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.
Richard McKenney is president and chief executive officer for Unum Group, one of the world’s leading providers of workplace financial protection benefits. He became president in April 2015 and assumed the role of CEO in May of the same year.
McKenney served as executive vice president, chief financial officer for Unum Group from 2009 to 2015, where he was responsible for overall financial management of the company, including financial reporting, treasury and capital management, strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions, investments, financial planning, investor relations, and enterprise risk management. He also chaired Unum’s Operating Committee, which oversees the company’s business operations throughout the U.S. and U.K.
Prior to joining Unum in 2009, McKenney was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sun Life Financial, an international financial services company based in Toronto.
McKenney graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
Philippa Lawrence is a global finance and accounting leader and is currently vice president and chief accounting officer at Workday. Prior to that, she held controller roles at Google, Brocade, Motorola, and Katerra.
The head of a federal watchdog agency had some direct experience with the shortcomings of one of the coronavirus stimulus programs — a check from the IRS made out to his late mother.
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.