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.
Rebekah Olson, CPA, is CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs.
Gregg O'Connor is a vice president at Stout. He has experience providing domestic and cross-border tax due diligence and tax structuring services to both private equity and strategic clients. He has extensive experience across a broad range of industries, including technology, media & telecommunications, healthcare, business & professional services, industrial, and consumer products. He advises private equity firms as well as public and private companies throughout the M&A transaction lifecycle. Prior to joining Stout, he was a manager in PriceWaterhouseCoopers' M&A Tax group. He also worked at KPMG in the M&A Tax group and Grant Thornton on the International Tax team.
Laura Cave is the Chief Brand Officer at Paytient, a healthcare technology company building flexible payment solutions to help people access and pay for care. Laura has played a pivotal role in shaping the narratives of innovative healthcare companies, including Oscar Health, K Health, and Ansel Health. At Paytient, she champions financial solutions that empower employees and health plan members to manage medical expenses without financial strain.
“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.