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.
Wendi Safstrom is the executive director of the SHRM Foundation.
David J. Evans is the chief content officer at Arizent. He lives in Westchester County, New York.
Swapnil Shinde is the co-founder and CEO of Zeni, the first AI-powered finance concierge for startups. Zeni’s intelligent bookkeeping, accounting and CFO services were designed to meet the needs of companies ready for rapid growth. Prior to Zeni, he co-founded Mezi, the AI-powered travel concierge and booking platform, acquired by American Express in 2018. He also co-founded Indian music streaming service Dhingana, acquired by Rdio in 2014, and Twin Ventures, an angel fund started with his twin brother Snehal Shinde. He has nearly two decades of experience as a technologist and product entrepreneur, and has worked at companies including Yahoo!, Symantec and IBM Software Labs.
“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.