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.
IIya Pupko is chief architect at Jitterbit.
As head of technology in North America, Jonny is responsible for championing and progressing ThoughtWorks’ brand as an outstanding technology organization for its clients, employees and the industry at large. Jonny is tasked with expanding the surface area of new technology offerings and capabilities that ThoughtWorks can bring to the market, while maintaining and progressing the culture and craft that lies at the company’s core. He championed the introduction of Mobile and IoT capabilities into the business, and is currently shepherding the embedding of security thinking and practices into the software delivery culture. He is a vociferous participant in framing and progressing ThoughtWorks’ technology strategy, with particular focus on ensuring that the wider societal consequences of technological progress are factored in.
Logan Finucan is a Washington, D.C.-based senior policy analyst at Access Partnership, a global consulting firm that specializes in technology policy issues. He can be reached at logan.finucan@accesspartnership.com
“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.