The U.S. House of Representatives voted Monday to pass a bill to increase the Stimulus checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000, with 275 members voting in favor of the bill and 134 votes against. The bill received the required two-thirds majority of members voting to pass it in the House.
But it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is also needed for the bill to go to President Trump’s office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not indicated whether he will bring a ground ballot to the larger checks.
Senator Bernie Sanders, a supporter of the $ 2,000 checks, asked McConnell to take the vote to the floor. He tweeted that if McConnell doesn’t bring a vote to the floor, he will oppose the vote to overturn Mr. Trump’s veto on the defense funding bill. While Sanders cannot prevent the veto from being lifted, he can do so after New Year’s Day, which would cause a major headache for the Republican Party.
Trump last week urged Congress to increase stimulus checks to $ 2,000, threatening not to sign the COVID-19 relief grant package that gave the checks $ 600. But Sunday night, the president yielded and signed the legislation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately jumped to the president’s insistence on making $ 2,000 checks, and set Monday’s vote on the floor of the House.
Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
Almost all Democrats voted in favor of the legislation to increase controls, and the majority of members who voted against the increase are Republicans.
A handful of Senate Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley and Trump’s allied senator Lindsey Graham, have supported the idea of greater stimulus controls for all Americans, but are likely to come across the friction of the more fiscally conservative party members.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Kimberly Brown reported.