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
Kyle Jeziorski

Kyle Jeziorski is managing director at Founder Shield. Kyle is the market-facing and client leader at Founder Shield. Before Founder Shield, Kyle worked at Marsh on the FINPRO team, focusing on management liability in the large private and public space. A graduate of Saint Joseph's University's Risk Management and Insurance Program, Kyle has focused his entire career helping clients navigate through an ever-changing risk environment.

Jeremy Yohe - American Land Title Association.jpg

Jeremy Yohe is vice president of communications for the American Land Title Association. He can be reached at jyohe@alta.org.

Bola Akinsanya

Bola Akinsanya is the founder of Unlevered, a residential cost segregation and asset-depreciation platform for CPAs and real estate investors. She was previously Global Director of revenue and vetting systems at Airbnb.

“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.

capitol-runner.jpg
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.