Hi
Why can’t Congress prevent Trump from adding his name to the memo line of the stimulus checks? I have’t read anything to state why Trump can’t be prevented from doing so?
I look forward to your feedback.
My pure guess is it would delay the checks even more.
The president is the head of the executive branch. It is up to them to implement the laws congress passed and the executive signed (or congress passed in the face of a veto).
The executive has great leeway in how it does its job. Congress tells them to send everyone a check. They do not specify what the checks must look like. They could, but they don’t.
Usually the department in charge of doing something like sending out checks picks the design and the president is never bothered with it. That is waaaay down from what the president needs to be tasked with.
That said, the president, as head of the executive, is the absolute final word on such things and if they want to be involved well…there is no one to say otherwise.
I suppose congress could try to pass a new law specifying the look but, as Siam Sam noted, this would take a LOT longer than just putting his name on the checks (assuming they could even get it through which with this congress and president would be nearly impossible).
If they objected, he’d kick up a fuss and delay the checks further.
As a broader view: congress mostly has power as a collective, by passing laws. To stop the president from doing something that is legal, they’d have to past a law. And passing a law takes a while, and is hard to do if the President opposes said law (due to his veto power).
Well, I imagine that Congress could if they wanted to bother. But it is a matter of picking your battles. The Dems were fighting to get important job protections into the law. Why spend their energy fighting over a bit of propaganda when people’s future is on the line? It is a tacky move. It will impress his supporters and annoy everyone else. A typical Trump move. All he cares about is hyping his base. The rest of the world isn’t worth worrying about.
No one even considered this when the CARE Act was passed. Why would they? I doubt Trump thought of it then either. He got a notion last night and here we are.
Moderator Note
Let’s keep the political commentary out of GQ and stick to the legal issues involved.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Also Congress is in recess until May 4 so they would have to return to Washington to pass a law against something which, at the end of the day, doesn’t mean anything and as others have said, would delay the checks.
Also, even if the Democrat-controlled House passed such a law, there is no way that the GOP-controlled Senate would do so.