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.
The Federal Housing Administration said in its annual actuarial report that the capital reserve ratio on its mutual mortgage insurance fund increased to 6.10% in fiscal year 2020, up from 4.84% a year earlier.
Jenn Kischell serves as vice president of Workforce Engagement, a unit within MetLife’s Financial Wellness and Engagement organization. With more than 25 years of experience, Kischell works with internal and external partners and customers to provide key enrollment communications and financial literacy. She is responsible for ensuring an understanding of the market, responding to customer demands, and supporting an infrastructure to drive successful sales and engagement with group customers and their employees.
Rob Levy is vice president of research and measurement at the Financial Health Network, where he leads the research and thought leadership practice.
“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.