Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocks immediate vote on $2,000 stimulus checks

After Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell blocked an effort by President Donald Trump and Democrats to increase stimulus payments to Americans, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said $600 payments would begin to be delivered Tuesday night. Mnuchin announced that the Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service would begin delivering the $600 payments included in the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill signed into law by President Donald Trump over the weekend as early as Tuesday night through direct deposit, with paper checks being mailed out Wednesday.

Earlier in the day the Senate met after Democrats and Trump asked to increase the amount from $600 in the current relief package to $2,000. The House passed the increase on Monday. There was Republican opposition in the House, but recent GOP support was sidetracked by McConnell who said the upper chamber would begin a process to consider larger stimulus payments and tie it to resolving two other Trump complaints — election security and removing federal protections for technology companies such as Facebook and Twitter.

Democrats are expected to hold another vote this week to again pass the raise The measure would have passed Tuesday if all 100 senators had agreed to the raise, but with McConnell’s block, it could now take days or weeks for the Senate to debate and convene for a vote.