“It really is a disgrace.”

President Trump is blasting Congress for its amendments to the Covid-19 relief package. In a speech Tuesday evening, the President called out international spending commitments that the bill was instituting, along with perceived “pet projects” of lawmakers and international aid including,

• “85.5 million for assistance to Cambodia,
• $134 million to Burma,
• $1.3 billion for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment;
• $25 million for democracy and gender programs in Pakistan,
• $505 million to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama,
• $40 million for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., which is not even open for business,
• $1 billion for the Smithsonian and, an additional
• $154 million for the National Gallery of Art.”

These items were tucked in alongside the Covid bill as part of a spending bill. At this juncture, Congress cannot amend the bill now that it has been passed and would need to consider new legislation should the President choose to veto.