President Donald Trump has signaled that if Congressional Democrats do not reach an agreement on the next coronavirus relief bill, he may resort to executive action to help Americans suffering financially due to the coronavirus shutdowns.
During a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked how Congressional leaders would react if Trump began re-allocating federal funds to fund coronavirus relief measures without authorization from Capitol Hill.
“I don’t think they know what they’re talking about,” Pelosi said. “The one thing the president can do is to extend the moratorium [on evictions], and that would be a good thing if there’s money to go with it, and that’s what we keep telling them.”
Pelosi continued, “What’s the use of a moratorium if you’re going to have eight months of rent to pay at the end of the moratorium? And B, what does that mean to the landlord? No money.”
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During a press conference on Wednesday, Trump said he was “exploring” executive actions he could take to provide relief to Americans if Congress was unable to strike a deal, as IJR reported.
“My administration’s exploring executive actions to provide protections against eviction. Eviction’s a big problem, very unfair to a lot of people. It wasn’t their fault that this virus came from a faraway land,” he said.
Trump also signaled he was exploring a potential payroll tax suspension via executive order.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that last week Trump had met with law professor John Yoo who discussed a recent article he wrote in National Review.
That article argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling to block Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) gives the president broad powers to take unilateral action by executive action.
Yoo told the Post that he discussed the article but did not provide further details about the discussion.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was reportedly against the executive action route. However, after days of negotiations failed to yield a deal, he signaled the president might act unilaterally, as IJR reported.
On Tuesday, Mnuchin was asked if the administration was exploring executive action. He responded, “Absolutely.”
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows chimed in, “Hopefully, we’ll make progress today and not have to do that.”
On Thursday, Trump said in a tweet that he directed his staff to “continue working on an Executive Order with respect to Payroll Tax Cut, Eviction Protections, Unemployment Extensions, and Student Loan Repayment Options.”