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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – COVID relief is on the way after President Donald Trump signed legislation greenlighting another round of direct payments to Americans.
But the president says Congress should be giving out even more money, and Democrats are in rare agreement.
As CBS2’s Kevin Rincon reports, the COVID relief bill sets aside $600 for Americans struggling through this pandemic. President Trump reluctantly signed the legislation into law, complaining about so-called pork spending.
More: Stimulus Package Update: When Might Checks Start Arriving?
“It’s called the COVID relief bill, but it almost has nothing to do with COVID,” Trump said.
He slammed funding for foreign aid and the arts, like the $700 million in economic relief set aside for Sudan, the $453 million in funding for Ukraine, and $14 million set aside for renovations to the Kennedy Center in Washington.
New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer says those were things the president himself asked for.
“Most everything in there was actually in the president’s budget that he asked for from us. In fact, in a lot of cases, we gave less than he asked for, on foreign aid and other issues,” Gottheimer said.
At an event in Brooklyn. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer told Rincon Republicans were on board with all that spending.
“It’s an excuse so they don’t have to vote for the COVID relief plain and simple. It’s a budget they all voted for,” Schumer said.
The budget this time around was put together with COVID relief in order to avoid a government shutdown. But when it comes to relief funding, Democrats agree with the president in that Americans should be getting more money.
“This bill is not sufficient. It’s emergency, but it’s not enough. One place it’s not enough is relief to people,” Schumer said. “Every Senate Democrat is for it, but unfortunately we don’t have the Republicans on board.”
The House will vote on a separate bill Monday night that would give Americans $2,000 checks like the president called for, an effort that will then go to the Senate.
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Kevin Rincon contributed to this report.
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