Senator Bernie Sanders plans to hold up the Senate’s override of the defense bill that President Trump vetoed until Republicans grant a vote on legislation that would provide $2,000 direct payments to Americans.
“McConnell and the Senate want to expedite the override vote and I understand that. But I’m not going to allow that to happen unless there is a vote, no matter how long that takes, on the $2,000 direct payment,” Sanders said Monday.
Sanders cannot indefinitely hold up the override vote, currently scheduled for Tuesday, but he can delay it until the new year by denying McConnell unanimous consent to bring the bill to the floor.
“We can force the Senate to stay in session until the New Year. This is no bluff,” Sanders’ staff director Warrenn Gunnels wrote on Twitter Monday night.
Over the summer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is in favor of a second round of direct stimulus payments, and the Trump administration has called for a second round of payments since March.
On Sunday, Trump signed the $900 billion coronavirus relief package Congress passed last week despite griping that the $600 direct payments included in the bill were not enough. House Democrats have also called for the stimulus checks to be increased to $2000.
Earlier this month, Sanders teamed up with Republican Senator Josh Hawley on a stand-alone bill that would have provided a second round of $1200 direct payments to Americans. That effort was blocked by Republican Senator Ron Johnson due to concerns about the deficit.
Hawley said he was “proud” to partner with his progressive colleague on the direct payment measure and added that he will “keep working with whomever it takes for however long it takes until we get the working people of this country relief.”
Earlier this month, Trump vetoed the $740 billion 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which lays out funding and policy priorities for the Defense Department. The president had threatened over the summer to veto the bill if it required renaming military assets named for Confederate leaders, a provision included in this bill. More recently, however, Trump said he would veto the defense spending bill if it did not repeal a legal shield for social media companies, an unrelated issue. The current bill does not scrap that liability shield, known as Section 230.
The House voted 322-87 on Monday to override the president’s veto of the sprawling defense spending bill, considerably more than the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a presidential veto. The bill now heads to the Senate for the upper chamber’s override attempt.