McConnell introduces new $2,000 stimulus check bill—with two caveats

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel faced ire from both parties on Tuesday for blocking the vote of a $2,000 stimulus check for every American, up from the $600 promised by the recently-signed coronavirus relief package. Now he is reintroducing it with two key changes.

The new bill ties the $2,000 relief checks to the repeal of Section 230, which gives social media companies the right to regulate content posted by their users without facing legal liability for it. Section 230 has been a target of Republicans for years, with the GOP arguing that big tech platforms have abused their privileges under the law. Republicans believe big tech giants to be biased against conservatives, more strictly regulating and restricting conservative content compared to more left-wing material, Daily Wire reports.

Such issues came to the forefront in October after the release of an article from the New York Post exposing Hunter Biden's business ventures in Ukraine and China. The article was censored by both Facebook and Twitter on dubious grounds of hacking and fake news.

Democrats have opposed Republican efforts to overturn Section 230, arguing that it is a necessary safeguard allowing tech giants to rid their platforms of fake news and hate speech.

The other caveat of McConnell's new bill is to establish what would be called the Election Assistance Commission, which would be a congressional committee investigating the integrity of US elections.

The Trump campaign has alleged that massive voter fraud in battleground states helped swing the recent presidential election in Joe Biden's favour. While some electoral irregularities have been discovered, claims of widespread and coordinated voter fraud have been dismissed by courts.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described McConnell's proposal as a "cynical gambit."

"The president highlighted three additional issues of national significance he would like to see Congress tackle together," McConnell said of his proposed legislation. "Those are the three important subjects the president has linked together. This week the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus."

The original bill received bipartisan support, passing the house 275-134 with 44 Republicans supporting the checks. The relief checks also have GOP support in the Senate, with Senators Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler expressing support for the legislation.

"I share many of my colleagues’ concern about the long-term effects of additional spending, but we cannot ignore the fact that millions of working-class families across the nation are still in dire need of relief. Congress should quickly pass legislation to increase direct payments to Americans to $2,000," Rubio argued.

President Trump took to Twitter to criticize McConnell, although not by name, for opposing the initial legislation.

Trump has not yet commented on McConnell's new proposal.