Second Stimulus Check: Nancy Pelosi Continues Pushing for HEROES Act to Be Passed Ahead of GOP Vote

As Senate Republicans prepare to vote on their newly introduced 'skinny' stimulus relief package, [...]

By Allison Schonter

As Senate Republicans prepare to vote on their newly introduced "skinny" stimulus relief package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding out hope that the May-introduced HEROES Act still has a chance. Just hours after the GOP revealed their new proposal in the Senate on Wednesday, Pelosi took to Twitter, issuing a call for the HEROES Act to be passed in the Republican-controlled Senate 116 days after it was passed in the House of Representatives.

This statement is not the first time that Pelosi has called on Senate Republicans to bring the HEROES Act up for a vote. The bill had first been proposed in May, less than two months after President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act, and had been approved in the House in a vote of 208-199. At the time of the vote, Pelosi had said the bill would "make a tremendous difference not only in the budgets in the states but in the lives of the American people" and called on members of Congress to "come together and give them a real signal that we care by allocating the resources to meet their needs."

However, after gaining approval in the House, it never went any further. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as Pelosi pointed out, has so far refused to bring the HEROES Act to the Senate floor for a vote, where it is almost guaranteed to fail. Among Republicans, it has been deemed a "$3 trillion left wing wish list" that includes "far-left ideas like stimulus checks for illegal immigrant." Given that Democrats are outnumbered in the Senate, it is unlikely that the bill would receive enough votes to make it to the president's desk.

Regardless of that fact, several Democrats have criticized the stall in a vote. Speaking with Joy Reid on MSNBC's The ReidOut in August, Pelosi slammed McConnell for pushing "the pause button" on the legislation. She went on to state that what happened next not only cost livelihoods but tens of thousands of American lives, explaining how "during that pause, 3.5 million more people were added to the list of those infected and over 75,000 more people have died once they pushed the pause button."

The House Speaker's latest remarks, however, come as the Senate prepares to take a vote on at least one coronavirus relief measure. A $500 billion "skinny" bill that Republicans introduced this week is set to be voted on Thursday. It remains unclear at this time if the bill has enough support to pass.

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