By Ismail Auwal
After a prolonged delay, President Donald Trump has finally succumbed to pressure and signed the $900 billion stimulus bill on Sunday.
The bill package contains “providing coronavirus emergency response and relief”.
In a speech he made at Florida, Trump said, “I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP (Paycheck Protection Programs), return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more.”
The relief package, which was first passed by Congress on December 21, extends those benefits as well as others set to expire in the days ahead.
But for days, Trump had refused to put his signature on it, calling the bill a “disgrace” and catching both Democrats and Republicans off guard with his complaints, which came after months of negotiations.
The turnaround came after a day marked by calls from all sides of the political spectrum for action to avert an economic and social disaster, especially for America’s vulnerable populations.
