Second Stimulus Check Update: Senate Kills $2,000 Payments
Efforts to send eligible Americans a $2,000 second stimulus check are effectively dead…for now. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused to allow a vote in the Senate on the House-passed CASH Act. That bill would have increased the second-round stimulus checks approved by the COVID-Related Tax Relief Act from $600 to $2,000. Senate Democrats made repeated requests this week for a vote, but each request was immediately blocked by McConnell or another Republican senator.
Democrats delayed the inevitable for a few days by holding up a separate vote to override President Trump's veto of the defense spending bill. However, on New Year's Day, the override vote was held, which meant that the Democrats lost whatever leverage they had to force a vote on the CASH Act. The current session of Congress ends at
