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.
Brian Fritzsche is assistant vice president and regulatory counsel at the Consumer Bankers Association.
Sandee Perfetto is senior personal lines coverage director for Verisk’s Underwriting Solutions. Perfetto leads a team of personal lines and farm insurance professionals in using customer feedback, market knowledge, and business intelligence to drive the creation of new coverage products, and to maintain and enhance Underwriting Solutions existing programs. Over the years, Perfetto has helped develop a number of new personal lines products, and currently leads the personal lines development of insurance solutions for the sharing economy, millennials, autonomous vehicles, cyber and cannabis. Perfetto began her career at Verisk in the personal lines division. She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in insurance and finance from the University of Hartford and earned a master of science degree in education from Queens College. Sandee can be reached at Sandee.Perfetto@verisk.com.
John McDonough is Head of US Wealth Management Intermediaries Distribution at Invesco. He was previously the head of OppenheimerFunds’ Distribution and Marketing Teams, including Digital Distribution and Innovation.
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.