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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested Tuesday he won’t bring up the issue of bigger checks for American households for a vote unless it is also accompanied by action on legal protections for technology giants and a look into voting irregularities, potentially dooming quick passage of the additional aid.
“This week, the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus,” he said, before objecting to Democratic requests to consider a House bill to boost the $600 payments to $2,000.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont, has threatened to throw the Senate schedule into disarray by saying he would attempt to filibuster a vote on overriding President Trump’s veto of the defense policy bill unless there was a vote on the stimulus checks.
President Trump pushed for larger checks to be paid directly to lower income Americans after threatening to veto the year-end coronavirus relief and government funding legislation which he finally signed on Sunday.
Republicans including Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are running in crucial Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine control of the Senate, have expressed support for bigger checks.
