Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.
Washington, D.C. — The Democratically-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted Monday, 275-134, to approve a bill for $2,000 stimulus checks relative to the coronavirus pandemic, the measure heading Tuesday afternoon to the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate for possible approval there.
The bill seeks to remedy a discrepancy between Congressional Democrats and Republicans over the amount of monies allocated for individuals struggling to put food on the table as the crimpling pandemic rages across America, and the world.
The House voted 359-53 last Monday to pass a $900 billion Covid-19 relief package shorty before the Senate approved the measure in a 92-6 vote.
It was the second major relief bill since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in early March with a vengeance, this latest package providing stimulus checks of up to $600 per person for individuals earning $75,000 per year and married couples who earn up to $150,000, with $600 more for each dependent under 18 living in the same household.
President Trump, however, initially refused to sign the $900 billion relief package measure and instead demanded an increase in individual stimulus checks from $600 $2,000.
He later signed the deal into law with the expectation that stimulus monies would be increased.
The $900 billion relief bill also provides $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as an increase in food stamp benefits
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sided with the president as to the need for increased stimulus monies and led the House in passing the bill for $2,000 in stimulus checks.
Regardless, stimulus relief checks, if and when Congress approves them, are not expected until sometime in January.
Congressional Democrats remain upset over the manner in which the Republicans handled the coronavirus stimulus relief issues vis this last effort at bringing a degree of economic relief to the American people.
“American families should not have had to wait this long for coronavirus relief,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat whose ninth congressional district extends to Cleveland and the longest serving woman in the U.S House. “It is a national disgrace that Senate Republicans refused to act for over half a year while COVID-19 ravaged our nation, infecting over 17.2 million Americans and killing over 310,000, resulting in devastating public health and economic crises affecting every single person in this country.”
The federal lawmaker said that House and Senate Republicans had acted irresponsibly in limiting this most recent round of coronavirus stimulus relief payments to $600.
“Despite Democrats’ efforts for larger relief payments, Republicans flatly refused and limited this legislation to a payment of $600 in direct relief even as coronavirus continues to infect more people on a daily basis than at any other point in the pandemic," said Kaptur. "While the direct aid is half of what we were able to approve last spring, the need has surely not subsided.
The congresswoman said that "the fact that this bill extends exactly zero dollars to state and local governments to aid in their coronavirus response is a disgrace and a failure of government."
She said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans "ought to be ashamed."
"All of this just three years after Republicans passed a $1.5 trillion dollar tax cut bill for corporations and the wealthy," she said.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
