Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday closed off chances that the Senate would pass anytime soon a House bill that would give most Americans $2,000 stimulus payments.
The Kentucky Republican said the House legislation, approved in a bipartisan vote Monday, “has no realistic path” to quick passage in the Senate and that it falls short of the demands of President Donald Trump. He again blocked an attempt by Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to adopt the House bill to increase the payments to $2,000 from the $600 by unanimous consent.
Peter J. Wallison is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He was the general counsel of the Treasury between 1981 and 1985. He is the author of "Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World's Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again."
Nick Bapis is a partner and managing director at The Bapis Group at HighTower Advisors in New York and Salt Lake City.
Peter Marcia is CEO of YouDecide, an employee voluntary benefits and discount program. Prior to his involvement with YouDecide he was Vice President and National Director of Employee Benefits for Hilb, Rogal and Hobbs, the world’s 10th ranking broker, where he led the company’s strategic business unit. Previously, he led the employee benefits practices of Hobbs Group, LLC, in Atlanta and O'Neill, Finnegan & Jordan of Boston. Active in numerous professional organizations, Marcia is a past member of the National Business Group on Health, New England Employee Benefits Council, the CIAB Board of Directors of the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, Wellness Councils of America and the Society of Human Resource Management.
The Senate instead will work on combining the stimulus payments with measures on election integrity and rolling back social media liability protections, he said. That responds to all three issues Trump has said he wants, but a bill combining them likely will alienate enough senators in both parties to leave prospects for bigger stimulus payments dead in the Senate.
“The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of the Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help,” McConnell said. The House bill would raise the income cutoff to receive a payment.
The clash over the payments also is entangling another piece of year-end business in the Senate — a vote to override Trump’s veto of a crucial $740.5 billion defense policy bill. Senators Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey said they will continue to delay the defense legislation vote unless McConnell relents and allows a vote on a standalone bill on the bigger stimulus checks.
“We are saying to Mitch McConnell, to allow the United States Senate to do what it’s supposed to do, and that is the vote,” Sanders told reporters. “The House passed the bill, it’s over here right now. Do you want to vote against it? Then vote against it.”
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey later blocked an attempt by Sanders to call up the House bill for a roll call vote.