Here’s how South Carolina’s congressmen voted on $2,000 COVID-19 stimulus checks
South Carolina’s U.S. House delegation voted down party lines Monday night on a stimulus bill that increases the amount of COVID-19 aid directly given to taxpayers under a certain income from $600 to $2,000.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Jim Clyburn and Joe Cunningham voted in favor of the measure, while Republican Reps. Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman, Tom Rice, William Timmons and Joe Wilson voted against it.
The House passed the bill Monday evening with a vote of 275-134, with 44 Republicans in favor days after House Republicans blocked an attempt to raise the direct payments following the president’s call for increased stimulus checks.
“$600 is not enough to help struggling American families keep a roof over their head, put food on the table, and keep the lights on,” Clyburn, the third most powerful Democrat in the House, tweeted after the vote.
Timmons, who represents parts of Greenville and Spartanburg counties, said he supported Trump’s call to increase the stimulus for Americans “who are still suffering through no fault of their own,” but he could not support the bill voted on Monday night as written.
“But the bill Nancy Pelosi put on the floor today would have provided tens of millions of Americans that never experienced any income disruption a windfall on the backs of future generations,” Timmons said in a statement. “It should have been amended to target those who could show actual economic injury as a result of the pandemic.”
The majority of South Carolina’s delegation voted in favor of the COVID-19 package first passed last week in a 359-53 vote.
Then, only voting against were Norman and Timmons, who criticized getting a 5,600-page omnibus bill the night before the vote and its attachment to a “bloated government funding bill,” respectively.
Duncan and Wilson, who had COVID-19, were not in Washington and did not vote then.
The Monday vote comes after President Donald Trump voiced his displeasure over the amount of money Congress chose to send back to taxpayers as stimulus in the spending bill passed last week. The spending bill, which included COVID-19 relief for Americans and small businesses, set aside money to send $600 to each taxpayer under a certain income and $1,200 to couples who file jointly.
Trump called on Congress to increase the stimulus checks to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for couples, calling the $600 amount “ridiculously low.”
After days of holding onto the bill and allowing unemployment benefits to lapse, Trump eventually signed it.
With the bill out of the House, it faces an uphill climb in the Senate.
By Tuesday afternoon, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, had blocked an immediate vote on the raise. And U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, had threatened to filibuster a vote to override the president’s veto of a defense bill until Republicans agree to vote on direct payments.
Despite questions about the future of the bill in the Senate, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has made his thoughts clear.
Graham golfed with Trump at his Florida golf club on Christmas, pushing him to sign the stimulus bill, the New York Times reported.
“I support President @realDonaldTrump’s demand to increase direct payments for long-suffering Americans to $2,000 per person,” the Seneca Republican tweeted Wednesday.
“Let’s vote,” he added.
Clyburn echoed Graham’s calls Monday evening.
“The House voted to increase direct payments to $2,000,” Clyburn tweeted. “The Senate ought to do the same.”
How they voted
▪ U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham D-Charleston: Yes
▪ U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia: Yes
▪ U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens: No
▪ U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill: No
▪ U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach: No
▪ U.S. Rep. William Timmons, R-Greenville: No
▪ U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Springdale: No
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
