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.
Lee joined the EBN team in 2022, and covers areas including caregiving, employee health and wellness, healthcare innovation, and company culture. She created EBN's popular Benefits in Action and Manager Diaries series, interviewing top leaders from Walmart, AT&T, Aflac, DoorDash, and EY. Her reporting on EBN's podcast, Perk Up!, earned the team a regional silver award from the AZBEE Award of Excellence in 2025. She has also interviewed several winners of EBN's Excellence in Benefits Awards, including top CEOs and CHROs from Hyatt and Hendry Marine Industries.
Her favorite parts of the job are connecting with people who are passionate about providing great benefits and a positive work environment, and writing about strategies and tools that help them do this. Previously, she taught high school and middle school, and worked as a freelance writer in healthcare and advertising. She has a BA in English from George Mason University.
Grace Ata, AVP of product development at Equisoft has 17+ years of experience in fintech and insurtech, Grace has led the development of several game-changing digital transformation initiatives within the automotive lending sector and Insurance and Wealth Management industries in North America. As AVP, Product Development, Grace brings a deep knowledge of the insurance distribution space and extensive network of industry subject matter experts to lead the strategy and development team working on our core Digital Insurance Agency Platform, Equisoft/centralize.
- Deep knowledge of insurance distribution and its challenges
- Focused on performance and results for on-time, on-budget digital transformation initiatives
- Completed 60+ projects that drive operational efficiencies for financial institutions and MGAs
- Subject matter expert on data utilization including CITS/ACORD data feeds
An active member of CLIEDIS, CAILBA, NAILBA, and FundServ, Grace's exceptional talent rests on her ability to analyze & leverage industry trends to build exceptional high-value products. Passionate about operational excellence, she has successfully helped clients optimize their use of technology to accelerate efficiency, growth and digital transformation. A Bachelor of Science graduate of the University of Waterloo, Grace applies a thorough approach to product development.
This report details municipal stakeholders' views of the current and future environment, outlining the challenges and opportunities to get major infrastructure projects completed in the United States.
“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.