Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday closed off chances that the Senate would pass anytime soon a House bill that would give most Americans $2,000 stimulus payments.
The Kentucky Republican said the House legislation, approved in a bipartisan vote Monday, “has no realistic path” to quick passage in the Senate and that it falls short of the demands of President Donald Trump. He again blocked an attempt by Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to adopt the House bill to increase the payments to $2,000 from the $600 by unanimous consent.
Cagatay Zor is a fintech strategist and the head of the fintech and blockchain business line at Trumore.
Ciao-Wei Chen is an associate professor of accountancy at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Max Perkins is head of insurance solutions and COO for Spektrum Labs, an AI-first cyber resilience company that provides agents and tools to reduce the time, cost, and complexity of maintaining provable and effective security and insurability. Spektrum unifies the disconnected domains of cybersecurity, backup, and insurance into one continuous, automated system. By fusing these traditionally disconnected areas, Spektrum enables businesses to prove and maintain continuous resilience—from preventing cyber threats, to instant recovery, to securing financial coverage—all in one place. Spektrum unlocks resilience, automating and verifying the connection between security and insurance, so businesses can recover faster and protect their future.
Prior to joining Spektrum, Max's professional career had been focused on insurance and risk management with particular expertise in intangible boardroom risks such as cyber, privacy, and intellectual property, and the overall impact of technology on business. Max was head of Strategy & Innovation for AXIS Capital's Cyber & Technology underwriting division, where his responsibilities included risk capital management and leadership in launching the world's first securitized 144a Cyber Cat Bond. Prior to joining AXIS in April 2020, he was an insurance broker at Lockton Companies and an underwriter at AIG, CHUBB and Beazley – operating both in the US and London markets.
The Senate instead will work on combining the stimulus payments with measures on election integrity and rolling back social media liability protections, he said. That responds to all three issues Trump has said he wants, but a bill combining them likely will alienate enough senators in both parties to leave prospects for bigger stimulus payments dead in the Senate.
“The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of the Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help,” McConnell said. The House bill would raise the income cutoff to receive a payment.
The clash over the payments also is entangling another piece of year-end business in the Senate — a vote to override Trump’s veto of a crucial $740.5 billion defense policy bill. Senators Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey said they will continue to delay the defense legislation vote unless McConnell relents and allows a vote on a standalone bill on the bigger stimulus checks.
“We are saying to Mitch McConnell, to allow the United States Senate to do what it’s supposed to do, and that is the vote,” Sanders told reporters. “The House passed the bill, it’s over here right now. Do you want to vote against it? Then vote against it.”
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey later blocked an attempt by Sanders to call up the House bill for a roll call vote.