The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill Monday evening to increase direct coronavirus relief payments to some people to $2,000, but the measure faces an uphill battle in the Republican-run Senate, despite support from President Donald Trump.
The House is expected to vote on the bill, which would increase the $600 in direct payments to those who earned less than $75,000 last year to $2,000, at around 5 p.m. ET.
Trump insisted on increasing the payments after his administration struck a deal for the $600 checks as part of a coronavirus relief and budget package, which passed both chambers of Congress last week.
“I simply want to get our great people $2,000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill,” the president tweeted over the weekend from his Florida resort.
Dec. 28, 202004:20
Trump cited the scheduled House vote in a statement Sunday announcing that he had finally signed the $2.3 trillion Covid-19 relief and government funding package.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted the supplement would pass the House.
“Then I will move to pass it in the Senate. No Democrats will object. Will Senate Republicans?” Schumer tweeted.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., praised Trump for signing the bill on Sunday night, but made no mention of a possible vote on the additional relief in his statement.
Roy Blunt of Missouri, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, told reporters last week that even if the measure came up for a vote in the Senate, it would not reach the 60-vote threshold needed for passage.
In a statement on Sunday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urged the president to “immediately call on congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and to join him and Democrats in support of our stand-alone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000.”
“Every Republican vote against this bill is a vote to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny the American people the relief they need,” Pelosi said.
