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.
Beth A. Berk, CPA, CGMA, is an independent recruiter and an actively licensed CPA in Maryland and Virginia and a CGMA with over 25 years of hands-on experience including public accounting (E&Y), consulting (KPMG and DelCor Technology Solutions), accounting (American Cancer Society), internal audit (MoneyLine Telerate), business development and fundraising (professional service firms and community foundation in Virginia), and recruiting within the metropolitan D.C. business community and beyond. She is based in Bethesda, Maryland and can be reached at BethABerk@msn.com or at (301) 767-0670.
An innovative marketing, branding and product professional, Charlotta brings deep knowledge of the specialty supplemental group health insurance market to her executive role at ArmadaCare. She has 30 years of global, strategic-level business leadership experience that spans a multitude of industries. Charlotta has a strong track record of helping companies grow through visionary products and effective marketing and distribution strategies.
Despite widespread financial stress, employers have kept wages stagnant or cut employees’ pay during COVID-19.
“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.