid and spending package if Congress did not boost stimulus payments from US$600 to US$2,000 and cut other spending.

He backed down from his demands on Sunday as a possible government shutdown loomed, brought on by the fight with lawmakers.

But Democratic lawmakers have long wanted US$2,000 relief checks and used the rare point of agreement with Trump to advance the proposal – or at least to put Republicans on record against it – in the vote on Monday, less than a month before he leaves office.

The 275 votes for passage meant the stimulus proposal narrowly exceeded the two-thirds of votes cast needed. A total of 130 Republicans, two independents and two Democrats opposed the increased checks on Monday.

It is not clear how the measure to increase aid checks will fare in the Senate, where individual Republican lawmakers have complained the higher amount would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the latest relief Bill.

Increasing the checks would cost US$464 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, which prepares cost estimates for legislation before Congress.

The Senate is due to convene on Tuesday, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he would then seek passage of the higher stimulus checks Bill in the chamber, where Republicans have the majority. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday made no mention of Senate plans for a vote, after welcoming Trump’s signing of the relief Bill.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed nearly 330,000 people in the United States and led to widespread economic hardship, with millions of families relying on unemployment benefits and Covid-19 relief funds.

Global markets were buoyed after Trump approved the package.

Also in the hands of the Senate, for a vote expected this week, will be whether to override Trump’s veto of the defense Bill. In Monday’s 322-87 House vote, which met the two-thirds majority needed, only 66 Republicans sided with Trump’s rejection of the bipartisan Bill, underscoring deep divisions in the Republican Party. Trump, who is angry that some Republicans have acknowledged his loss to Biden, vetoed the defense Bill last Wednesday.

He said he was against it because he wanted it to overturn liability protections for social media companies unrelated to national security, and opposed a provision to rename military bases named after generals who fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the Civil War.