McConnell Rules Out Quick Vote on House Bill for $2,000 COVID-19 Relief Checks

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that the Senate would not move quickly to consider a bill from the House of Representatives that would raise direct coronavirus relief payments to Americans from $600 to $2,000.

McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor that the stand-alone House bill, which sought to meet President Donald Trump's demands for bigger relief checks, "has no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate."

With a new U.S. Congress due to be sworn into office in just a few days, McConnell's remark suggested the legislation that passed the House on Monday will simply expire.

And with McConnell proposing legislation that ties larger aid checks to removing some social media company protections and investigating Trump's claim of voter fraud, an his alternate form of fatter stimulus checks seems doomed to fail should it reach the House.

That leaves the larger stimulus sums in limbo.