The House voted Monday to increase the second round of federal direct payments to $2,000 as Democrats embrace President Donald Trump’s calls to put more money in Americans’ pockets.
The measure would boost the stimulus checks in the year-end coronavirus relief and government funding package to $2,000 from $600. The vote came a day after Trump signed the more than $2 trillion pandemic aid and full-year government spending bill into law.
The House passed the payments in a fast-track procedure that needed two-thirds support.
Democrats have called the relief bill a down payment and plan to push for more aid after President-elect Joe Biden takes office Jan. 20. As they had called for larger direct payments throughout aid talks, they jumped on the president’s support for $2,000 deposits.
On Monday, Biden also told reporters he backs $2,000 payments.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has called on Trump to put more pressure on his party to back the payments.
“To reject this would be in denial of the economic challenges that people are facing and it would deny them, again, the relief they need,” she said Monday ahead of the vote.
Reference: CNBC
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