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.
Gregory D. Squires is a research professor and professor emeritus in the sociology department at George Washington University. He is also a member of the Philadelphia Home Appraisal Bias Task Force.
Brian Swanson is a partner at Flashpoint Marketing, a marketing consulting firm that focuses on providing traditional and digital lead generation services exclusively to the accounting profession. In 2008 he joined Flashpoint to lead the development of the firm's digital services practice. Prior to joining Flashpoint, Swanson worked for a Big Four firm assisting with audit practice marketing and development. He has also worked as the director of marketing & business development for a regional accounting firm in the Southeast United States. In 2009 he earned his Master in Business Administration in Finance from Benedictine University. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education from Northeastern Illinois University. He was the first accounting marketing professional to earn certification from the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization in internet marketing and advanced search engine optimization. He is currently a member of the Association of Accounting Marketing and SEMPO.
Jennifer Briggs, CAE, is president and CEO of the Indiana CPA Society. She joined the society staff in 2002 and served as the special projects manager, marketing manager, marketing director, director of member services, vice president of member services, senior vice president and chief operating officer. Before joining the society, Briggs spent three years at KWK Management Group as executive director of five state-wide associations overseeing all activities of the organizations, including education programs, marketing, membership recruitment, and various government relations activities. Prior to that, she worked for the Indiana Apartment Association and for five years at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. Briggs earned a degree in marketing from Marian College and an MBA from Butler University, and is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and the Indiana Society of Association Executives. In 2009, she was awarded the Association Professional of the Year award from ISAE. She has served on the American Society of Association Executives CAE Exam Committee, the AICPA’s Future of Learning Committee and various community boards of directors.
“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.