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.
Jennifer King is Vice President – Customer Experience Service and Quality and Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) at Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company.
King oversees Customer Experience Service (which includes Reconciliation, Control & Reporting and Policy Holder Administration), Quality, Change Management, Implementation, and the EPMO areas in the company's Customer Experience, Innovation, Projects and Technology Strategic Business Center. She is responsible for the teams that facilitate the policyholder customer journey, and supports the strategic alignment of the EPMO with the voice of the customers and the company's needs. As leader of the EPMO, Policy Holder Administration, and Quality Center teams, she aligns project and operations resources to optimize customer and employee experience. Ms. King also serves as the Business Sponsor for BML Forward, the new policy administration system in development at Boston Mutual Life.
Ms. King joined Boston Mutual Life in 2020 as Director – Strategic Project Management Office. She was appointed to lead the new Policyholder Administration and Quality Center teams in 2022 after being promoted to Vice President – EPMO in 2021, which were renamed under the banner of Customer Experience and Quality in early 2023.
Prior to joining Boston Mutual Life, Ms. King holds 20 years of experience in project and program management within the financial services industry. Previously, she served as Finance & Risk Infrastructure & Business Solutions (FRIBS) Program Manager, Corporate Finance Vice President at State Street Bank, and held several positions during her tenure at the company from when she joined in 2007. Prior to State Street Bank, she worked at Investors Bank and Trust, where she began her career in 1996.
Shai Gabay is CEO and co-founder of Trustmi.
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.