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.
In his role as chief strategy officer, Chris Huff develops and drives the company’s strategic initiatives to become the premier provider of cognitive automation, ensuring better alignment and execution across all functional areas. A thought-leader and recognized expert in the field, Chris was most recently with Deloitte Consulting’s U.S. Public Sector Robotics and Cognitive Automation practice which he led during RPA’s emergence. He previously spent two decades in senior financial management roles at several federal government agencies. Chris earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Columbia College and holds a Master’s in business administration from Webster University.
Chris Bays is strategic product manager for PerfectServe to develop the company’s healthcare IT solutions in response to rapidly growing market needs in secure messaging and clinical communication.
Donna Peeples is president and global head of insurance for Pypestream. She has also worked at AIG as chief customer experience officer.
“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.