McConnell just blocked an attempt to pass the bill for $2000 COVID relief checks via unanimous consent:
CNBC – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Tuesday attempt to increase direct payments in the year-end coronavirus relief bill to $2,000 by a unanimous vote.
McConnell brought the chamber back this week with one major goal: overriding Trump’s veto of the annual National Defense Authorization Act. He has not yet committed to bringing the $2,000 payment bill up for a vote, and it is unclear now how one would take shape.
Still, Democrats tried to use the limited tools at their disposal to force a vote. Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, McConnell said he planned to set up a Wednesday vote on the veto override.
He outlined three priorities Trump said he wanted Congress to address when he signed the coronavirus relief and government spending bill into law Sunday: larger direct payments, Section 230 legal liability protections for internet platforms and unfounded concerns about widespread election fraud. Without detailing any specific plans, he said that “this week, the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus.”
Schumer then called for the Senate to vote on both the defense bill veto override and the $2,000 payments and “let the chips fall where they may.” When he asked for unanimous consent to increase the size of the checks, McConnell objected.
As you may know, all it takes is one objection to kill a unanimous consent request.
After McConnell objected to Schumer’s request, he then shot down Bernie’s request to ensure a vote on the $2000 COVID relief checks would come tomorrow after the vote to override Trump’s veto of the NDAA defense bill:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., then requested a vote on the larger payments after the NDAA vote Wednesday. McConnell again objected. Then, Sanders followed through on his threat to delay consideration of the veto override by objecting to a Wednesday vote.
As you can see, Bernie is now blocking the vote on the NDAA veto override that’s supposed to happen tomorrow.
Just to highlight this from the article, McConnell did say that Senate would “begin a process” this week to deal with the $2000 relief check bill, Section 230 and Trump’s ‘unfounded concerns’ about widespread election fraud. But he didn’t detail what that process would look like.