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

Dan Rubin is the founder and CEO of YELO Funding, a fintech company that offers income-contingent financing to U.S. college students of all backgrounds. Mr. Rubin has 25 years of principal investing, investment banking, restructuring and operational experience, including roles as co-founding partner of YAD Capital, a private credit investment firm, private equity real estate investor at Halpern Real Estate Ventures and JEN Partners, investment banker at Lehman Brothers and turnaround consultant at Deloitte. He holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Headshot of Dan Schuleman.

Dan Schuleman is the co-founder and CEO of Qumis, a lawyer-built, AI-powered insurtech transforming how insurance professionals read and interpret policies. Before founding Qumis, Dan was Associate General Counsel at Kin Insurance, where he helped scale the company and navigate complex regulatory environments. He previously practiced insurance coverage law at Am Law 200 firms, advising insurers and policyholders on high-stakes commercial claims. Dan holds a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law and a B.A. with honors from Northwestern University.

“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.