Pres. Donald Trump already announced the new Supreme Court Justice and a stop-gap agreement for federal funding. Will Congress focus on the stimulus bill next week?

Stimulus
(Photo : Reutersconnect)

The House of Representatives was supposed to discuss the new stimulus bill last week. However, the attention of the Congress Representatives shifted following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They deliberated whether it is right or not to immediately appoint new Chief Justice. 

On Saturday, Pres. Donald Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court Justice and the stop-gap agreement that will ensure federal funding until the end of this year. The funding agreement will make sure that federal agencies will have enough funds and can still operate even during and after the election period. 

Next week, Congress will try to introduce and deliberate on the floor the provisions under the new stimulus bill. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who was resistant to the previous stimulus package that the White House and Republican lawmakers proposed since August is now being pressured from her Democratic colleagues. 

In fact, due to the frustrations that some of the Democratic Representatives felt, they drafted a stimulus package along with Republican Representatives with an amount of roughly $1.5 trillion. Part of it was two rounds of stimulus checks. 

However, Pelosi was not pleased with the bill from the Problem Solvers Caucus. She even told the Democratic members of the group not to be a "chip deal," After it, Pelosi instructed lawmakers to draft their own version of the stimulus package.

There is now no question about the second round stimulus package but the only question yet to be answered is when next week the new stimulus bill would be discussed. There are assumptions that it would be deliberated on the floor before Oct.1. 

Pres. Trump and the White House have always been open to discuss the stimulus payments with the Democratic leaders. However, the top Democratic stimulus negotiators seem to resist in their negotiations. They rejected the offer a couple of times. 

The progress started when more Democratic Representatives started to clamor and demand Nancy Pelosi to act on the new stimulus package. These are Democratic lawmakers who are in a tight race and are afraid to home without bringing new stimulus aid as part of their campaign. 

Both the Republicans and Democrats have already agreed on some provisions of the stimulus package such as PPP Loans, state funding, funding for schools, and more. However, they only have disagreements when it comes to the total amount of the package. 

For the top officials of the White House and Pres. Trump, they believed that Pelosi is afraid to strike the deal with the White House because this will help boost the reelection bid of Pres. Trump. The President has been very vocal and supportive of another round of financial aids. 

Pres. Trump also issued different orders and released funds recently to make sure that Americans will receive the help they need amid the pandemic. Pres. Trump's economic adviser also said that the White House still has billions of money that they plan to release if the stimulus deal will not be reached. 

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