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.
Alia Mahmud is a regulatory affairs practice lead at ComplyAdvantage, a leader in financial crime intelligence.
Kevin Pierce is VikingCloud's chief product officer and has been with VikingCloud since 2016. Kevin leads the company's global product development, service delivery, consulting, and managed security testing teams as they leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver next-generation cybersecurity. During his nearly 30 years in the technology space, Keven designed and built highly scalable cloud systems for secure data exchange, supply chain optimization, and cybersecurity in multiple industries. He also co-founded two technology companies that each grew to hundred-million-dollar valuations prior to exit.
Jim Wesloh is the president and founder of Procas, a provider of financial solutions for government contractors.
“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.