The Senate met Friday for a rare New Year’s session to fight more than $ 2,000 stimulus checks requested by President Trump.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Says he will not allow a vote on the pandemic payment unless Democrats agree to repeal legal protection for social media businesses and a voter fraud commission to establish.
Time is running out. The next session of Congress begins on Sunday afternoon and if the checks have not been approved by that time, a bill passed by the House will die and must be passed again.
“The House Democrats’ bill is simply not the right approach,” McConnell said Friday.
Many conservatives are opposed to increasing the number of newly approved checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000, saying it would add an estimated $ 462 billion to national debt and potentially cause inflation.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said Friday it would be a “gun approach where a gun makes a lot more sense.”
But Chuck Schumer (D-NY), minority leader of the Senate, noted that some Republican senators support the new checks.
“For once, we have progressive Democrats, conservative Republicans, the president himself and not to mention the majority – the vast majority of the American people are singing from the same songbook in support of these checks,” he said.
Schumer said Friday would be the “last chance” to approve the larger stimulus tests.
The Republican senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, David Perdue of Georgia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina support the increased check amount.
“If the Senate does not act today, $ 2,000 checks will not become law before the end of Congress, and they will know that leader McConnell and the Republican majority prevented them from getting the checks simply,” Schumer said. .
The battle for checks has had another battle over whether Trump’s veto of a $ 740 billion defense bill should prevail. His veto will be upheld if the Senate vote does not take place by Sunday afternoon.
Senators are expected to vote Friday on continuing their veto rule, which will be the first of Trump’s presidency. Sixty votes are needed to end the debate, which means some Democrats are needed, even without agreement on the $ 2,000 checks.
Trump has said he vetoed the defense bill because it does not protect section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects technology companies that offer third-party content, as it seeks to reduce its troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 in November to 2 500 against Jan to stop. 15 and because it would force the renaming of ten military bases honoring the Allies.
If the larger checks were approved, the relief for people with higher incomes would decrease.
For individual tax applicants without dependents, the amount decreases – under both the $ 600 and $ 2,000 proposals – for people earning more than $ 75,000 a year. People earning more than $ 95,000 – and couples without dependents earning more than $ 190,000 – get nothing under any plan.