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.
Matthew Gagnon is a partner in a Seyfarth Shaw's labor and employment department.
Christopher DeGroff is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw’s labor and employment department.
Bob Lewis is president of The Visionary Group. He has relationships with key leaders in accounting firms nationwide and is a frequent speaker on M&A, private equity, and organic growth, and helps firms assess their ability to remain independent, build enterprise value, and creates and facilitates dozens of material transactions annually. His 30-plus years of support in the accounting profession has provided Lewis with the opportunity to learn from great firm leaders. Beyond his deep experience in M&A and private equity he helps firms with pricing, client upscaling, and overall growth tactics. He is a frequent member of Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People, and co-chairs the Accounting Today Private Equity Summit. He has an accounting background, and his formal education includes a Bachelor of Science in Finance and an MBA, both from DePaul University in Chicago.
“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.