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when the top House Republican refused to let the proposal reach the floor for a vote.
The proposal to raise the amounts – backed by President Donald Trump – is expected to come up again Monday when the full House is back in session. But because most lawmakers already have returned home for the holiday recess, Democrats had hoped to win approval for the measure on Christmas Eve through a procedure known as “unanimous consent.”
That needed House Minority Kevin McCarthy’s agreement, but he declined to grant it. He responded by issuing a counter-proposal to “revisit” the amount of foreign aid in the same spending bill that included the direct payments. Democrats in turn blocked McCarthy’s plan to bring that proposal to the floor.
“To vote against this bill is to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny them the relief they need,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement following the vote.
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It’s doubtful either measure would have passed anyway because it would have taken only a single member to scuttle either proposal under unanimous consent rules.
On Monday, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan $2.4 trillion bill that includes broad stimulus relief to help Americans battered by the pandemic’s economic fallout and funding for the federal government through September.
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted a video of his remarks calling the measure “a disgrace” partly because he felt the direct payments were too small and partly because he opposed foreign aid in the bill.
That was despite his own Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin negotiating the $600 compromise and despite his administration submitting a budget earlier this year that asked Congress to approve similar levels of foreign aid included in the package adopted Monday.
— Ledyard King
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In a letter to fellow House Democrats Wednesday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House will try to pass an amendment to the bill under a procedure known as “Unanimous Consent” since most lawmakers won’t be present. But the process allows a single member’s objection to scuttle passage, and McCarthy’s counter-proposal to revisit foreign aid is a signal that at least some GOP lawmakers don’t plan to go along with the Democrats.
“If the President truly wants to join us in $2,000 payments, he should call upon Leader McCarthy to agree to our Unanimous Consent request,” she wrote in a letter to fellow Democrats.
If the proposal to raise the direct payment amounts fails Thursday, Democrats are expected to bring the measure for a vote Monday when the House is back in regular session.
— Ledyard King