House Republicans blocked Democrats’ attempt to meet President Donald Trump’s demand to pay most Americans $2,000 to help weather the coronavirus pandemic.
Republicans objected to the bill House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer sought to pass by unanimous consent Thursday to replace the $600 payments in the latest pandemic relief legislation with the $2,000 payments.
Robin Hughes is the president and CEO of Housing Partnership Network.
Anthony Woodward is the co-founder and CEO of RecordPoint, an innovative, fast-growing Australian SaaS solution focused on helping organizations discover, govern, and control their data for tighter compliance, more efficiency, and less risk. With a background in both technology and the law, Anthony has also held positions at Unique World, Commander, and Freehills. He also co-hosts the FILED podcast and writes the FILED newsletter, focusing on the intersection of data privacy and governance. Anthony is regarded as one of the leading thinkers on the intersection of data and privacy.
Buddy Bockweg founded Vsimple after a 20-year-career in the construction industry. Vsimple is an AI-powered platform that helps businesses centralize their workflows.
“House and Senate Democrats have repeatedly fought for bigger checks for the American people, which House and Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected — first, during our negotiations when they said that they would not go above $600 and now, with this act of callousness on the Floor,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Thursday.
Democrats will try again with a roll call vote on a new bill Dec. 28, when the House also plans a vote to override Trump’s veto on the National Defense Authorization Act. Since current government spending runs out that day — and funds for the rest of the fiscal year are included in the virus relief bill Trump criticized and hasn’t signed -- the House could also pass another stopgap measure to avert a partial government shutdown.
Republicans on Thursday tried to seek unanimous consent on a measure to examine taxpayer money spent on foreign aid, but Democrats blocked that move. In his complaint Tuesday about Congress’s combined virus aid and government spending bill, Trump criticized federal resources spent on international programs, even though that spending was allocated as part of the bipartisan appropriations process.