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.
Tiffiny John is director of corporate strategy at LSCI.
Sonu Batra is a consultant with Point B, an integrated management consulting, venture investment, and real estate development firm. Batra is an experienced Global Delivery Executive responsible for end-end account management, program management and delivery of innovative IT solutions that drive customer value, increase efficiency, and optimize investment for business and IT groups across various clients.
Kai Andrews is a consultant with Point B, an integrated management consulting, venture investment, and real estate development firm. Andrews’ expertise lies in leading companies through the design and execution of their workplace transformations to enable their Future of Work, with deep expertise in how to create and sustain collaborative working environments.
“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.