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.
Jeff Phillips is co-founder and CEO of Accountingfly, the accountant hiring platform that matches firms with local and remote accounting talent. Phillips was previously with Monster.com, where he delivered recruitment solutions for Fortune 500 companies such as Verizon, H&R Block and Shell. He was named among the Top 100 Most Influential People by Accounting Today for four years. Phillips has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Baylor University and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University. Phillips lives with his family in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida.
Visa is delaying previously announced interchange and fee changes until April 2021, except for changes in the supermarket category, which will remain on the same schedule.
COVID-19 wiped out most of the jobs gained since the 2008-09 recession despite extensive tax cuts and stimulus payments from the IRS.
“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.