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
Headshot of Jag Lamba, founder and CEO of Certa.

Jag Lamba is the founder and CEO of Certa, a third-party lifecycle management platform for procurement, compliance, and ESG. Certa is backed by Techstars and top global VCs. A Wharton and McKinsey alum, Lamba lives in Saratoga, Calif.

Parijat Banerjee

Parijat Banerjee, Global Head of Financial Services at LatentView Analytics, is a seasoned business leader with experience in analytics & digital sciences. He has worked across industries including banking and financial services, consumer products, retail, supply chain, life sciences and energy, leading service delivery, corporate strategy, business development & consulting with fortune organizations driving transformation and revenue growth.

James J. Hilton boasts over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, having held leadership roles at prominent institutions like Promontory Financial Group, Prebon Group, Chicago Board Brokerage and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is currently a partner at Ludwig Advisors and serves as chairman of Uphold, Ltd.

“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.