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.
Paul Quirk is the Vice President of Customer Success at Caspio, where he leads a team helping over 15,000 customers leverage the strategic value and ROI of Caspio's market-leading low-code development platform.
Jenny Buckley is a Senior Vice President at ISN, overseeing ISN's Contractor Development, RAVS and Monarch Consulting Team. Prior to her current role, she held several management roles, most recently overseeing ISN's efforts in the Energy industry and the Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.
Since joining ISN in 2006, Jenny has held various business development, management and leadership roles within the organization. Her experience includes leading teams at ISN focused on contractor management across various industries, such as Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Mining, Utilities and Public Sector in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Jenny led operations across the Asia Pacific and Western Canada regions while living in Sydney and Calgary respectively.
She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.
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.