Republicans are likely to block attempts by Democrats to get the Senate to follow the House to increase stimulus payments for most Americans to $ 2,000, though President Donald Trump supports the larger checks.
Forty-four House Republicans joined 231 Democrats on Monday to pass a bill that would increase payments of the $ 600 of the pandemic relief legislation that Trump signed Sunday. His surprise surprise last week for larger payments put Republicans in jeopardy after resisting anything above $ 600 during negotiations on the original bill. Democrats were quick to use this as a point of pressure.
Photographer: Oliver Contreras / Bloomberg
“The House and the President agree: We need to deliver $ 2,000 checks to American families who are struggling this holiday season,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a tweet, asking Senate approving the highest payments.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not said whether the Senate would accept the House bill, try to vote on a different one that would also increase direct payments, or simply ignore the issue. Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer said he will ask for unanimous consent to pass the House bill on Tuesday. But the move is expected to raise an objection from a Republican, which will effectively shut down the effort.
It depends a lot on whether the president moves on from the issue or uses it to attack Senate Republicans.
He has expressed his anger against McConnell and other Republican Party leaders for failing to support his quixotic attempt to overthrow the election results. Now that the problem with the $ 2,000 checks is in the Senate, Trump could turn to social media to get attention and try to pressure Republicans to take action on the bill.
The Senate is likely to need unanimous consent to be able to vote on both the veto replacement of the defense bill and the $ 2,000 check legislation before that session of Congress expires Sunday. Reaching that deal is unlikely.
This may leave it in the hands of the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he will seek additional encouragement shortly after it opens on January 20th. result of the two elections in Georgia on January 5 that will decide the control of the Senate. If Republicans held on to just one of those seats, McConnell would continue to be the majority leader and able to control the Senate agenda.
The House the bill passed the House with a vote of 275 to 134. In addition to increasing the amounts of payment and the income limit for receiving a check, the legislation would expand the eligibility of household members who can obtain the money, allowing dependent adults as well as dependent children to receive payments. Currently, only adult children with an income limit are eligible for payment.
The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates that higher payments would increase disposable income in the first quarter to 25% above pre-pandemic levels. The legislation would produce an additional 1.5% in GDP production, but not all growth would occur in 2021, according to Marc Goldwein, an economist who co-authored the CRFB projections.
But many Republicans had objected to stimulus payments in excess of $ 600 under the law, in part because of price concerns. Increasing payments to $ 2,000 would cost approximately $ 463.8 billion, according to staff estimates by the Joint Tax Committee.
“I’m concerned that this whopping $ 463 billion isn’t doing what it needs to do, stimulating the economy or helping workers get back to work,” Rep. Kevin Brady, a Republican from Texas, said before the House vote. “It’s hard to stimulate the economy blocked by local politicians.”
“No” votes
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said Sunday he would vote against the $ 2,000 checks and Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson blocked the attempt to tighten payments to $ 1,200 when debating legislation. pandemic relief. During the months of Covid-19 assistance negotiations, Republicans fought against any direct payments and insisted that $ 600 was the maximum they could support in this round of financial aid.
“Basically what they believe is that the economy will be fixed,” said Steny Hoyer, leader of the majority of the chamber.
A vote against the increase in payments would cause Republicans in the Senate to disagree with their party leader and register against a politically popular idea, in a week that Republicans are trying to stay united before the runoff. Georgia.
In this race, Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have called on Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to support raising the stimulus payments to $ 2,000. Perdue has not publicly taken a stand: if Schumer does not have the unanimous consent request as expected, neither senator will be forced to cast a historic vote.
The relief bill passed by Congress has already played an important role in Georgia’s contests. After Trump criticized the legislation, raising the possibility of vetoing it, Perdue pressured the president in a Christmas day phone call to sign it, worried that Trump’s delay would harm his and Loeffler’s chances in the second round.
Trump called the $ 600 stimulus controls “unfortunate” and called on Congress to increase them to $ 2,000, while cutting foreign aid and other unspecified “pigs” from legislation combining the relief of the virus with funding for government operations. After days of complaints, Trump capitulated Sunday night and signed the more than $ 2.3 trillion bill.
In a statement that accompanied his signing of the broader legislation, Trump said the Senate had agreed to begin the process of voting for the $ 2,000 checks along with a measure to reform unrelated liability protections for technology companies and an investigation into alleged election fraud. McConnell has not made public statements about the deal.
– With the assistance of Laura Davison, Jennifer Jacobs and Nancy Cook