Several New England politicians took to Twitter after President Donald Trump announced he had signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package on Sunday evening, after initially threatening to veto the package.
The bill, which includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September, avoids a government shutdown and grants cash to businesses and individuals who may have struggled financially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democratic Representative Katherine Clark, who represents the Massachusetts Fifth Congressional District, criticized Trump’s decision to delay signing the bill in a tweet Sunday evening, calling the move “a destructive and selfish ending to a failed presidency.”
“While I am pleased that President Trump has finally signed the COVID-19 relief and government funding legislation into law, he should never have [sic] held up this crucial bill that Congress negotiated with his administration on a bipartisan basis,” he wrote.
...Trump had delayed the signing of the measure, which had received widespread bipartisan support after months of negotiations, with a last-minute objection to the $600 relief checks set to be sent to most Americans. Though he had largely stayed out of talks prior, the president said shortly after the House and Senate agreed to the deal that people should be receiving more — to the tune of $2,000.
Those including Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had “been fighting for months to get Congress to pass a $2,000 direct payment for the working class,” previously, Sanders wrote on Twitter Sunday.
McGovern said a stand-alone bill “to increase survival checks to $2,000″ will be brought to the floor Monday.
“Democrats have called for this for months,” McGovern wrote. “We can and must do more!”
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Original story here.