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.
Sommer Sherrod is the vice president of Healthcare Strategy and People Strategy Consulting at Insurance Office of America.
Assaf Henkin is the Co-founder, President, and COO of life insurtech Sproutt. A recognized expert on predictive analytics and data insights, Assaf has more than 20 years of experience building scalable cross-channel, cross-device, and cross-format data-driven products. Prior to his current role, Assaf served as chief insights officer at Amobee, a Singtel wholly-owned subsidiary. Prior to that Assaf co-founded Kontera, a Big Data consumer data and analytics platform that was acquired by Singtel. Assaf holds a BS in Computer Information Systems from San Francisco State University and an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
Karl A. Wagner III is a Partner and Senior Wealth Advisor with Biondo Investment Advisors, LLC with locations in Milford, Pennsylvania, and Sparta, New Jersey.
“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.