The Senate convened on Friday for a rare New Year’s Day session to combat more than $ 2,000 stimulus checks filed by President Trump.
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Says he will not allow a vote on the pandemic disbursement unless Democrats agree to withdraw legal protections for social media companies and establish a voter fraud committee.
Time is running out. The next session of Congress begins Sunday afternoon at noon, and if the checks are not approved by then, a House-approved bill dies and should be passed again.
“The House Democrats bill just isn’t the right approach,” McConnell said Friday.
Many conservatives are against raising just-approved checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000, saying it would add an estimated $ 462 billion to the national debt and potentially trigger inflation.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said Friday it would be “a shotgun approach where a rifle makes a lot more sense.”
But Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) noted that some Republican senators support the new controls.
“For once, we have progressive Democrats, conservative Republicans, the president himself, not to mention, of course, the majority – the vast majority of the American people sing from the same songbook in support of these controls,” he said.
Schumer said Friday would be the “last chance” to approve the larger stimulus controls.
Republican sens. 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 doesn’t take action today, $ 2,000 checks won’t go into effect until the end of Congress, and they will know that Leader McConnell and the Republican majority prevented them from getting the checks, plainly and simply,” Schumer said. .
The battle for checks has grown into another battle for Trump’s veto of a $ 740 billion defense bill. His veto will be upheld if the Senate vote does not take place on Sunday afternoon.
Senators are expected to vote Friday on whether or not to proceed with the right of veto, which would be the first of Trump’s presidency. It takes sixty votes to end the debate, meaning some Democrats are needed even without an agreement on the $ 2,000 checks.
Trump said he vetoed the defense bill because it does not repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects technology companies hosting third-party content, as it seeks to delay his troop withdrawal in Afghanistan from 4,500 in November to 2,500 by Jan. 15 and because it would force the renaming of 10 military bases that honor the Confederates.
If the larger checks were approved, the level of shelter for people with higher incomes would decrease.
For individual tax holders with no dependents, the amount drops – under both the $ 600 and $ 2,000 proposals – for people who earn more than $ 75,000 per year. People who earn more than $ 95,000 – and those without dependents who earn more than $ 190,000 – get nothing under either plan.