Daily US Times: Joe Biden has warned of “devastating consequences” if President Trump continues to delay signing a coronavirus economic relief bill into law.
Unemployment benefits to lots of Americans and a ban on evictions will be affected unless the bill is signed by the end of Saturday.
After months of difficult negotiations and compromises, the coronavirus economic relief bill worth $900bn was approved by Congress.
President Trump says he wants to give people bigger one-off payments.
The bill includes the payment of $600 to Americans who are earning less than $75,000 a year. The president says he wants Americans to receive $2,000 but Republican lawmakers in Congress have refused to agree to the change.
The coronavirus economic relief package comes with a $1.4tn federal budget attached. A partial government shutdown will begin on Tuesday unless legislators pass a stopgap bill before then – but this would not include Covid-19 aid and President Trump would still have to sign it.
About 14 million Americans would be affected by a lapse in new stimulus cheques and unemployment benefit payments.
On Saturday, Joe Biden released a strongly worded statement on the transition website. In the statement, Mr Biden described Mr Trump’s refusal to sign the bill as an “abdication of responsibility”.
The president-elect said: “It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families don’t know if they’ll be able to make ends meet because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority.”
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