Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson torpedoed an effort Friday to pass a second round of stimulus checks after objecting over the size of the pending coronavirus relief bill and invoking the nation’s growing national debt.
Fellow Republican Sen. Josh Hawley led the push for direct cash payments, urging senators to sign on to his bill which provides a one-time payment of $1,200 to individuals earning less than $75,000. His bill contained identical language to the CARES Act, which authorized the $1,200 cash payments in March.
“What I’m proposing is what every senator has supported already,” Hawley said on the Senate floor. “What I’m proposing will give working folks in my state and across the country a shot… at getting back up on their feet,” he added.
https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1339989080667516929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener
Senate rules, however, allow for any one member to object or block a bill’s passage.
“I completely support some kind of program targeted for small business,” Johnson said, “[But] what I fear we’re going to do with this bipartisan package and what the senator from Missouri is talking about is the same thing, is a shotgun approach,” he added.
Hawley has aligned with Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders in an effort to force direct payments into a bill to fund the government. The two allowed for a temporary one-week stopgap bill to pass without their proposal last Friday, but Sanders has that he would object to any future legislation with omitted cash payments as a form of stimulus.
If Congress fails to pass a government funding bill before midnight Friday, then the government will shut down.
After Johnson’s objection, Hawley walked off the Senate floor and told reporters that he would not allow a government funding bill to pass unless he knew everything that it contained.
“I’m not going to allow a [continuing resolution] to go through until I know what’s actually in the package,” he said, adding that he wanted “assurance” that any bill included direct financial assistance.
“It’s better include direct assistance at a substantial level,” he added.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
Going to college no longer offers the great reward of increased earnings, but it does…
College degrees have become less important as Bidenomics destroys the economy, so why these mental…
Facebook executives believed they were engaged in a “knife fight” with President Joe Biden’s White…
Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, told reporters Wednesday during a press conference that…
Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a new immigration enforcement bill Wednesday, months after a…
U.S. productivity growth slowed in the first quarter of 2024, casting doubt on the American…