Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he opposes raising the stimulus check amount in the COVID-19 relief package to $2,000 from $600, as suggested by President Donald Trump and other officials.
The former Republican presidential candidate said he also opposed providing $600 stimulus payments.
However, Romney didn’t appear to be opposed to other spending measures included in the massive measure, including $300 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, billions of dollars for landlords, and $47 billion for transportation.
“Made many calls and had meetings at Trump International in Palm Beach, Florida. Why would politicians not want to give people $2000, rather than only $600? It wasn’t their fault, it was China. Give our people the money!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Prior to that tweet, Trump had condemned the bill because, he said, it includes too many non-pandemic-related measures, including significant amounts of funding to foreign governments, as well as funding for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
House Democrats, after Trump’s initial comment about stimulus checks, rushed to schedule a vote on including them. Republicans in Congress blocked the effort.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) scheduled a Dec. 28 vote on a standalone bill to provide $2,000 stimulus payments.
“Monday, I will bring the House back to a session where we will hold a recorded vote on our standalone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000,” the House speaker said in a statement. “To vote against this bill is to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny them the relief they need.”
“Thus, Republicans will offer a unanimous consent request to revisit the state and foreign operations title of the omnibus so that we can fully address the concerns at hand. It will be up to Speaker Pelosi to decide if she wants to act on behalf of the American people.”
Democrats objected to the consent vote.
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