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

Chase Huey is Vice President, Innovation Pipeline for RGAX.  As a key member of the RGAX Global Accelerator team,  Chase is responsible for leading concept validation and  executing business concepts as they progress through the  pipeline. 

Chase has worked in a variety of industries, beginning his  career in the non-profit sector managing mobile clinics  throughout the state of Iowa focused on serving migrant  farm workers. He then moved to St. Louis after being  accepted into the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs,  during which time he led a number of initiatives for  corporate and political organizations. 

After completing the fellowship, Chase started a small  project management consulting practice before taking  a role as a director in clinical outreach and public health/ at-risk population research with the Saint Louis University sponsored clinic, Casa de Salud. 

Chase has a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from Carleton  College, and later received his MBA from Washington  University in St. Louis, studying Marketing and  Entrepreneurship. During his graduate studies, he  completed consulting practicums for start-ups in the U.S.  and Israel. After graduating, he worked in technology  business development and early-concept validation  consulting before joining RGAX as an Entrepreneur in  Residence and then becoming a full-time employee in 2016.

Brian Bartosh, CIC, LUTCF, is president of Top O' Michigan Solutions and a board member of SignOn Once by ID Federation. He can be reached at bbartosh@tomia247.com 

Alvito Vaz, with more than 30 years of experience in leading insurance digital transformation, is business manager of SignOn Once by ID Federation, the nonprofit coalition of insurance industry leaders committed to improving the security and efficiency of insurance transactions. He can be reached at alvito@idfederation.com.

“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.