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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday ruled out a vote on a bill to increase coronavirus relief checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000, likely ending the effort led by President Donald Trump.
McConnell told the Senate floor that a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which sought to satisfy Trump’s demands for larger checks, “does not have a realistic path to quickly pass the Senate.”
Trump had increased pressure on fellow Republicans to endorse increased COVID-19 stimulus checks for struggling Americans in a series of tweets in recent days. “$ 2,000 ASAP!” Trump tweeted early Wednesday.
Intra-party tensions over the effort to increase payments to the $ 600 already approved by Congress were exacerbated by a second showdown over an effort in Congress to override Trump’s veto on a defense policy bill.
The Republican-controlled Senate was poised to take a step closer to what would be the first override of Trump’s nearly four-year veto as president with a procedural vote Wednesday.
With a new Congress taking office the Sunday after the November election, McConnell’s comment suggested that the legislation passed by the House on Monday would simply expire.
McConnell said the $ 2,000 checks were not addressed and would go to some people who don’t need them.
Late on Tuesday, McConnell introduced a bill that combined the $ 2,000 checks with provisions that remove certain legal protections for social media companies and call for an election security study – a major issue for Trump, who claims without evidence. that the fraud helped Democrat Joe Biden defeat him. in the November elections.
Since most Democrats do not support the second two measures, the move seemed destined to end the prospects of all three.
On Tuesday, the president attacked Republican leaders as “pathetic” and accused the party of having a “death wish” if it did not endorse increased stimulus payments or remove legal protections for social media companies.
Cracks in Trump’s relationship with GOP leaders come three weeks before Trump hands over power to Biden on January 20.
Congressional Republicans have largely stuck with Trump for four turbulent years, but the president is angry that they have not fully endorsed his claims of voter fraud.
The House of Representatives on Monday struck down the veto of Trump’s defense bill. Once procedural hurdles are removed in the Senate, a final vote could take place later in the week or over the weekend.
(Information by Susan Cornwell and David Morgan; additional information by Trevor Hunnicutt, Lisa Lambert, Jeff Mason, and David Brunnstrom; written by Lawrence Hurley; edited by Michelle Price, Noeleen Walder, Jonathan Oatis, and Howard Goller)
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