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.
Leif O’Leary is the CEO of Alegeus.
Brian Wallheimer is editor-in-chief of Financial Planning, where he leads a team of journalists covering the wealth management industry. His coverage areas focus on practice management, client service and industry trends, providing actionable intelligence that helps financial advisors grow their practices and better serve clients.
Under his leadership, Financial Planning has been recognized with multiple industry accolades for excellence in journalism, including Jesse H. Neal, ASBPE, SABEW Best in Business and Folio's Eddie awards. The team's award-winning coverage has included reporting on industry conflicts of interest, diversity initiatives, government policy, evolving advisor models and an in-depth series on how to start an RIA.
Brian served as managing editor before being appointed editor-in-chief in 2022. He previously covered the Illinois General Assembly and governor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch while earning his master's degree, and his career has included reporting and editing roles in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Indiana, where he covered government, higher education and some of the largest casinos in the world. He also worked as a science writer at Purdue University's College of Agriculture, developing stories about research and placing expert sources in coverage by The New York Times, NPR, the Chicago Tribune and other national, regional and local outlets.
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Tobias has been recognized for his investigations and original reporting on the conflicts of interest that affect wealth management firms, as well as systemic racism in finance, winning more than a dozen honors, including the Jesse H. Neal, Azbees, SABEW Best in Business and Folio Eddie awards.
His award-winning coverage includes:
- Building Black Wealth in St. Louis
- The wealth management industry's $1T conflict of interest
- A black eye for FINRA? Brokers with checkered histories cast doubt on enforcement efforts
- Access denied: Systemic racism in financial services
- From sealed transcripts, the inside saga of LPL Financial's largest termination ever
Before Financial Planning, Tobias reported for the New York Daily News, Commercial Observer and City Limits. He holds a master's degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York (2013) and is an alumnus of the Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, an international program focused on how the lessons of history inform professional ethics today in journalism and many other fields.
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“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.