(CNN) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked an attempt to swiftly adopt a measure to increase direct incentive payments from $ 600 to $ 2,000, although legislation could be voted on later if McConnell preferred.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has sought to pass the amendment to the omnibus spending bill through a unanimous consent request on the Senate floor, but any senator can stop the passage of legislation in this way. McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, objected to the request.
The House on Monday handed over the increase to stimulus payments with wide support to both parties. Democratic leaders have called President Donald Trump’s criticism of the $ 600 payments too low and the pressure on the GOP president to step up the stimulus tests in his bid to pass the Senate amendment.
The measure could later be re-voted in the Senate. What McConnell is going to do remains unclear as of Tuesday night, although the Republican from Kentucky did make a move that provides insight into where he can take the process. McConnell on Tuesday introduced legislation to combine two additional demands from Trump to expand direct stimulus payments, raising Democratic concerns that the path to expanded stimulus payments will soon be short-circuited.
While the move does not guarantee McConnell will bring the bill to the vote, it does offer a substantial option if time – and the political winds – push the chamber in that direction. It is also one that will be almost certain not to get the votes.
Many Republican senators have objected to an increase in stimulus payments during negotiations for a Covid-19 relief package throughout the year, citing the growing price of the plan. However, several GOP senators – including two members facing Georgia next week – have benefited from Trump’s pressure to increase payments, even after the previous legislation was passed in Congress last week.
By tying together all of Trump’s demands, especially with policies that Democrats almost certainly oppose, McConnell gives himself an option that he would give Republicans something to vote for if he raised it with little risk of it becoming law. could be.
“If we start adding poison pills to the $ 2,000 bill, it’s just another way of telling the American people that this body does not support $ 2,000 payments,” Sen said. Chris Murphy, a Democrat in Connecticut, said about the additional provisions.
Earlier Tuesday, Schumer urged the Senate to join Trump and the House in enlarging the checks, arguing that “working Americans took it to heart” during the pandemic.
“The fastest way to get money in Americans is to send some of their tax money back from where they came from,” he said.
Schumer says $ 600 is “not enough” for Americans who need extra money to pay for groceries and rent, and has expressed concern that the proposal will add to the deficit too much. He said Republicans had previously passed nearly $ 2 billion in tax cuts and recently fought to include a tax break for corporate dinner expenses.
“I do not want to hear that we can not afford it,” Schumer said.
If the bill does get a full vote in the Senate, it will need at least 12 Republican senators to join all members of the Democratic caucus to exceed the 60-vote threshold to advance.
“These are the three important topics that the president has linked together,” McConnell said. “This week, the Senate begins a process to put these three priorities in focus.”
Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who said he would decide to delay a vote unless McConnell brings $ 2,000 stimulus checks to the floor, continues to effect larger checks.
“The leaders of our country, President Trump, President Biden, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, all agree,” Sanders said in the remarks. ‘We need to increase the direct payment to $ 2,000. So this is where we are at this historic moment. Do we turn our backs on struggling working families, or do we respond to their pain? ”
Before any action is taken on stimulus payments, the Senate must process the negation of Trump’s veto. McConnell initially tried to set the vote for Wednesday, but Sanders objected and made it clear that he would break the process unless the Senate held an up-and-down vote on the stimulus passed by the House. test measure. However, Sanders can not stop the NDAA vote – just pull it out. And the longer the process, the greater the chance that no direct action will be taken before the end of the 116th Congress on Sunday.
The administration official told CNN that the round of stimulus payments at the $ 600 level, which is included in the $ 900 billion Covid relief package, would begin going out Sunday night, an administration official told CNN while acknowledging that the timing can shift. As with the first round, new payments will begin to decline for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $ 75,000, and those earning more than $ 99,000 will receive nothing. The income thresholds will be doubled for couples.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted Tuesday night that direct payments to Americans could start pouring in later in the night. These are the $ 600 payments included in the aid package that Trump signed on Sunday night.
“. @USTreasury delivered a payment file to the @Federal Reserve for Americans’ economic impact payments. These payments could start arriving in some accounts with direct deposit tonight and will continue next week (1/2), ”Mnuchin wrote in a series consecutive tweets. ‘Paper checks will be posted tomorrow. Later this week, you can check the status of your payment at http://IRS.gov/GetMyPayment. (2/2) ”
This story was updated on Tuesday with additional developments.
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