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.
Shyamali Choudhury is Chief Commercial Officer at Pomelo Care, the national leader in evidence-based maternity care.
Shyamali was one of Pomelo's first employees, joining the company to lead its commercial strategy and execution after a career in policy, global health, and mission-driven health tech.
Before joining Pomelo, Shyamali spent nearly six years on the Business Development team at Flatiron Health, where she led new business initiatives and forged key partnerships to advance the company's work reimagining cancer care.
Martin Kleinbard is the founder of Granular Fintech LLC, which advises fintech lenders and vendors on processes and strategies. He previously helped stand up new consumer credit products and teams at American Express and Bread Finance (acquired by Alliance Data Systems in 2020) before leading the CFPB's market research in fintech topics such as BNPL and solar financing.
“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.