President Trump has signed both the $900 billion COVID relief package, as well as the $1.4 trillion FY21 omnibus appropriations bill, into law. His signature will avert a government shutdown.
More details here.
News and updates
Trump Follows Through on Veto Threat (No, not on THAT bill)
President Trump this afternoon followed through on his earlier threats and vetoed the FY2021 defense authorization bill, known as the “NDAA.” The legislation sets defense policies every year and addresses issues like troop withdrawals, and has been adopted every year since 1967. The bill was approved by Congress earlier this month by veto-proof margins in both chambers.
Trump wanted the bill to include a provision that stripped away protections for social media companies, a topic that is not related to defense. He also wanted the to prevent the renaming of Southern military bases. Trump had threatened to veto the legislation over those two provisions and he followed through on that threat this afternoon.
The House will be in session next Monday and may seek to override the veto then. The Senate is scheduled to be in session Tuesday and may follow suit, if the House is successful in its override attempt. Although the House vote earlier this month was by a veto-proof margin of 335 – 78, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) did not commit to push House Republicans to override a veto from President Trump. The Senate vote was also by a veto-proof margin, 83-14.
Based on the White House developments earlier this afternoon on the omnibus appropriations/COVID package, Monday could turn out to be even more critical, as the current government funding bill expires at Midnight Tuesday.
Read more about the unfolding situation here, here, and here.
A Number of Environment Provisions Included As Well
The bill that is still awaiting the President’s signature (will he or won’t he?) includes a section that aims to address some of the current environmental and climate concerns.
It address a number of issue areas, such as emission reduction, carbon capture and utilization, and innovative manufacturing. This section of the bill is Division S.
Even with Trump Keeping People Guessing…
Even as the President now has Washington guessing about what will happen next to on the COVID/omnibus front, we continue to read through the package.
The joint COVID/appropriations legislation contains a whole host of bills that are not related to COVID or appropriations, which is not that unusual for a “Christmas tree” bill. The inclusion of the Energy Act of 2020 (Div. Z) is a case in point.
The energy legislation contains a slew of energy innovation and research-related provisions, including the reauthorization of the ARPA-E program. In addition, it addresses a host of energy research areas, such as fusion, renewable energy, energy storage, carbon management/removal, electric grid security, and mineral security. A section-by-section summary of that portion of the legislative package, compiled by the Senate Energy Committee, is available here.
We will continue to review the bill.
Well, That Didn’t Take Long
With a video in which he called it a “disgrace,” President Trump yesterday blasted the COVID/omnibus spending package that was only adopted on Monday. His biggest complaints seem to be that the stimulus checks of $600 per person for families making less than $75,000 a year is not big enough and that the bill contains too much “wasteful” spending. He wants the checks to be at least $2,000.
Smaller checks were pushed by Congressional Republicans and his own Treasury secretary. Democratic leaders have, at least publicly, seized on the remarks to try to make another push on larger stimulus checks. Not surprisingly, the video is now leading many to wonder whether Trump will veto the measure, which took six months to craft.
Trump must sign the measure by next Monday in order to prevent a shutdown.
Read more about the developments here in Politico, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Axios.