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.
Tom Hood, CPA, CGMA, CITP, is the executive vice president of business engagement and growth at the AICPA-CIMA. He leads the Future of Finance initiative in the Americas Region, bringing together the top CFOs, CAOs, and controllers. He is one of LinkedIn's Top 100 Influencers and has been named the third-most influential person in accounting by Accounting Today. He was previously CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs.
Tamera Loerzel and Jennifer Wilson of ConvergenceCoaching dive into the major issues that the COVID-19 pandemic has raised for accounting and tax firms — staff, technology, operations and more.
Talks to break an impasse over a new virus relief package become increasingly urgent this week with millions of jobless Americans left without additional aid, and the Senate scheduled to leave for an extended break on Friday.
“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.