Bipartisan group of senators pushes back on $1,400 stimulus checks. What we know
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is pushing back on $1,400 stimulus payments and calling instead for more targeted relief, throwing a wrench in President Joe Biden’s promise to provide more direct payments during the pandemic.
The group of senators, spearheaded by Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, held a call with National Economic Council Director Brian Deese on Sunday to discuss Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal.
Manchin and others questioned whether the plan’s $1,400 payments for most Americans could be “more narrowly targeted” to those in need, The Washington Post reported.
“I was the first to raise that issue, but there seemed to be a lot of agreement … that those payments need to be more targeted,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, according to Politico. “I would say that it was not clear to me how the administration came up with its $1.9 trillion figure for the package.”
Collins said the cost of the relief plan was a “concern” and that the group of senators will need to reconvene on how to respond, according to Politico. The lawmakers were pivotal to passing the $900 billion coronavirus relief package from December that provided $600 direct payments to most Americans.
Sen. Angus King, an independent representing Maine, also questioned the cost of the proposal, The Washington Post reported.
“This isn’t Monopoly money,” King said. “Every dollar that we’re talking about here is being borrowed from our grandchildren. We have a responsibility to be stewards.”
There was, however, support among the group for spending money on vaccine distribution and production, which some said had the “highest priority,” according to The Washington Post.
In addition to stimulus checks, Biden’s emergency plan unveiled two weeks ago also includes extended unemployment benefits, $415 billion to boost the pandemic response and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, about $440 billion for small businesses and communities and $130 billion for schools. The plan also calls for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
“We will finish the job of getting a total of $2,000 in cash relief to people who need it the most,” Biden said. “The $600 already appropriated is simply not enough.”
Biden previously pledged to Georgia voters in the last days of the Senate runoff campaigns that $2,000 checks would be passed if Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were elected.
“That money would go out the door immediately, to help people who are in real trouble,” Biden said. “Think about what it will mean to your lives — putting food on the table, paying rent.”
The proposal has faced opposition from some lawmakers who have questioned the cost and timing of the plan.
Manchin initially told The Washington Post he “absolutely” doesn’t support $2,000 stimulus checks.
He has since softened his stance, telling WOWK last week: “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.”
This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 12:49 PM with the headline "Bipartisan group of senators pushes back on $1,400 stimulus checks. What we know."