NEW: nearly 30 million people are waiting on their $1,400 checks because of a holdup at the Social Security Administration, House Dems say huffpost.com/entry/social-s…
Apparently the IRS asked SSA for payment info two weeks before the Rescue Plan passed and SSA has inexplicably withheld it!
Very notable that SSA is headed by a Trump holdover some Dems already said Biden should fire
Dems already dislike SSA commissioner Andrew Saul for his agency's feuds with its workforce plus its cuts and attempted cuts to disability benefits.
If SSA is holding up checks, that's an interesting choice
UPDATE: Social Security says they’ll hand IRS the payment info tomorrow and they couldn’t have done it sooner because of how Congress wrote the law without a specific appropriation for the task. Wow.
This is not easy to discern directly from the texts of the two laws but the CARES Act had $38 million for SSA administrative expenses that was supposed remain available until 9/31/21. Not also in ARP. I am unsure if that's the problem. congress.gov/bill/116th-con…
Dems say SSA sent IRS the payment files today.
"We are gratified that the SSA leadership finally recognized the urgency of the moment and acted swiftly on our ultimatum."
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People receiving disability benefits, who don’t file tax returns, still don’t know when to expect their rebate checks. IRS and Social Security haven’t offered guidance. Weird!
Last year IRS scrambled to deliver these payments without requiring people to file tax returns after initially saying they did have to file.
This is less wacky, but still frustrating for those affected.
House Dems are mad:
“we were alarmed to learn recently that most Social Security, SSI, RRB, and VA beneficiaries who are not required to file a tax return have not yet received their payments and the IRS is unable to provide an expected timeline for these payments.“
Susan Collins just asked Question 1 -- exactly when did the president learn of the breach? She also asks to know what he did about it.
Trump's lawyer is NOT answering the question. It's really weird.
"We have a tweet at 2:38 so it was certainly sometime before then," Michael van der Veen says, blame House managers for not providing this information.
They asked Trump to testify and his legal team called it a stunt.
Trump's impeachment defense is just trashy. They said it was antifa at the Capitol!!! huffpost.com/entry/trump-im…
“According to publicly available reporting it is apparent that extremists of various different stripes and political persuasions preplanned and premeditated an attack on the Capitol,” van der Veen said.
Come. On.
It was Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol ― Trump supporters wearing Trump shirts and Trump hats, waving Trump flags and screaming Trump’s name as they sought to stop Congress from certifying Trump’s loss in the November election.
The impeachment managers have made a strategic decision to excuse certain Republican senators for helping Trump incite the mob. huffpost.com/entry/democrat…
Joe Neguse yesterday even lauded the "bravery of the senators in this room" for their votes on Jan 6, even though 8 of them voted with Trump and the mob
Presumably Democrats are making these untruthful statements to coddle the whole Republican conference, because they showed at the first impeachment trial they will use the tiniest slights to write off the entire presentation
A Republican on the Ways and Means Committee opposes Democrats' plan for expanded unemployment benefits in part because it reminds him of his loser stepdad who wouldn't work. Intense.
He said his childhood was "marred" by his stepdad's dependence on government.
"At a young age I decided the example set by my stepdad was not the life I wanted and I put myself to work. I worked harder and longer than anyone."
It's new Ways and Means member Kevin Hern from Oklahoma.
Former GOP congressman Ted Yoho used to talk about having been on food stamps as a young adult.