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.
Joe joined KBS in 1998 and has over 20 years of consulting and business leadership experience on his resume. Among his many responsibilities, Joe provides oversight and expert guidance for more than 30 clients and also manages a team of 30 benefit experts. Since 2006, Joe has been a Senior Vice President and Senior Consultant for KBS. In this role, more than $450 million in premium is under his management.
Naish Berran is senior sales executive director, INSTANDA for North America. He has spent more than a decade in the insurance technology and software industry and is responsible for business development initiatives at INSTANDA. Naish, his wife and two young daughters live in the Greater Philadelphia area, where he is a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan. Naish earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Bloomsburg University. He can be reached at Naish.Berran@Instanda.com.
“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.