• McConnell blocks vote on bigger checks in pandemic stimulus package.
Majority leader to bring up Senate measure today
WASHINGTON
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday blocked consideration of a House bill that would deliver $2,000 stimulus payments to most Americans — spurning a request by President Donald Trump even as more Senate Republicans voiced support for the dramatically larger checks.
McConnell’s move was just the beginning of a saga that is likely to engulf the Senate for the rest of the week. Democrats are pushing for an up-or-down vote on the House bill, while more Republicans acknowledge a need for larger stimulus checks.
Tension within the Republican Party spilled into public view on Tuesday, with Trump leveling pointed attacks at GOP leaders for failing to act, accusing them of being “pathetic” and suggesting they had a “death wish.”
New proponents of the $2,000 checks include Georgia’s two embattled Republican senators — David Perdue and Kelly Loeff ler — who find themselves in tough re-election battles that will decide the fate of the chamber next week. GOP Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska also lent support Tuesday, declaring that “people are hurting and we need to get them more aid.”
Before adjourning the Senate on Tuesday, McConnell began the process of bringing up both the House-passed bill as well as a new bill combining larger checks with the establishment of a commission to study election fraud and a repeal of liability protections for technology companies and other firms.
While McConnell’s move does not guarantee that either measure will get voted on, it could be a prelude to a “side-by-side” deal between Senate leaders that would secure votes on both bills with the understanding that neither is likely to garner the necessary 60 votes. All of these issues could lead to a showdown on the Senate f loor on Friday.
This sort of hesitancy is what has led Trump to escalate his blistering attacks on GOP leaders in recent days, something he continued Tuesday. “WE NEED NEW & ENERGETIC REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP,” he wrote.
He also said there would be consequences for the party if they didn’t act.
“Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP,” Trump wrote. “$600 IS NOT ENOUGH! Also, get rid of Section 230 - Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough!”
The shifting Senate winds come a day after the House passed a bill to increase stimulus checks with a bipartisan 275-134 vote. That proposal, called the Caring for Americans with Supplemental Help (CASH) Act, aims to boost the $600 payments authorized in the massive year-end spending-and-relief package that Trump signed Sunday by $1,400 and expand eligibility for them.
After McConnell spoke Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., made a request to take up the House-passed bill.
“There’s a major difference in saying you support $2,000 checks and fighting to put them into law,” he said. “The House bill is the only way to deliver these stimulus checks before the end of session. Will Senate Republicans stand against the House of Representatives, the Democratic majority in the Senate and the president of their own party to prevent these $2,000 checks from going out the door?”
McConnell objected without making further comment.
Despite the new pressure from Trump, some other Senate Republicans expressed reservations about voting for a bill with the larger payments. Some of them cited the rising debt and pointed to the extraordinary amount of federal aid that Congress had already approved.
“This is all funny money, borrowed money at this point, and that’s another consideration,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Tuesday. “I mean, (we’re) being just frivolous about the way we spend money and rack up debt. I think people are willing to do what we need to do if they feel like it’s an immediate need and it’s an emergency, which we have already done and we’ll probably continue to do.”
The new wave of Republican support left Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., convinced Tuesday that the Senate had the necessary 60 votes to advance the proposal, adding in a tweet: “Let’s vote today.”
But the Senate now appears to be in a holding pattern. An emboldened Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who pushed for bigger checks for weeks, issued his own ultimatum Tuesday, blocking today’s planned vote to override Trump’s veto of the annual defense policy bill unless McConnell relents and allows a stand-alone vote on the House checks bill.
“I don’t know what he has in mind, but the House passed, to their credit, a simple, straightforward bill,” Sanders told reporters. “Let’s not muddy the waters: Are you for $2,000 or are you not?”