Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked an effort to quickly pass a measure to increase direct stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, attempted to pass the change to the omnibus spending bill through a unanimous consent request on the Senate floor, but any senator can halt passage of legislation that way. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, objected to the request.
The House passed the increase to stimulus payments on Monday at with wide bipartisan support. Democratic leaders have cited President Donald Trump's criticism of the $600 payments as too low and the GOP president's push to increase the stimulus checks in their effort to pass the change through the Senate.
McConnell introduced legislation Tuesday to combine two additional demands from Trump to the expansion of direct stimulus payments, raising concern the pathway for expanded stimulus payments would soon be short-circuited.
Many Republican senators objected to an increase in stimulus payments during negotiations for a Covid-19 relief package throughout the year, citing the growing price tag of the plan. However, multiple GOP senators -- including two members facing runoffs in Georgia next week -- have come out in favor of Trump's push to increase payments, even after the previous legislation passed .Congress last week.
By tying all of Trump's demands together, particularly with policies Democrats are almost sure to oppose, McConnell gives himself an option that, should he bring it to the floor, would give Republicans something to vote for with little risk it could become law.
Earlier Tuesday, Schumer urged the Senate to join Trump and the House to increase the size of the checks, arguing that "working Americans have taken it on the chin" during the pandemic, and "The fastest way to get money into Americans pockets, is to send some of their tax dollars right back from where they came."
Meanwhile, while the McConnell refuses to allow the $2,000 stimulus checks, the GOP has been in support of substantial foreign to other countries and corporate subsidies, while leaving Americans to suffer business closures and unemployment in the face of shutdowns, restrictions, and significant job losses.
The round of stimulus payments at the $600 level included in the $900 billion Covid relief package signed into law Sunday night are expected to start going out this week. As with that first round, the new payments will start phasing out for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000, and those making more than $99,000 won't receive anything. The income thresholds would be doubled for couples.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that direct payments to Americans may begin to be deposited early and these would be the $600 payments included in the relief package Trump signed on Sunday evening.