U.S. Congress

The president-elect warned about the possibilities of unemployment benefits expiring as well as the economic impact that blocking the bill could have for small businesses.

"They will raise money and gain followers by blaming everyone else knowing full well they can't do anything. It's sad, and an utter scam," GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger tweeted Saturday.

"The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill," Senator Roy Blunt told reporters.

In the wake of Congress passing a $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package and a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill, Americans are concerned that more funding went to foreign aid than to the millions of people struggling at home.

"This president is holding up much needed help to them during some of the darkest days of American history," Representative Andy King said.

Forcing self-described Democratic moderates to declare where they stand is the beginning of the fight to keep America from lurching sharply to the left.

President Donald Trump has also seen a steep decline in his approval rating since the spring.

House Republicans have blocked the Democrats' effort to raise the stimulus checks to $2,000 in line with the president's demand.

Representative Tom Reed, an early supporter of President Trump, encouraged the president to sign the spending package despite objections over foreign aid so Americans could receive relief during the pandemic.

The block by Republicans was expected. However, it further underscored how at odds GOP lawmakers and the outgoing president are about stimulus spending, along with casting further doubt about the fate of the relief package.

The political consultant gave a first TV interview following his presidential pardon to Fox News's Tucker Carlson.

The president also took issue with a provision that would rename 10 Confederate Army installations within three years.

"We have to deliver and we have to deliver bold, it cannot be incremental," Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal told Newsweek.

"If the President truly wants to join us in $2,000 payments," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote to fellow Democrats, "he should call upon Leader McCarthy to agree to our Unanimous Consent request."

"I'm 100% on board with $2000 survival checks for struggling families. House and Senate Dems are united on this," Warren tweeted on Wednesday.

Senator Amy Klobuchar suggested Trump's veto of the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill was purposely timed to come as most federal aid expires at the end of the year.

But the Republican senator said Trump's call for $2,000 stimulus checks is a "really foolish, eggheaded, left-wing, socialist idea."

In a video, the president railed against the legislation for not providing enough in direct payments to Americans.

The internal White House email was sent despite efforts by the president and his GOP allies to overturn the election's results.

A new poll from YouGov found that 69 percent of U.S. adults support additional COVID-19 relief money going to their state government.

President-elect Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have suggested the recently passed stimulus is only a stepping stone meant to act as a "down payment," but Republicans don't see it that way.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his aides have repeatedly claimed that Senate Republicans for months have backed a measure "right in the ballpark" of the $900 billion stimulus Congress approved. But is that true?

A statue honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee was quietly removed from the U.S. Capitol overnight Sunday, but statues honoring Confederate leaders and others with racist pasts remain—months after leaders of Congress urged their removal.

"We do need a stimulus bill. There's no question about it," Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick said.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley is among the lawmakers who have said the direct payments agreed by Congress are not high enough.

The relief package, the second largest in history behind the $2 trillion CARES Act, received overwhelming bipartisan support, easily clearing both chambers of Congress.

Some of the programs and grants funded as part of the new coronavirus relief package aim to address problems exacerbated by the pandemic.

Lawmakers corrected an unintended consequence from the CARES Act that excluded Americans in mixed-status families from being eligible for stimulus payments.

"Members of Congress need to see & read the bills we are expected to vote on," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

Legislators included stimulus checks in another round of relief and if it passes Congress, eligible individuals will receive $600.