Where do stimulus checks stand after Biden, new Senate are sworn in? What we know
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package with $1,400 stimulus checks unveiled by President Joe Biden last week could reach the House of Representatives floor soon. If the legislation passes the House, it would also have to pass the newly Democratic-controlled Senate.
“We’re getting ready for a COVID relief package. We’ll be working on that as we go,” the California Democrat said Thursday, according to The Hill. “We’ll be doing our ... committee work all next week so that we are completely ready to go to the floor when we come back.”
A vote hasn’t been scheduled but Pelosi suggested that the package could hit the House floor as soon as the week of Feb. 1, the publication reported.
Biden’s emergency plan also includes extended unemployment benefits, $415 billion to boost the pandemic response and roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, and around $440 billion for small businesses and communities.
“We will finish the job of getting a total of $2,000 in cash relief to people who need it the most,” Biden said during last week’s speech. “The $600 already appropriated is simply not enough.”
The $900 billion coronavirus relief package from December included $600 direct payments to most Americans. That’s half the size of the checks sent out under the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which was signed in March and provided $1,200 payments to individuals who met that same income threshold.
The legislation will require a simple majority to pass the House and Senate. Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate with a 50-50 split and a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris. To pass another round of stimulus checks, Democrats could also use a parliamentary Senate procedure that would require Biden to get rid of certain parts of the package, such as the federal minimum wage increase to $15.
National Economic Council Director Brian Deese is scheduled to meet with senators from both parties in the next few days, CNBC reported. Deese will consider input from GOP senators.
The proposal has faced opposition from some lawmakers.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat representing West Virginia, initially told The Washington Post he “absolutely” doesn’t support $2,000 stimulus checks.
Manchin has since softened his stance, telling WOWK-TV on Tuesday: “We have people, basically, that said, ‘I didn’t need this, I wish somebody, my neighbor, would have gotten more, they needed more than I needed. So all that type of stuff — and if we can get that targeted, is there a way to target it? Maybe there’s not. But we got to get more money out.”
GOP Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said it may be too soon to pass another relief bill.
“We just passed a program with over $900 billion in it,” Romney said, according to Reuters. “I’m not looking for a new program in the immediate future.”
“The ink is just barely dry on the $900 billion, and what the president is proposing is significant — $1.9 trillion,” Murkowski said after Biden’s inauguration. “It’s going to require, I think, a fair amount of debate and consideration.”
Republican Rep. Tom Reed of New York indicated he could be open to some parts of the proposal but suggested cheaper stimulus checks.
“One of the things I think could really get people together is vaccine distribution which is part of the $1.9 trillion,” Reed said, according to Reuters. “So maybe we start there.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended the legislation Wednesday when asked about the objections to the cost.
“The package wasn’t designed with the $1.9 trillion as a starting point. It was designed with the components that were necessary to give people the relief that they needed,” she told reporters during a news briefing.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Where do stimulus checks stand after Biden, new Senate are sworn in? What we know."