Trump says he might sign order to boost unemployment checks. Can he?

WASHINGTON — Can President Trump quickly issue an executive order and start hundreds of dollars in unemployment payments flowing to millions of Americans again? Maybe, but he’d face significant hurdles.

Like the Constitution.

Congress, not the president, has the power “to lay and collect taxes” in order “to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and General Welfare of the United States,” says Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution.

Trump Friday said he was not concerned about the legality of such orders. “You always get sued,” he told a news conference. “I was sued on a lot of things, and we won.”

Millions of jobless citizens abruptly saw their weekly unemployment checks drop by $600 in the last two weeks. The special payment was created in March as part of an economic relief plan called the CARES Act that was aimed at easing the impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

The payments ended in late July. When the act was approved in March, Trump and many in Congress thought that the economic slide would ease. Except it has not, and Republicans and Democrats are eager to restore at least some of the $600 benefit.

With negotiations over benefits, as well as a broader economic package, stalled, Trump at a Friday night news conference said he could sign orders “by the end of the week. They’re being drawn by lawyers right now.”

“My administration continues to work in good faith to reach an agreement with Democrats in Congress that will extend unemployment benefits,” provide protection against evictions and other aid, the president said

“If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need,” he said, without specifically mentioning executive orders.

He said he would “enhance unemployment benefits through the end of the year.” He did not mention an amount jobless workers could receive.

An executive order on unemployment benefits will raise thorny questions.

“Congress has to appropriate the money,” said Ian Shapiro, co-author of “The Wolf at the Door: The Menace of Economic Insecurity and How to Fight It.”

Rachel Greszler, research fellow in economics at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and her think tank colleagues also said that Trump’s authority depends on what emergency powers Congress has authorized, as well as what money could be available for such an emergency.

As a result, “It’s important to wait and see what the executive order says to see what authority it cites before making assessments about their legality,” Greszler said. “So I would say it’s too soon to tell, but we know the power of the purse is generally reserved to Congress.”

It would be a highly unusual step.

“In every recession since the late 1960s, the U.S. Congress has voted on federally funded benefit expansions — so the possibility of executive action here is new to me,” said Till van Wachter, faculty director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA.

Even if the maneuver is legal, increasing benefits by skirting Congress could have other implications.

“Just because from a legal perspective it may be permissible, doesn’t mean he should. Our policymaking is already too dysfunctional and this end run around Congress will only make that worse,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told The Bee.

White House and congressional negotiators have been talking for days and met again Friday. But the sides remain at an impasse, so Trump is seriously considering reviving the benefit himself.

“People should not believe the president is bluffing on using his executive authority. He is not bluffing,” said National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co. Friday.

“And since we can’t seem to get a deal done with the other team right now, he will take his executive authority to the fullest,” Kudlow said.

Trump is eyeing taking unspent CARES Act funds and reprogramming them for other uses. Much of that money is aimed at helping ailing state and local governments.

Treasury issued a report recently showing that as of June 30, a huge chunk of the $150 billion allocated to state and local government remained unused.