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.
Cole Dellinger is a tax manager in HCVT's Park City, Utah office.
Lucas White is president of The Fountain Trust Company in Covington, Ind., and chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Debbie Brackeen is the chief strategy & innovation officer at CSAA Group. She leads the organization in strategy, partnerships, innovation and venture investing. She has more than 25 years of experience and leadership at innovative high-tech companies, including Apple, Sun, HP, and eBay, and, most recently, served as the global head of innovation at Citigroup. She has served as an adviser to the Astia Technology Committee since 2008, and was an adviser on the corporate board of the National Venture Capital Association. Ms. Brackeen earned a degree in American Studies from Stanford University and has completed executive programs at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, INSEAD and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“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.