By: CBS News
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked an attempt to vote on the $2,000 stimulus checks approved by the House, but resurrected the higher payments in a new bill that includes other on President Trump s wish list: The creation of a commission to study election fraud and the repeal of Section 230, which shields social media companies from lawsuits.
The House passed the bill introduced last week and brought it to the floor for a vote in response to the last-minute request from Mr. Trump to increase the payments to $2,000. A number of Republicans joined with their Democratic counterparts in support of the measure.
Gold firms as dollar slides to multi-year low reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
EM Currencies climb as dollar weakens further Polish central bank hints at further rate cuts
Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Turkish lira rose for a sixth straight session on Wednesday after the extension of a free-trade deal with Britain, while other emerging market currencies extended gains against the dollar on optimism over additional U.S. fiscal aid.
The lira jumped 0.4% to a fresh four-month high as the trade deal with the United Kingdom, signed days before Brexit, would keep up the existing flow of goods.
Turkey also extended a ban on lay-offs for two months from Jan. 17 to limit the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and the economy in general.
McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, later introduced a bill combining the larger payments with provisions meeting Trump s demands for a repeal of legal protections for social media companies and a probe of the November election results. An aide described the action as a procedural move in response to a White House request.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer predicted the legislation would never become law.
McConnell had said earlier in the day that the Senate would begin to examine the cheques along with election integrity and limits on big technology companies: This week the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus.
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