Kansas GOP, Democratic Lawmakers Differ On Value Of Trump’s Latest COVID-19 Orders

From the Kansas Reflector:

By Tim Carpenter
-

Aug. 14, 2020

TOPEKA — Three Kansas Republicans view President Donald Trump’s latest COVID-19 executive orders on unemployment benefits, payroll taxes, an eviction moratorium and suspension of student loan payments as a pressure tactic to convince Democrats to resume negotiations on the next emergency relief package.

The first three federal relief packages adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic received bipartisan backing, but work on a fourth installment reached an impasse last week due to disagreement between the White House and Democratic negotiators. In response, Trump turned to executive orders that may be unworkable without consent of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican not up for re-election in November, said the president’s orders laid out issues important to everyday Kansans.

“It is my hope that the president’s actions will force congressional Democrats to come back to the negotiating table,” Moran said.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat seeking re-election in the 3rd District in the Kansas City area, said Trump’s executive actions fell short and called on Congress to fulfill its constitutional responsibility to address evolving needs of the national public health crisis.

“People’s lives and livelihoods are at stake and they are exhausted by the Washington political games that get us nowhere,” Davids said. “Instead of working with Congress to reach a deal, the president announced executive actions that do not come close to meeting the scale of the crisis we’re facing.”

In terms of unemployment benefits, Trump’s order would extend special federal jobless aid through the end of the year at a rate of $300 per week. Each state would be responsible for a $100 per week match, but it wasn’t clear state unemployment trust funds had sufficient resources to comply. The bonus $600 per week in federal jobless assistance provided through the CARES Act expired at the end of July.

A separate order from Trump would lengthen a payroll tax holiday scheduled to run from Sept. 1 through end of the year. The president said he wanted to make retroactive to Aug. 1 the suspension of paycheck deductions for Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Trump also ordered extension of an eviction moratorium applicable to renters and homeowners. In addition, the president would carry federal suspension of certain student loan payments past the scheduled expiration Sept. 30 and keep it in place for the remainder of the year.

Moran said extraordinary circumstances of a virus that has killed 167,000 and infected 5.2 million in the United States led him to support previous legislation providing hospitals with supplies, small businesses with loans and the unemployed with financial aid.

In the future, he said, federal aid must focus on expanding resources for testing, personal protective equipment as well as vaccine development and distribution.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has lasted longer than many predicted, and we cannot continue spending trillions of dollars at our current pace,” Moran said. “There are simply not enough government programs or borrowed dollars to keep this economy going.”

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who didn’t seek re-election and is scheduled to retire in January, declined to comment about Trump’s executive orders. However, the GOP nominee for Roberts’ seat in the Senate said Trump’s intervention was welcomed.

“While the Democratic Party creates dysfunction and places political goals ahead of the economic security and health of Americans, the Trump administration has stepped up,” said U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, the 1st District congressman who won the party’s August primary for Senate.

Marshall said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York continued to “sabotage negotiations on a phase four relief package from Congress.”

The congressman also promised to exercise greater financial restraint if the House voted on supplemental coronavirus legislation.

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, who serves the 4th District that includes Wichita, said congressional Democrats were exploiting people suffering from the pandemic by attempting to push through a $3.4 trillion partisan wish list. Senate Republicans developed a $1 trillion package.

“I’m hopeful that this action pushes negotiations forward so we can pass bipartisan legislation,” said Estes, who is running for re-election and will be on the November ballot.

U.S. Rep. Steve Watkins, the 2nd District congressman from Topeka, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the president’s COVID-19 orders. Watkins lost his August primary to Republican candidate Jake LaTurner, who is the state treasurer in Kansas.

Watkins resigned from his three House committees and is under investigation by a U.S. House ethics committee investigating criminal charges filed against him.

In mid-July, the Shawnee County district attorney charged Watkins with three felonies alleging that in 2019 he listed an incorrect residential address when registering to vote, engaged in unlawful advance voting and subsequently interfered with a law enforcement investigation. The Topeka Capital-Journal first reported on Watkins’ voting and registration irregularities resulting from his decision to list a UPS Store in Topeka as his home address.

The Kansas Reflector seeks to increase people's awareness of how decisions made by elected representatives and other public servants affect our day-to-day lives. We hope to empower and inspire greater participation in democracy throughout Kansas.