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.
A national policy leader with over 20 years of experience, Dr. Keita M. Franklin is the Chief Clinical Officer at Loyal Source Government Services– the nation’s leading healthcare solutions provider – and has consulted with many entities on issues related to workplace wellness. Prior to joining the Loyal Source team, Dr. Franklin was a senior executive at both the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), frequently representing the DoD and the VA during testimony in front of both chambers of Congress and advising the Office of the President, the Domestic Policy Council, and the National Security Council. During her tenure, Dr. Franklin led enterprise-wide programming for Veterans, military service members and their families.
Serving Loyal Source since inception, Brian Moore is a recognized creative solutions and results-oriented leader. Overseeing operations, and all Loyal Source Government Services business development efforts, Moore is responsible for the company’s strategic marketing and outreach programs, expertly designed to infiltrate and develop new government service venture opportunities for the business worldwide. Managing the company’s largest national and international client agency accounts, Moore’s decade of commercial and government business acumen has been integral to the development of the Loyal Source name, today known worldwide for developing innovative and market-variable human capital solutions on a global scale.
Linda Killinger was vice chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines and a partner in an international accounting firm.
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.