Facing sharp criticism, administration officials Sunday struggled to explain the executive actions President Donald Trump used to circumvent Congress in the absence of an agreement on a coronavirus aid package, even as they defended him and insisted that Americans would receive the relief he promised.
The President’s decision Saturday to sign a series of measures intended to revive unemployment benefits, address an eviction ban, provide relief for student borrowers and suspend collection of payroll taxes came after crucial benefits lapsed and two weeks of talks between congressional Democrats and administration officials failed to produce an agreement on a broader relief package.
But the patchwork of moves was less significant than what Mr. Trump described in his news conference, and the plan appeared unlikely to have immediate, meaningful impact on the sputtering economy, leaving questions about how it would affect the continuing faceoff with Democrats, whose votes are needed for a congressional deal.
Democrats swiftly criticized Mr. Trump’s actions as an example of executive overreach, saying the measures offered thin support for struggling Americans and warning that the country’s social safety net could be jeopardized while the coronavirus pandemic continued to spread. After two weeks of huddling with Mr. Trump’s top advisers on Capitol Hill in an effort to hammer out a deal, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York State, the Democratic leader, called for talks to resume.
“The President’s meagre, weak and unconstitutional actions further demand that we have an agreement,” Ms. Pelosi said on Fox News Sunday. She rejected the suggestion that she had erred by holding out for Democratic priorities, telling the program’s anchor, Chris Wallace, that “clearly you don’t have an understanding of what is happening here.”
Mr. Schumer, speaking on ABC’s This Week, declared that “the President’s executive orders, described in one word, could be paltry, in three words, unworkable, weak and far too narrow.”
Mr. Trump’s top economic advisers were on the defensive on the Sunday talk shows as they tried to justify the President’s authority to bypass Congress, which retains the constitutional power of the purse, to redirect billions of dollars. They argued that Democrats, who first approved a US$3.4-trillion stimulus package in May, were unwilling to compromise, particularly on sending additional aid to state and local governments.
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