Power Up: Trump’s unilateral moves on coronavirus relief under fire from all sides

Democrats said the executive actions would not actually deliver relief to the Americans most in need — and accused the president of misrepresenting what the orders actually do. They also didn’t sit well with some Republicans who questioned the legality and effectiveness of Trump’s attempt to circumvent Congress. 

They questioned whether the unemployed will actually receive the $400-per-week in enhanced benefits that Trump promised, meant to replace the expired $600-per-week benefit that recently lapsed. Trump’s orders, Pelosi said, “don’t give the money in enhanced benefits, but puts a complicated formula there which will take a while, if at all, to accomplish to put money in the pockets of the American people.” 

• “To pay for the program, the president said he would tap $44 billion in federal funds that are allocated for natural disaster relief such as a hurricane or wildfire. But states would have to contribute $100 a week to each worker’s check, with the federal government putting up the rest. Beyond the legal questions surrounding the maneuver, many states are facing severe budget deficits as they fight the coronavirus, and several economists and lawmakers said governors may be unlikely to sign onto the program,” Tony Romm, Erica Werner and Jeff Stein write.
• Also unclear is when the first unemployment checks will be paid — a question the president refused to answer on Saturday during his news conference: “[Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin said the jobless benefits could be available ‘immediately,’ but White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on CNN that the payments could take a couple of weeks,” our colleagues write.  

States were also reluctant to commit: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), for instance, said it’s unclear whether his state could afford it: “The answer is, I don’t know yet.” 

• “The concept of saying to states, you pay 25 percent of the insurance, is just laughable,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) said during a news conference on Sunday where he estimated that the total cost to New York state would be $4 billion. “It’s just an impossibility. So none of this is real on the federal side. This is going to have to be resolved.”
• Cuomo said he didn’t know if Trump was “genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation. But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington covid mismanagement.” 
• More problems: “According to the president’s directive, the aid should run through Dec. 6 or until funding runs out. But $44 billion would cover less than five weeks of payments for the ranks of the 30 million Americans who are currently unemployed, several economists noted,” our colleagues write.

Democrats also pounced on the discrepancies between the text of the order and Trump’s promises on evictions — “the act that I’m signing will solve that problem, largely — hopefully, completely,” the president said Saturday. It does not extend the federal eviction moratorium that expired last month nor provide the billions in rental assistance that Democrats and housing experts have said is crucial for people who are already behind on their rent. 

• “Instead, the order calls on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ‘consider’ whether it was necessary to temporarily halt evictions,” our colleagues Jeff Stein, Erica Werner and Renae Merle report. It also orders federal agencies to “identify” federal funds to provide temporary assistance to renters and homeowners. 
• Pelosi put it this way: “While it has the illusion of saying we’re going to have a moratorium on evictions, it says I’m gonna ask the folks in charge to study if that’s feasible.”
• Meanwhile, the eviction cliff has arrived: “An estimated 27% of adults in the U.S. missed their rent or mortgage payment for July, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau weekly over the last three months,” reports Bloomberg’s Kriston Capps. “Among renters alone, just over one-third (34%) said during the waning days of July that they had little to no confidence that they could make their August rent payment, a stark measure of the ongoing economic devastation for households stretched to the brink by coronavirus pandemic.” 

Trump’s move for a payroll tax delay – an idea that got little support on Capitol Hill including from Republicans who questioned the impact on Social Security and the deficit – also drew outcry. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) called Trump’s strategy “unconstitutional slop” and insisted the president doesn’t have the power to “unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.”  

Businesses are also unlikely to alter worker paychecks, despite Trump’s order that would allow employees making less than $104,000 to delay until January payment of a payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare, per Tony, Jeff and Erica. They would likely wait until there’s a guarantee the taxes would actually be absolved — which Trump promised to do only if he is reelected. 

By embracing the payroll tax cut, which was not even a part of negotiations this past week, “Trump would be embarking on a fraught process that could have catastrophic fiscal effects on programs including Social Security, which watchdogs recently have warned is in dire financial straits, expected next year to have costs that exceed its total incomes,” Tony reports. 

