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.
Michael Hickman is CEO and CFO of Exactera, where he manages the company's financial planning and strategic direction. Before joining Exactera, Hickman was the CFO at the global performance-marketing marketplace Perform[cb], where he championed the company's financial strategy and helped increase organic profitability markedly. Hickman oversaw multiple acquisitions and was instrumental in selling Perform[cb] to Beringer Capital in April 2021. A CPA with more than 25 years of leadership experience at companies including Deloitte, MetLife, Roper Technologies, and Switch and Data, Hickman has navigated acquisitions, dispositions, debt financing, corporate consolidations, financial planning and analysis, valuations, SEC Reporting, technical accounting, and system implementation and project management. He holds a master's degree from the University of Florida.
Bill Armstrong, CPA, is chief innovation officer at Moss Adams, where he's responsible for the incubation, implementation, and overall strategy of new ideas, processes, and services within the firm. He oversees the firm's innovation, transformation, and change management functions, and spearheads major firmwide initiatives across practices and departments. He has practiced in public accounting since 1994. Reach him at bill.armstrong@mossadams.com or (949) 221-4077.
Evan Zall is president and founder of Longview Strategies, a strategic communications firm focused on the intersection of finance and sustainability.
He and his team have worked with wealth management firms for decades to help them differentiate and communicate about sustainable investing, ESG and their overall practice strengths. Evan is also a board member and the Impact Chair of Entrepreneur's Organization (EO) Boston Chapter.
“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.