Trump attempts to wrest tax and spending powers from Congress with new executive actions - The Washington Post

President Trump on Saturday attempted to bypass Congress and make dramatic changes to tax and spending policy, signing executive actions that challenge the boundaries of power that separate the White House and Capitol Hill.

At a news event in Bedminster, N.J., Trump said the actions would provide economic relief to millions of Americans by deferring taxes and, he said, providing temporary unemployment benefits.

A leading national expert on unemployment benefits said one of the actions would not increase federal unemployment benefits at all.

The White House and Democrats have clashed for weeks about what to do with the $600 enhanced weekly unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July.

Coronavirus relief talks collapse on Capitol Hill as Trump readies executive actions.

The White House and Democrats had spent the past two weeks working on a deal to extend those provisions, but talks collapsed on Friday.

The White House on Saturday authorized taking about $50 billion from the FEMA fund to pay for unemployment benefits, but that money will only last about five weeks before expiring, according to Democratic congressional aides and unemployment experts.

“These policy announcements provide little real help to families," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement following the executive actions.

“Instead of passing a bill, now President Trump is cutting families’ unemployment benefits and pushing states further into budget crises, forcing them to make devastating cuts to life-or-death services.” They pointed out that Trump’s housing plan “provides no assistance to help pay the rent.”.

The order does not reinstate the federal eviction moratorium that expired last month or fund the billions in assistance Democrats have said is necessary to help people already behind on their rent.

On the topic of extending unemployment benefits, Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said on Monday: “I don’t think that can be done administratively.

“Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployed benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most.”.

Some experts have said the president has no legal basis to unilaterally extend unemployment benefits.

House Democrats in May passed a $3.4 trillion bill that they wanted to serve as the next economic relief measure, but it was rejected by the White House and Senate Republicans as too costly.

But it is unclear if the administration can repurpose those funds for unemployment benefits without violating the Antideficiency Act, a federal budgeting law.

“We don’t want to continue to watch people signing executive orders because that was not what the Constitution and the brilliant designers of this incredible document had in mind,” Trump said in March 2016.

The “Heroes” Act passed by House Democrats in May would have extended the enhanced $600 unemployment benefit through January, but the White House and Senate Republicans sought to change the formula for these benefits so that — in many cases — the weekly payment came to about $200 a week.

The White House and Senate Republicans didn’t act for several months after the House Democrats passed their bill.

Then, a few weeks ago, the White House and some Senate Republicans finally made their counteroffer — a $1 trillion measure that would offer another round of stimulus checks, more money for small businesses, schools, and a lower level of enhanced unemployment aid, among other things.