House passes bill to increase $600 stimulus checks to $2,000. It now goes to the Senate.
The Senate #TheSenate
The House of Representatives passed a bill to increase the $600 stimulus checks to $2,000 in a vote on Monday.
The vote passed 275 to 134. Forty-four House Republicans joined the Democrats in approving the bill.
President Donald Trump signed the $900 billion bipartisan coronavirus relief package – which includes the $600 stimulus checks – on Sunday, renewing his calls for Congress to raise the amount of the checks to $2,000.
GOP leaders in the Senate, however, have signaled their opposition to raising the dollar amount of the checks. The addition of $2,000 stimulus checks would likely push the total amount of the stimulus package well over $1 trillion – a price point which has some GOP opposition.
In his statement Sunday, the president said he wants “far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child,” adding that he is demanding “many rescissions” to the bill.
Following Trump’s criticism of the relief bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a Sunday statement that the president should “immediately call on Congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and to join him and Democrats.”
“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 continued.
It is not immediately clear if congressional GOP members will answer the president’s call for higher checks as the bill is sent over to the Senate for a vote in Trump’s waning weeks in the White House.
President-elect Joe Biden has signaled his support for $2,000 direct payments earlier Monday, showing renewed promise that if the current bill is rejected in the Senate, that it could be resurrected under the incoming administration and new Congress.