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.
Rachel Schwab is director of product at FP Alpha. Previously, she served as product manager, advice technology at Vanguard.
Dan Astrachan is CEO of Bridgepoint Alliance, an accounting and advisory platform built to help entrepreneurial firms grow while preserving their team, culture, client relationships, and local identity. Bridgepoint launched in partnership with CRR Advisors, a Massachusetts-based accounting and advisory firm that has served business owners, executives, and individuals for over 30 years.
Georgina Bulkeley serves as a Managing Director of Global Financial Services and an Industry Leader at Google Cloud. In her role, Georgina works with Banking, Insurance and Capital Markets clients around the world and regularly acts as a spokesperson for Google Cloud.
Georgina brings more than 24 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry. She most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer at NatWest Retail Bank, having previously been the Director of Risk and Compliance and the Head of Financial Strategy. While at NatWest she delivered a number of award-winning Banking innovations in the areas of Voice Banking and Biometric Debit and Credit cards. Prior to NatWest, Georgina was the Director of Structured Finance at Standard Life Investments and she started her career at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking and Capital Markets Divisions. She has also served as a Board Member at both FreeAgent, the award-winning Cloud based SME accounting platform and the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
Georgina holds an LLB in Law from Durham University and Diplomas from Oxford University, London Business School and Singularity University in Silicon Valley. She is also a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Finance Forum, an Associate at the Edinburgh Futures Institute and a mentor on the FTSE100 Mentoring Foundation Executive Programme.
“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.