Trump signs bipartisan coronavirus relief bill after calling on Congress to approve $2,000 stimulus checks

• President Donald Trump signed the $900 billion bipartisan coronavirus relief package on Sunday.
• The negotiated rescue package contained $600 stimulus checks, federal unemployment aid, food and rental assistance, as well as education funding.
• “I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said in a statement.
• “I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill,” he continued.
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President Donald Trump has signed the $900 billion coronavirus relief package on Sunday after earlier threatening to reject it because it didn’t have larger stimulus payments.

Trump suggested on Tuesday he wouldn’t sign the coronavirus relief legislation unless significant adjustments were made on the size of stimulus payments, calling on Congress to approve an increase from the current level of $600 per person to $2,000.

In his statement Sunday, the president said he wants “far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child,” adding that he is demanding “many rescissions” to the bill.

“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said in a statement. “I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill.”

“I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP, return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more,” he continued.

House Republicans blocked an attempt from Democrats to advance the $2,000 direct payments on Thursday morning. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was fiercely critical of the move and said in a statement she is setting up a vote on legislation Monday to increase their size.

The negotiated coronavirus relief package included $600 stimulus payments for Americans, $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits into mid-March, $25 billion in rental assistance, as well as aid for small businesses and funding for education.

Both chambers passed the federal rescue package along with a government funding bill with strong bipartisan support.