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.
Brian O'Connell is an analyst at insuranceQuotes.com, which publishes in-depth studies, data and analysis related to auto, home, health, life and business insurance. In his role as analyst, Brian studies the insurance industry in order to provide trusted tips, advice and insights. A former Wall Street trader, he is the author of the books "CNBC's Creating Wealth" and "The Career Survival Guide." His commentary appears regularly on major media platforms like Fox Business, U.S. News, The Motley Fool, TheStreet.com and many others.
Brandi Hodor is a senior analytic advisor with Merative. She brings over two and a half decades of healthcare strategic planning and a demonstrated history of leveraging a consultative approach to identify solutions and devise highly customized strategies to transform the healthcare industry. She is an industry expert in integrating psychographic segmentation and socio-demographic data. She oversees a cross-functional team that can deliver analytics with a commitment to innovative solutions in traditional and value-based care arrangements.
Charles N. Cranmer, a former investment manager, writes the Substack, The Open Society and Its Banks.
“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.