• It could also be politically risky: The AARP criticized the actions it said “exacerbates people’s already-heightened fears and concerns” about their financial futures, our colleagues note.
• Already a talking point: “While he says he’s going to do the payroll tax, what he’s doing is undermining Social Security and Medicare, so these are illusions,” Pelosi said.
• Debate preview?: “On Saturday, Trump tried to use the payroll tax announcement to mount an attack on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, arguing the former vice president and his party would end the deferral, ‘raising everyone’s taxes and taking this away,’” per Tony, Jeff and Erica. “Biden, however, countered by accusing Trump of trying to ‘undermine the entire financial footing of Social Security,’ with the effect of putting Americans’ benefits ‘in doubt.’”

One possible outcome: The actions are so unpalatable to lawmakers it adds new fire to negotiations. “The basic notion here is the president is rejecting Congress’s power of the purse,” David Super, a constitutional law expert at Georgetown Law, told our colleague Heather Long. “That is something nobody who cares about separation of powers can let slide, even if they like what the money is being spent on.”

• “I appreciate the President taking this decisive action but would much prefer a congressional agreement,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted. “I believe President Trump would prefer the same.”
• “Pres. [Trump] is doing all he can to help workers, students & renters, but Congress is the one who should be acting,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) tweeted. “Democrats should stop blocking common sense proposals to help students going back to school & college & parents going back to work who need child care.” 
• But: “Trump received support from some Republican allies who praised him for taking action amid a congressional logjam. Some of the GOP leaders who praised the president’s action previously attacked President Obama for using executive action to bypass Congress,” per Toluse Olorunnipa and Ashley Parker. Senate Majority Leader Mitch “McConnell praised Trump’s use of executive authority, saying in a statement that the end run around Congress was justified because Democrats were being stubborn.”  

Looking ahead: Each party is calling on the other to hammer out a deal: “Meet us halfway and work together to deliver immediate relief to the American people,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote in a statement. 

• “The Senate will technically stay in session next week but will not hold any votes unless there is a breakthrough in coronavirus negotiations,” per Politico’s John Bresnahan and Marianne Levine. “That means senators — like their House counterparts — will be back home, waiting for word from the leadership whether a deal has been reached.”
• “I’ve told Republican senators they’ll have 24-hour notice before a vote, but the Senate will be convening on Monday and I’ll be right here in Washington,” McConnell said on Thursday. “The Senate won’t adjourn for August unless and until the Democrats demonstrate they will never let an agreement materialize. A lot of Americans’ hopes, a lot of American lives are riding on the Democrats’ endless talk. I hope they’re not disappointed.”

DEMS UNVEIL CONVENTION PLANS: “Democrats are planning to feature a broad lineup of everyday Americans during their four-day mostly virtual convention next week, placing them in the prime-time spotlight to drive Joe Biden’s messages on health care, the coronavirus pandemic and opposition to [Trump],” Matt Viser reports this morning.

• The list includes: “A former Trump voter from Pennsylvania who is supporting Biden, a paramedic and immigrant from Mexico City on the front lines of the pandemic in Florida, a bus driver from Atlanta and an autoworker from Lake Orion, Mich.”

The rest of the schedule: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will speak on Monday. Headlining Wednesday night: Biden’s running mate, along with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D- Mass.). Warren’s time would change if she becomes Biden’s pick. Former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama will also speak during the week. Biden will take the usual nominee slot on Thursday. 

• Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican who ran against Trump in 2016, and former President Bill Clinton have also received slots, per Politico. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was recently selected to be the next head of the National Governor’s Association, will also speak, Bloomberg News reports.

VEEP WEEK: Biden blew past his first two deadlines, but this is now the final week before the start of the convention, meaning in just days we’ll learn who will be the third woman in American history to be selected as a running mate for a major-party ticket.

Biden world is bracing for sexist and racist attacks: “Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Joe Biden’s campaign manager, warned on a recent all-staff call that when his vice presidential pick is announced, sexism will motivate the ugliest attacks against her — no matter who she is,” Annie Linskey and Isaac Stanley-Becker report.

