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.
Melissa Chi is Head of Product at E&S technology platform Pathpoint. In her role, she leads the product team in exploring opportunities to develop products and features that simplify processes and expand the breadth and depth of Pathpoint's E&S products. Chi's technology and startup background includes experience as Director of Product at Stord, Product Manager at SigFig, and Product Manager & Capital Markets at Earnest. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and a BS in Business and Political Science from the University of Florida.
Gene Grant II is founder and chief executive of LevelField Financial.
Suzanne McCall is a learning and development consultant with Pinnacle Group Business Resources.
“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.