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.
Ron Kral, CPA, CMA, CGMA, is a partner of Kral Ussery LLC, a public accounting firm delivering SEC and accounting advisory services, litigation support, and internal audits. He is a member of four of the five COSO sponsoring organizations; the American Institute of CPAs, FEI, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the Institute of Management Accountants. Reach him at RKral@KralUssery.com.
Stewart A. Grubman is the partner-in-charge of the Bethesda, Maryland, office of Top 100 Firm PKF O’Connor Davies and has over 35 years of experience in public accounting. His main focus is on auditing and tax services for affordable and special needs housing. He is a specialist in insured and subsidized multifamily housing with expertise in the areas of Syndicated Lower Tier and Upper Tier Partnerships, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits , HUD, RD, and state-financed housing programs. In addition, he is nationally recognized as a lecturer on HUD and LIHTC audit-related topics.
Ryan Kimbro is a director at Riveron.
“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.