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.
Jason Kaminsky is the CEO and co-founder of kWh Analytics. Just prior to joining kWh Analytics, Jason spent more than three years as a vice president of environmental finance at Wells Fargo Bank. As a senior member of the Wells Fargo deal team, Kaminsky originated, underwrote, and financed tax-equity investments during a time when the bank added nearly $1bn of solar assets. Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 2011, he worked at SPG Solar, where he supported the CEO on strategic corporate initiatives.
Kaminsky received both his B.S. in Mathematics and his B.S. in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Environmental Sciences from UCLA. He holds an M.S. degree in Environment and Resources from Stanford University, and also completed his M.B.A. at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is from Thousand Oaks, California.
Peter Eberle is the president and chief investment officer of Castle Funds
“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.