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.
Jim Besaw is principal and chief investment officer for GenTrust, responsible for oversight, selection and management of all investment-related activity across the firm's strategies and portfolios, as well as the development of all new investment strategies at GenTrust. He co-founded GenTrust in 2011.
James Gelfand is president of the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), a nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based organization that represents the largest employers in the U.S.
Jason Rauhe, CPA, leads McGuire Sponsel's global business services practice and is responsible for guiding clients and adding depth in all areas of the firm's international tax consulting services. Rauhe's extensive client and industry expertise has led him to be a sought-after published technical contributor and speaker across international tax topics around the country. Rauhe previously served as director of international tax at a Top 100 CPA Firm, where he was responsible for the firm's international tax division and served as the firm's international tax lead for major industry alliance networks. He also worked previously as vice president of global taxes at a large automotive supplier, where he managed the global tax function for the company's $7 billion business.
“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.