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.
Usama Fayyad is Executive Director of the Institute for Experiential AI/ Northeastern University, Boston, MA.
Previously he was the Chairman & Founder: Open Insights, LLC, San Francisco, CA, USA (established in Seattle, WA, 11/2008). Chief Data Officer: Group MD, Barclays, London(2013-2016). Chairman Oasis500: appointed Exec Chairman by King Abdullah II of Jordan (2010-2016). Chairman & CTO: Blue Kangaroo (2010-2013), Burlingame, CA. 2004-08: Yahoo! Chief Data Officer/EVP – 1st CDO in industry. Co-Founder/CEO: Open Insights ('08), DMX Group (acquired by Yahoo! '04), Audience Science/digiMine ('00). 1996-00: led Microsoft Research Group & data mining SQLServer products. 1989-96: NASA's JPL earning Caltech's top research excellence award & U.S. Government medal-NASA. 1991: Ph.D. U of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2 BSE's: EE & CSE; MSE: CSE & M.Sc. Math)
Ruth is a Principal in Engagement practice at Buck, an integrated HR, pensions, and employee benefits consulting firm. She has conducted extensive employee surveys and focus group research to assess employee needs, define business strategy, and guide program design.
Melissa Venable, PhD, is a principal writer and education advisor at BestColleges.
“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.