GOP blocks Democrats’ bid for $2K payments Trump demanded

House Republicans blocked Democrats’ attempt to meet President Donald Trump’s demand to pay most Americans $2,000 to help weather the coronavirus pandemic.

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.

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Les Richmond's role in Build America Mutual’s credit underwriting group is to evaluate the pension and other postemployment benefit plans and liabilities of the municipal entities BAM guarantees.Prior to joining BAM, he was with Hay Group, where he was a Senior Principal. His experience includes project leadership of a four-year engagement to conduct an actuarial audit of the five New York City Retirement Systems.Les currently serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the National League of Cities’ Public Sector Retirement Initiative. The goals of this new initiative are to develop research on trends, challenges and solutions to local government retirement and healthcare, and to engage and educate city leaders on strategies to achieve greater fiscal sustainability in these areas.He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled Actuary, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Rutgers College.

“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.

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A runner stands near the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Oliver Contreras/Bloomberg

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.