Legislation to raise direct COVID-19 payments to individual Americans from $600 approved in a recent bill to $2,000 was introduced by the US House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th December, 2020) Legislation to raise direct COVID-19 payments to individual Americans from $600 approved in a recent bill to $2,000 was introduced by the US House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal on Thursday.
"For months, Democrats have consistently sought to provide Americans with a substantial second round of direct financial assistance. Now that the President has finally endorsed that idea as well, we're ready to immediately pass the CASH Act to put an additional $2,000 into the pockets of folks in need," Neal said in a press release announcing the legislation.
President Donald Trump has criticized $600 payments in the latest congressionally approved COVID-19 relief bill as too small, although the president stopped short of an explicit veto threat.
Earlier on Thursday, House Republicans rejected an attempt to boost payments to $2,000 during a pro-forma session, which requires a unanimous vote to approve any legislation, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters.
House Democrats, Hoyer said, would meet again on Monday in a renewed effort to increase the payments to the $2,000 level embraced by Trump.
The payments are part of a nearly $1 trillion COVID-19 relief package that Congress approved as part of a massive spending bill needed to fund the US government in fiscal 2021.
