Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked a measure that would increase a new round of stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000 in an unusual post-Christmas floor session convened to override President Trump’s veto of a critical defense bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a request by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to pass a measure that was approved Monday by a bipartisan House majority. The measure would increase the stimulus checks included in a coronavirus relief bill from $600 per person to $2,000.
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“Leader McConnell holds the key to unlocking this dilemma,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor.
Despite increasing pressure from Democrats, Senate Republicans are not in favor of passing a new spending bill that would add $464 billion to the $900 billion package.
Some GOP senators point out that the money is not targeted to the unemployed, but rather, it is sent to anyone earning below $75,000, including those who have not lost their jobs during the pandemic. Others cited the nation’s enormous deficit.
The House acted following a demand by Trump that Congress increase the checks to $2,000. But Trump also asked Congress to rescind what he considers to be wasteful spending in a $1.4 trillion government funding bill that was bundled with COVID-19 relief. More than 40 Republicans backed the House measure to increase the checks, and several GOP senators have called on the upper chamber to clear the bill, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
But GOP leaders have no plans to take up the House bill. The impasse prompted Democrats to use procedural powers to delay consideration of the veto override vote that senators had gathered to consider.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, and Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and other Democrats took to the Senate floor to demand the GOP allow a vote on the bill before the end of the year.
Sanders called the $600 in the current aid package “crumbs to working people who have faced economic hardship through no fault of their own.”
Markey told stories about constituents facing eviction and running out of money for groceries.
“Working families need help right now — not next year, but right now,” Sanders said.
