Perdue lobbied Trump to sign coronavirus relief bill: report

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) urged President Trump in a Christmas Day phone call to sign a sweeping coronavirus relief package into law, Bloomberg reported on Monday, with the senator fearing that a rejection of the measure from the White House could jeopardize Republicans’ chances in two January Senate runoffs in Georgia.

In addition to his discussion with the president, Perdue also called senior White House officials, including Ivanka Trump, Bloomberg reported. 

The president eventually signed the $2.3 trillion pandemic relief and government funding package on Sunday after calling it a “disgrace” days earlier. At the time, he argued that the relief package should include $2,000 direct payments to U.S. adults rather than the $600 included in the legislation. 

Still, his initial delay in signing the bill held up funds for days, bringing the government to the brink of a shutdown and allowing unemployment benefits for millions of Americans to expire on Saturday.

Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) are both facing competitive runoff elections against well-funded Democrats on Jan. 5. Together, those two runoffs will determine the balance of power in the Senate when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20. 

Both Perdue and Loeffler voted for the massive spending package. But their opponents — Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively — criticized the two GOP senators as the president sat on the relief and government funding bill. 

A spokesperson for Perdue did not immediately respond to an email from The Hill seeking comment.

The House is expected to vote Monday evening to increase the size of the stimulus checks to Americans from $600 to $2,000. The vote will put pressure on congressional Republicans to either side with the president and support the measure or reject it and risk being seen as breaking with the president.

Perdue has not yet said whether he will support raising the stimulus payments to $2,000. Loeffler told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that she would support increasing the payments “if it repurposes wasteful spending.”