Pelosi elected to 4th term as House speaker

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell effectively shut the door on allowing a vote on a bill that would boost pandemic relief checks from $600 to $2,000. 

Republicans like McConnell have previously said they are concerned about the half-trillion-dollar price tag of the $2,000 payments that would add to the national debt.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, McConnell attacked House Democrats for wanting to send a "boatload of cash" to people making six figures who aren't in need, saying it doesn't make sense to support Americans who haven't lost income due to the pandemic. 

"The Senate's not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats' rich friends who don't need the help," McConnell said. 

He said Congress needs to send "smart targeted aid. Not another firehose of money."

McConnell also said he will not split the $2,000 relief payment bill from a repeal of Section 230 or the creation of an election fraud commission. 

"The Senate is not going to split apart the three issues that President Trump linked together," McConnell said, which means the bill, if the Senate does intend to vote on it, is unlikely to ever become law. 

Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer tried again Wednesday to unanimously pass the House standalone bill that swaps out the $600 payments for $2,000, but McConnell objected. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also tried to pass the House bill unanimously, but GOP Sen. Pat Toomey objected. 

- ABC News’ Mariam Khan

Biden’s transition held its weekly press briefing Wednesday, hammering home the same messaging the president-elect delivered himself earlier this week on transition delays. 

The team took aim at the Department of Defense and Office of Management and Budget for their lack of cooperation in the transition and also previewed some of the “day one” policy actions Biden would take once in office.

Transition spokesperson Yohannes Abraham stressed that not working with career OMB officials is hindering and needlessly delaying the team's work on COVID-19. 

“There are also health and economic repercussions to this obstruction. OMB is integral to our federal government efficiently and effectively addressing COVID,” Abraham said. “OMB leadership's refusal to fully cooperate impairs our ability to identify opportunities to maximize the relief going out to Americans during the pandemic.” 

When pressed on specific types of obstruction the transition was facing, Abraham added that the DOD has not had a meeting with the transition in 11 days, following DOD’s announcement that meetings would cease over the holidays (the DOD said this was a mutual agreement, which the Biden team has denied). Abraham also said DOD held only three meetings with the Biden team after ascertainment and before the holiday break announcement. 

Jen Psaki, Biden's pick for White House press secretary, also spoke of some of the policy actions Biden plans to take immediately when he takes office on Jan. 20. 

She announced the Biden administration will issue a memo that halts so-called “midnight rules” from the Trump administration, citing a Department of Labor rule the Trump administration is expected to publish in January that would make it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors to circumvent paying overtime, minimum-wage and other protections. 

“In addition to the regulatory freeze memo, President-elect Biden has promised to rescind harmful Trump executive orders, and deliver on our promises and the promises he and Vice president-elect Harris made on the campaign trail, including by reinstating protections for dreamers, rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, or reversing President Trump's environmental rollbacks that have made our air and water dirtier and protecting and strengthening the Affordable Care Act to lower health care costs and expand access to care,” Psaki said. 

-ABC News’ Molly Nagle

The Biden transition team announced that it surpassed its goal of naming 100 staff members by the end of the year with Wednesday’s announcement that included 28 new members of the White House staff. 

The staffers all will work in several key offices including the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of the Vice President, Office of the Staff Secretary and Oval Office Operations. 

The transition team noted that the Obama-Biden 2008 transition team only had 50 staffers at this same point. Many of the new hires have ties to the Obama White House. 

The transition team also said that 61% of staffers are women and 54% are people of color. Moreover, 11% of all White House staff are members of the LGBTQ+ community and almost 20% are first-generation Americans. 

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

In a news conference Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled that she’s got the votes to retain the speaker’s gavel, predicting enough Democrats will turn out for her when the new Congress convenes Sunday. 

With just 222 Democrats eligible to be seated, she can only afford to lose five detractors, given a couple of vacancies and another race in New York where a winner has not yet been certified. That’s a heavy lift for Pelosi given there are still eight members in her caucus who opposed her in 2019, and two more who voted present in 2017.

Pelosi also dismissed news that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., will object to the certification of the Electoral College votes next week.

“I have no doubt that on next Wednesday, a week from today, that Joe Biden will be confirmed by the acceptance of the vote of the Electoral College as the 46th president of the United States,” she said.

On the stimulus fight, Pelosi pressured Senate Republicans to act on behalf of struggling families.

"The Democrats and Republicans in the House have passed that legislation. Who is holding up that distribution to the American people? Mitch McConnell, and the Senate Republicans," Pelosi said. "In blocking it, they are in denial of the hardship that the American people are experiencing now -- health wise, financially, in every way, their lives and livelihood in many cases are on the brink."

"This $2,000 will go a long way, not only to sustain the financial security of America's working families but will help small business to thrive as well," she added.

-ABC News’ John Parkinson