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.
Yaroslav Kuflinski is an IT consultant, and observer of artificial intelligence and machine learning best practices, at Iflexion.
Captain Andrew Kinsey spent 23 years in the U.S. Merchant Marine and U.S. Naval Reserve, sailing in all licensed ranks, including Master. His sailing experience was primarily with Maersk Lines, sailing as Master of three different Container ships.
He also served as Master aboard two Military Sealift Command (MSC), Large Medium Speed RORO (LMSR) ships, the USNS “Sisler” and USNS “Red Cloud.” He served in Operations Desert Shield & Desert Storm, Restore Hope, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and received numerous decorations and awards.
After coming ashore in 2006, Andrew worked as an independent Marine Surveyor in the Tri-state area and joined the ACE/US Commercial Marine - Marine Advisory Service, in 2009. At ACE he was responsible for providing a wide range of Risk Control services to support its commercial book of marine business, including Cargo, Project Cargo, Hull & Machinery, Terminal Operators, and related Inland Marine LOB’s.
Andrew is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY (1984) and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Transportation/ Nautical Science. He also holds an Unlimited U.S. Coast Guard Masters License, for vessels of any gross tonnage upon oceans.
Mariel Beasley is co-founder of the Common Cents Lab at Duke University
“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.