House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said on Thursday that House Democrats would vote on Monday for a stand-alone bill that would provide direct payments to Americans of $ 2,000 per person.
His announcement was made moments after House Republicans blocked a Democratic offer to increase payments from $ 600 per individual, as approved in the stimulus bill earlier this week, to $ 2,000.
“On Monday, I will bring the Chamber back to the session, where we will conduct a recorded vote on our independent bill to increase payments of economic impact to $ 2,000. To vote against this bill is to deny the financial difficulties that families face and to deny them the relief they need, ”said Pelosi in a statement on Thursday morning.
“Hopefully, by then, the president will have already signed bipartisan and bicameral legislation to keep the government open and provide relief from the coronavirus,” she added.
The Chamber is now suspended until Monday afternoon, when members will also vote to overturn Trump’s veto on the annual defense authorization bill.
Thursday’s failed vote was just the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of lawmakers’ attempts to approve a massive stimulus package designed to provide economic relief amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic collapse.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump destroyed the holiday spending and Covid-19 aid package, saying it includes many provisions that have nothing to do with the pandemic and is very stingy with payments to ordinary Americans. The $ 900 billion aid package approved by both chambers of Congress included a new round of direct payments and aid for unemployed Americans, families and companies struggling with the pandemic.
But in a video that Trump posted on Twitter Tuesday night, he complained that the $ 600 stimulus checks included in the account were too small, arguing that eligible individuals should receive $ 2,000 and couples should receive $ 4,000.
Following Trump’s comments, House Democrats rushed to schedule a vote that would increase payments as Trump demanded. Since many members of the House are out of town, Hoyer said, the leaders tried to approve the project by unanimous consent, which meant that any member alone could kill him.
His failure to move on Thursday morning casts doubt on the future of any impending financial relief for millions of struggling Americans.
House majority leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Criticized House Republicans on Thursday for blocking increased direct aid to Americans and Trump for not yet signing massive spending and relief legislation at his desk. . Hoyer repeatedly referred to Trump’s videotaped statement calling direct payments of $ 600 “insufficient” and said that’s why “we responded this morning”. The request for unanimous consent to approve the increase in payments was “consistent with the president’s request,” said Hoyer.
A senior Senate Republican on Thursday also asked Trump to sign the bill, adding that he did not support the increase in payments.
“The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill, and I still hope that’s what he decides to do,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, told reporters on Thursday. -market.
Asked if a bill to increase direct pay checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000 would get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, Blunt said, “No, no.”
Trump’s comments on Tuesday sent Washington into chaos after lawmakers spent months discussing a deal on most of the legislation in 2020 and left many frustrated because Trump waited so long to voice his concerns after being left out of the negotiation process .
Before Trump spoke, all signs and expectations were that he intended to sign the bailout bill as soon as it landed on his desk, possibly later this week. White House aides did indeed say so.
House Democrats, who advocated higher direct checks just to find Republican resistance in the Senate, immediately said they welcomed Trump’s support to send more money.
The legislation already passed by Congress included two bills that were combined: one was the Covid-19 relief and stimulus bill and the other was a major spending bill to finance the government until next September. If the spending bill is not enacted, the government will have to start closing its doors from Tuesday.
Hoyer said on Thursday: “We are not going to let the government close”, adding: “We are considering the options and the measures we will take”.
After the vote on direct payments failed, House Republicans made their own unanimous request to “revisit” the foreign aid portion of the $ 1.4 trillion overhead package, a move that Democrats then blocked. . Trump protested the waste of foreign spending in his comments earlier this week, although his own budget proposal included the provisions he chose for criticism.
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Frank Thorp V contributed.