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.
Aruna Kalyanam is a principal in the sustainability tax practice at Ernst & Young. As Americas sustainability and ESG tax leader, she leads teams and works with colleagues around the globe to help clients identify and evaluate sustainability funding opportunities and ESG reporting requirements.
Kristen A. Gray is EY Americas sustainability tax leader. She has nearly 20 years of experience helping multinational companies address complex tax issues, including transactions and strategic planning, controversy and global compliance and reporting matters. She provides strategic counsel to clients around the intersection of tax and environmental, social and governance matters. Prior to her current role, she served as a partner in the national tax accounting and risk advisory services practice, focusing on life sciences, technology and media clients.
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“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.