The $2 trillion dollar COVID response stimulus bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. President Trump happily signed the bill into legislation in order to aid suffering Americans.
While Republicans have been pushing for an additional $250 billion in aid to small businesses, Democrats have other plans in mind.
According to reports, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are busy planning the next stimulus bill, expected to exceed $1 trillion dollars.
Among their wishlist?
Funding for abortion, checks to illegal aliens, and new surveillance programs to name a few.
CNN provides the following details:
Still, congressional leaders will have no shortage of options to choose from as they put together the next spending bill, with proposals coming from every corner of the country and ideological spectrum.
Democratic Reps. Joe Neguse of Colorado, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Andy Levin of Michigan and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, for instance, introduced a bill on Tuesday to give small cities and towns access to $250 billion in direct relief funds, expanding on the $150 billion fund for state and local governments in the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill.
“A number of us felt that did not go far enough,” Neguse said in an interview. “A number of us believed the fund should be much larger — in addition, the structure should be changed so that cities and counties under 500,000 people could access directly federal resources from the Treasury Department.”
Another quartet of House Democrats — Reps. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — urged House and Senate leaders to boost funding for food stamps, pushing for an increase to both the maximum and minimum benefits available under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
And a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers — Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, and Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, and Reps. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, and Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican — want congressional leaders to include funding in the next bill for small broadband providers to provide internet to low-income families.
While many of the proposals would add or tweak the stimulus legislation passed last month, a group of House lawmakers wants to revise the 2017 Republican tax cuts to repeal the cap on state and local tax deductions that hit hardest in states like California and New York — now hotspots of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Now is a time when state and local governments are facing serious funding issues and relief from the cap would help not only individuals, but the state and local governments addressing the crisis we all face,” wrote the dozen lawmakers, led by Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York.
Most of the backlash over the proposed bill comes from provisions allowing illegal aliens to tap into relief funds and increasing the use of mail-in voting.
Check out the reponse on Twitter:
[zombify_post]
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!