• A number of outside groups will assist the campaign: “The all-hands-on-deck approach within the Biden campaign, described by someone on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, is being separately bolstered by some of the country’s leading women’s groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice America, Emily’s List, She the People and UltraViolet, who have been strategizing for months about how to best defend Biden’s vice presidential pick from sexist and racist insults.”

• Inside the room, per our colleague Matt Viser: “While Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) was highly regarded days ago, there have been concerns about her past work in Cuba and warm comments about Fidel Castro. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) has long been thought to be at the top of the list, but she’s met some high-level dissension within the campaign. Susan E. Rice, the former national security adviser, has a warm relationship with Biden and strong support from former colleagues in the Obama administration, and [Warren] is also still under consideration, according to people close to the campaign.”

• America’s lost summer: “If the administration’s initial response to the coronavirus was denial, its failure to control the pandemic since then was driven by dysfunction and resulted in a lost summer, according to the portrait that emerges from interviews with 41 senior administration officials and other people directly involved in or briefed on the response efforts,” Philip Rucker, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey and Robert Costa reported over the weekend in their examination on how the White House botched its handling the pandemic.

A SCHOOL YEAR LIKE NO OTHER: “Plans are changing so fast that students and parents can hardly keep up. Districts that spent all summer planning hybrid systems, in which children would be in school part of the week, ditched them as cases surged. Universities changed their teaching models, their start dates and their rules for housing, all with scant notice,” Laura Meckler, Valerie Strauss and Nick Anderson report.

• The political divide: “Education Week’s database includes 153 districts in states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Of them, 67 percent plan fully remote learning this fall. Of the 307 districts in states won by [Trump] in 2016, 58 percent plan to hold fully or partly in-person classes,” our colleagues write. Some of this can be chalked to fact that rural areas tend to be more Republican and in some instances have reported less cases.

The Georgia school in a viral photo will now hold online classes after nine people tested positive: Students will attend virtually today and Tuesday after six of their classmates and three staff members tested positive for the virus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Ty Tagami reports of the school that went viral when students showed unmasked students in crowded hallways. 

• Some of the students who posted photos of the scene were suspended, though CBS News reported that two students’ suspensions were rescinded.

Residents in college towns are worried about what lays ahead: “We have three highly compromised people in my house,” Christy Dollymore, 61, told our colleague Lauren Lumpkin about her new neighbors in College Park, Md., students attending the University of Maryland’s flagship campus. “Where am I supposed to go to the grocery store?” 

ABRUPT CENSUS CHANGE COULD LEAD TO UNDERCOUNT: “Census experts and advocates warn that the Trump administration’s decision to end the decennial count a month earlier than expected will result in a dramatic undercount of Black and Latino communities across the country, which could have grave effects on federal funding and political representation in their neighborhoods,” Jose A. Del Real and Fredrick Kunkle report.

• Some startling trends: Experts “point in particular to alarmingly low response rates in places such as the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and the Bronx in New York, where the coronavirus pandemic had already interrupted outreach in some of the country’s hardest-to-count census tracts.” 

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Protesters set fire to Portland police union’s headquarters: “There were multiple peaceful protests around the city on Saturday, but after a brief lull following the Trump administration’s partial retreat from the city last month, the late-night protests [ratcheted up last week] with a renewed focus on the Portland Police Bureau,” Katie Shepherd reports from the city.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law: “The dramatic events marked the authorities’ sharpest use of the new security law, and highlighted the growing threat to pro-democracy activists and journalists in Hong Kong, where press freedom is supposed to enjoy constitutional protection,” Shibani Mahtani reports from Hong Kong.

At 20 people shot, one dead after D.C. party: “A 17-year-old was killed and an off-duty D.C. police officer suffered life-threatening injuries after authorities said at least 20 people were shot when a dispute broke out early Sunday at a cookout attended by hundreds of people in Southeast Washington,” Peter Hermann, Michael Brice-Saddler and Clarence Williams report.

College football faces a defining moment: Major conferences are close to postponing their football seasons and other fall sports until next year, ESPN and Sports Illustrated reported over the weekend. With this mind, high-profile athletes, including Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State QB Justin Fields, tweeted out a plea to play Sunday. But late last night, a number of those same athletes outlined their united demands, including the ultimate formation of a player’s union — something the NCAA and conferences have long opposed.