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.
Luke Nicholson is an assistant professor of accounting at the Plaster College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Lindenwood University in Saint Charles, Missouri. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting, an MBA, and a BS in accounting with a minor in Business. Dr. Nicholson has 10 years of experience in accounting. Prior to his academic career, he worked in public accounting conducting audits and completing tax returns for companies across various industries. He served as an assistant CFO in his previous accounting job.
Stephanie Mier is the Chief Insurance Officer at ServiceUp, an all-in-one tech platform transforming how fleets and insurers manage vehicle repairs. She has spent the past two decades in the Insurance Industry, building auto claim departments, specializing in accident management, writing policy, and launching products to focusing on decreased overall risk, customer retention and acquisition. Prior to ServiceUp, she spent the last 8+ years in the fintech mobility space, building Insurance for Turo, Fair Financial, Kyte on demand rental, and was a founding member to PAKT Embedded Insurance Brokerage.
“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.