Sherrod Brown to Senate Republican leadership: Allow vote on stimulus

Sen. Sherrod Brown on Wednesday demanded Senate Republican leadership allow a vote on increasing federal stimulus checks to $2,000 per person as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The legislation has the support of senators from both parties as well as President Donald Trump, Brown told reporters on a conference call. Rather than allowing CEOs to buy back their company's own stock, he said the solution is simple. "The best way to help Ohioans is to put the money in their pockets," Brown said. That money will then be spent on food, rent, utilities and in local communities rather than on Wall Street, he said. Brown said Congress was able to pass the CARES Act in March, which helped keep 13 million people out of poverty, expanded unemployment insurance and sent out stimulus checks. He said he would have preferred the federal government send out $2,000 checks to every adult on a quarterly basis as long as the nation remained in a public health emergency. "It's clear now that's what we should have done," Brown said. The bill passed last week was "a step in the right direction," but Brown said there is a need for more, including for Congress to come together, "reject political gains" and have the Senate vote on the stimulus package. Senate Republican leadership is "always playing games," he said. "Quit playing games," Brown demanded. In March, Brown and fellow Democratic senators Michael Bennet of Colorado and Cory Booker of New Jersey proposed immediate $2,000 cash payments to every adult, child or non-child dependent, and recipient of Social Security, VA and SSI benefits. He and a bipartisan group of senators also proposed protecting CARES Act recovery payments from garnishment by private debt collectors and successfully pressed the Treasury Department to automatically issue stimulus checks to Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries, as their information is already available to the federal government without forcing them to file separate tax returns. "We've got to come big and continue to do things that are going to matter to the public," Brown said. Brown also said President-elect Joe Biden and his staff have "a No. 1 goal" — to get the COVID-19 vaccine deployed and to vaccinate as many Americans as they can. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.