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.
As CTO of MDGO, Gilad Avrashi spearheads MDGO’s technology vision and direction. Prior to founding MDGO, Avrashi served for six years at Rafael Defense Systems at the National Acoustic Lab, where he headed a team of engineers and researchers and conducted full-scale trials at sea. During his time at Rafael, he also headed the Algorithmics team of several top projects, received 3 Certificates of Merit and was awarded the Ministry of Defense’s prestigious Katzir Grant. Avrashi served as an officer in one of IDF's elite intelligence units. Gilad holds a MSc in Electrical Engineering, Signal Processing and Communication from the Technion – Israeli Institute of Technology.
There are signs of a slowdown in the economy as businesses continue to struggle with rising COVID-19 infections across the country.
John Mathews is head of Ultra High Net Worth and Private Wealth Management Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“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.


