GOP blocks Democrats’ bid for $2K payments Trump demanded

House Republicans blocked Democrats’ attempt to meet President Donald Trump’s demand to pay most Americans $2,000 to help weather the coronavirus pandemic.

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.

CORONAVIRUS IMPACT: ADDITIONAL COVERAGE

Julien Villemonteix is the CEO of UpSlide.

Robin L. Spaulding

Robin L. Spaulding, CPCU, AIC is a seasoned insurance executive with a deep domain background in property and casualty insurance. As Chief Insurance Officer for CLARA Analytics, she advises clients on operational best practices to fully leverage AI opportunities as they transform their claims operations. Over the course of her career, she has done what she describes as "almost every claims job from claim rep trainee to VP." Robin worked at multiple carriers and TPAs along with a managed care company before becoming Divisional Vice President of Claims at Great American Insurance Company. After devoting many years as a multiline claims professional, she then served as an insurance consultant. Most recently, Ms. Spaulding was the Global Head of Claims for Capgemini's insurance practice in the financial services division. She holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a major in marketing from Drake University.

David A. Cass is an adjunct professor at the
Harvard School of Continuing Education.

“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.

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A runner stands near the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Oliver Contreras/Bloomberg

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.