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.

CORONAVIRUS IMPACT: ADDITIONAL COVERAGE

Mark DiMichael, a partner in the valuation and forensic services department of Citrin Cooperman, specializes in litigation support and valuation services. His areas of expertise include divorce litigation, economic damages analysis, fraud investigation, cryptocurrency, white collar criminal defense, and business appraisals.

Daniel J. Healy is a partner in Anderson Kill's Washington, D.C. office. He started his career with Anderson Kill and then served over five years as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division. He appeared as lead trial counsel in federal and state courts across the country, received numerous Outstanding Attorney awards and served as the E-Discovery Coordinator for the Tax Division.

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Krishna Prasad is senior architect for X by 2, a technology consultancy focused on the practice of architecture in the insurance and healthcare industries. Prasad has over 25 years of delivering hands-on experience in areas such as IT strategy and roadmap development, execution planning, and agile delivery leadership for initiatives involving insurance IT modernization. Prasad holds a Bachelor of Science, computer science and eengineering from the Indian Institute of Science, India. He also received a Master of Science, computer science from the University of Cincinnati.

Krish Krishnakanthan is a senior partner at McKinsey.

“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.