December 30 political news briefs

Here are today’s political news briefs.

The U.S. Treasury has started sending $600 stimulus payments last night as a part of the coronavirus relief package that President Donald Trump signed on Sunday night. Those who have direct deposit information with the IRS should receive it quickly. The government will start mailing out paper checks today. Eligible individuals will get $600, couples filing jointly will get $1,200, and each child will get $600.

This is separate from the ongoing Congressional battle to increase the payments to $2,000. President Trump said he wanted the checks to be $2,000 and House Democrats supported it, passing a bill to increase the checks. But Senate Republicans blocked the bill, saying they wanted to add two measures on election security and repealing a law that protects internet companies from lawsuits. News analysts said it is unlikely House Democrats would support this change, so the increased payments is stalled right now.


For now, those who qualify for the $600 payments will see that money, but it is up in the air whether you’ll get more (an extra $1,400).

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he would challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania on January 6 when Congress is scheduled to meet to certify the 2020 election results. Hawley said some states did not follow their election laws and that internet companies influenced the election in favor of Biden.

Politico explained that this challenge will not affect the ultimate outcome of the election, but would delay Biden’s certification because with a challenge, both the House and the Senate will have to debate the results of the state and vote on the record whether they accept Biden’s victory. Current rules say at least one member from the House and the Senate will have to meet together to agree to challenge the election results. There are multiple House Republicans who said they wanted to challenge, but so far there have been no Republican senators, until now. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has already recognized Joe Biden’s victory and news reports said he persuaded Republican senators to fall back and not challenge the election results, but Hawley is going in the opposite direction. President Trump encouraged his supporters to come together on January 6. Trump and his lawyers have alleged there was election fraud and filed many lawsuits, but almost all of them have been thrown out or dismissed, including two cases that went before the Supreme Court. The former Attorney General Bill Barr also said there was no evidence of widespread election fraud that would affect the outcome.

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The Biden transition team expressed frustration that the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget is limiting support to them and said it would delay Biden’s budget planning and could have a serious impact on national security. Biden said a few days ago that he’s faced roadblocks from officials at the Defense Department.

In Georgia, more than 2.3 million people have voted early in the senate runoffs race. The votes were conducted via mail-in ballots and in-person. Politico said it’s already broken a record for the most votes in a runoff election. There are high numbers of voters in Democratic congressional districts while the numbers are lower in Republican congressional districts. Typically Democratic-leaning voters vote early, while Republicans prefer to vote on election day, which is on January 5. If Republicans win at least one of the senate seats, Republicans will have control of the Senate, but if Democrats win both seats, Democrats will have control of the Senate.

That’s all the political news briefs for today.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/30/coronavirus-stimulus-update-2000-checks-stall-in-the-senate.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/30/hawley-challenge-biden-electors-forcing-vote-452319

https://www.axios.com/josh-hawley-electoral-college-object-ed6c6bf7-a6f7-4103-a842-1be24feb9fb6.html

https://www.axios.com/omb-biden-management-budget-transition-2431c0a9-9142-488d-baef-c89f5838a8e2.html

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1344359312878149634

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/30/georgia-senate-early-voting-452221