Minority leader says bill proviso stops businesses and family members of president and other lawmakers from receiving cash
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Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Donald Trump’s family has been blocked from getting bailout funds in the $2tn economic stimulus package, according to a letter from the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer.
US Senate leaders reached a deal on Wednesday on what is expected to be the largest economic stimulus measure ever passed.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, wrote a three-page “Dear Colleagues” letter which outlines the steps the Senate took to secure the agreement. It emphasizes that Democrats will use the bailout to expand access to unemployment insurance and to increase funding for the health system.
Schumer also highlighted a provision to stop Trump’s private business, the Trump Organization, run by his sons, Eric and Don Jr, from benefiting from any cash giveaway.
Amid the bullet points outlining the “significant improvements” Schumer said Democrats had made to the bill was a line prohibiting the family of the president, and other lawmakers, from receiving loans from Treasury department programs.
The letter said the deal would “prohibit businesses controlled by the president, vice-president, members of Congress, and heads of executive departments from receiving loans or investments from treasury programs. The children, spouses and in-laws of the aforementioned principals are also included in this prohibition.”
Before reaching a deal, Senate Democrats said they were concerned the economic stimulus could directly benefit the Trump family.
Trump is heavily invested in the hotel industry, one of the sectors hardest hit by coronavirus. The Trump Organization has closed six of its top revenue-producing properties and more could close soon.
Before the outbreak, three of his properties already had outstanding loans from Deutsche Bank which originally totaled more than $300m.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also collects much of his income from his family’s real estate firm, Kushner Companies.
After dismissing coronavirus as a hoax, Trump has increasingly focused on the economic impact of business closures prompted by the public health crisis. “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” he wrote on Twitter this week, as the death toll mounted across the country.
The Senate is expected to vote on the deal shortly after it reconvenes at midday Wednesday. The bill then moves to the House before hitting the president’s desk. He is expected to ratify it.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
