‘Merry Christmas!’ Republicans BLOCK Nancy Pelosi’s Christmas Eve bid to enact $2,000 checks for all

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor For Dailymail.com and Reuters 11:04 24 Dec 2020, updated 14:47 24 Dec 2020

House Republicans snuffed out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bid to accept President Donald Trump’s demand for $2,000 stimulus checks for Americans – failing to accept the offer in a rare Christmas Eve session and forcing the proposal to get shelved on a parliamentary move.

The bid to rush relief to millions of Americans amid the pandemic all came down in a few minutes of floor action, after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland tried to offer Pelosi’s proposal on the floor.

ADVERTISEMENT

It could have sailed to immediate approval in the House had Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California agreed to it.

But Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who was sitting in the chair for the brief pro forma session of the House, instructed him that it wouldn’t past muster, since she ‘is constrained not to entertain the request’ by House rules – with most members already at home in their districts for the holidays, some having already received new coronavirus vaccine shots in their arms.

The only way to get around it would be for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to agree. McCarthy had already telegraphed that he wouldn’t allow that to happen – after President Trump through a wrench into the heavily negotiated bill by demanding larger checks and blasting spending on foreign aid his administration had previously proposed.

To drive home the point of who was stopping the proposed change to the deal and holding up the checks, Hoyer made a ‘parliamentary inquiry’ – which prompted Dingell to say that only when ‘the minority leader’ has no objection could he make such a move.

Republicans tried instead to make their own move and alter a $1.4 billion spending bill to comport with Trump’s post hoc demands for changes – but that, too wasn’t allowed.

‘Merry Christmas!’ Dingell intoned as she gaveled down the session – a rare Christmas eve meeting that hasn’t occurred in years. 

McCarthy wasn’t there for the brief action. He posted a picture on Instagram of himself seemingly at home in front of a Christmas tree with his two dogs, with his arm in a bandage. ‘Verified I had surgery on my elbow yesterday. Luckily, Teddy and Cash are here to help,’ he wrote on Instagram.

Virginia Republican Rep. Rob Wittman appeared in his stead.  

McCarthy fell in line behind President Trump and savaged a COVID relief bill he helped negotiate after the president stunned lawmakers by lambasting it in a video the president posted on social media.

Congressional leaders combined the $900 billion relief bill with a spending bill to keep the government running, only to see Trump trash it as wasteful spending after it cleared both chambers by wide margins. 

‘Americans have needed relief from the coronavirus and lockdowns for months. House Republicans have attempted to pass relief over forty times but each time, Speaker Pelosi has ignored our fellow citizens, saying ‘nothing is better than something,” he wrote lawmakers in a ‘Dear Colleague letter.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy railed against ‘billions in foreign aid’ in a spending bill he helped negotiate

“Worse than that, by waiting days before Christmas, Speaker Pelosi tried to use the American people as leverage to make coronavirus relief contingent on government funding – which includes billions of foreign aid at a time when there are urgent needs at home. Our government’s top priority must be our families, communities, and small businesses as we get through this pandemic and restore our country,” he wrote.

ADVERTISEMENT

The public wants the bill passed, with 86 per cent of voters for it, according to a CBS/YouGov poll. 

Trump in his own remarks ripped several foreign aid programs providing funds to Central America, Pakistan and other nations. It was immediately revealed that his own budget had proposed funding amounts that were in fact higher than the totals included in the continuing resolution spending bill he had blasted. 

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday aim to win quick passage of legislation providing $2,000 in direct payments to Americans as part of a coronavirus economic relief initiative after President Donald Trump unexpectedly insisted on the provision.

McCarthy is expected to object and offer his own proposal, which will offset spending on state and foreign operations – but also likely doom the proposal from advancing.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi immediately said she would accept Trump’s call for larger $2,000 checks – and may put the idea to the test on the House floor Thursday, but Republicans were planning to object President Trump trashed a COVID relief bill and accompanying $1.4 bill to keep the government open in a video Tuesday

The stakes in this long-shot bid are enormous, as millions of Americans desperately await some sort of new assistance from Washington in a COVID-19 pandemic that is spiraling out of control in the United States and other nations.

Late on Monday, Congress overwhelmingly approved an $892 billion emergency coronavirus aid bill that contains a one-time, $600 payment to individuals to help them cope with a U.S. economy hobbled by the pandemic.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who negotiated on behalf of the White House, had said the $600 checks could make it to Americans by next week.  

The aid was attached to $1.4 trillion in funding to keep the federal government operating through this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, 2021.

It is unclear how Trump plans to respond. He vetoed a massive defense bill this week despite potential political blowback for denying a pay raise to troops as well as billions for weapons programs.

Click here to resize this module

‘McCarthy said he talked to Trump and it’s not a sure thing what he’ll do,’ a source who was on a Wednesday conference call among House Republicans told The Hill.  

But defying expectations, Trump on Tuesday hinted he might veto the gigantic legislation if the direct payments were not increased to $2,000 per person and if a slew of unrelated government spending projects, including foreign aid, were not jettisoned.

Trump, who was awaiting receipt of the $2.3 trillion bill from Congress, did not explicitly say he would veto the bill in its current form.

ADVERTISEMENT

But with his warning, he put the coronavirus aid in limbo as well as the ability of the federal government to operate normally beyond next Monday, when existing money runs out.

In a challenge to congressional Republicans who labored to keep the cost of the coronavirus aid bill below $1 trillion, Democrats joyfully embraced Trump’s demand for bigger stimulus checks for Americans.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted: “Mr. President, sign the bill to keep government open! Urge McConnell and McCarthy to agree with the Democratic unanimous consent request for $2,000 direct payments! This can be done by noon on Christmas Eve!”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the top two Republicans in Congress, and their aides have been silent on Trump’s demand for bigger checks.

But McCarthy, in a letter late on Wednesday to his fellow Republicans, described a counter-move his party planned to make on Thursday that would seek changes to the foreign aid component of the spending bill.

Each side might end up blocking the other’s proposal in a stand-off that would leave the bill that passed on Monday unchanged.

Employing a procedural maneuver rarely used for major legislation, Democrats early on Thursday were expected to try to ram the $2,000 payment initiative through the House in lightning speed with a unanimous vote. But to prevail, all House members of the 435-seat chamber would have to go along by not objecting to the maneuver.

If the Democrats’ gambit fails, it would be up to Trump to either sign the combined $2.3 trillion in coronavirus aid and government funding into law, or veto it.

Congressional backers might have the votes to override a veto. If not, Congress and the White House would be in a potentially chaotic showdown just weeks before Trump is replaced by President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, on Jan. 20.

In order to avoid a government shutdown, Congress could keep operations running by passing a fourth stopgap funding bill before midnight Monday. For that option to work, lawmakers would need Trump’s cooperation at a time when he is still consumed by his loss to Biden in the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The stopgap bill would not include coronavirus aid, however.

ADVERTISEMENT

In another showdown with Trump, Congress wants to override his veto on Wednesday of a bill authorizing U.S. military programs. The House aims to vote on Monday and the Senate could follow up as early as Tuesday.