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.
Michael Schor is a partner in Deloitte & Touche LLP's audit and assurance practice, where he focuses on advising our domestic and international clients on matters of internal controls, including information technology, regulatory matters, risk management issues, and control and compliance management processes. He leads Deloitte's internal audit practice, with more than 20 years of experience advising Deloitte's largest clients on the various elements of the internal audit lifecycle, including risk assessments, audit planning and execution, and reporting to audit committees and key executive stakeholders.
Ryan Hittner is an audit and assurance principal at Deloitte with more than 15 years of management consulting experience, specializing in strategic advisory to global financial institutions focusing on banking and capital markets. He co-leads Deloitte's artificial intelligence and algorithmic practice which is dedicated to advising clients in developing and deploying responsible AI including risk frameworks, governance, and controls related to artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms. He also serves as deputy leader of Deloitte's valuation and analytics practice where he leads Deloitte's Omnia DNAV Derivatives technologies, which incorporate automation, machine learning, and large datasets.
Simon Williams is vice president of the accountant segment at Intuit.
“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.


