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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Al Anderson, CPA, has been a global leader in accounting and assurance advancement for more than 30 years. Over the course of his career, he has been named to Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People a number of times, most recently in 2017, 2018 and 2019. As president and founder of Account-ability Plus, LLC, he has worked directly with auditors and firms for over 25 years to transform their operations for auditing in the future, achieve efficiency and effectiveness, and surpass client expectations. He is also a nationally recognized consultant, educator and speaker, and guides his clients and their staff through uniquely designed programs and assessments with a future-focused, reality-based approach. Having led innovation for the profession as a firm partner, director, and AICPA executive, Anderson continues to advance insight and dedicate himself to driving accounting firm excellence. He recently led the AICPA/ Rutgers Data Analytics initiative and served as advisor to the AICPA and their Audit of the Future initiatives.
Patrick Donovan is a senior vice president at Bright Horizons, the nation’s largest provider of education benefits.
“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.