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.
Vijay Pahuja is the business head for Sutherland's Insurance business. Vijay leads a team committed to continued growth, value creation and service transformation for insurance clients across all insurance segments globally. Vijay’s Insurance career spans over twenty-two years, with a proven track record of building business units, accelerating performance and maximizing value for Insurers globally. An Operations and Strategy professional by trade, Vijay brings depth across all segments of retail, commercial and group insurance, in transforming target operating models, product / service portfolio planning, and full-stack digital technology and analytics enablement. He has advised insurers worldwide on their strategy to build competitive advantage in their transformational efforts to introduce new products & services, promote innovation, change business models and expand globally.
Michael E. Toth is a market leader in EY's Workforce Advisory Services Practice, focusing on companies in the financial services industry. Prior to joining EY’s Workforce Advisory Practice, he was a senior member of EY’s Tax Credits and Incentives Practice for financial services clients, where he provided advice on a variety of local and state incentive programs.
“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.