Getty Will there be a second COVID-19 stimulus check, but what would it look like, and what is the HEALS Act?
People may see more money in the second round of COVID-19 stimulus checks based on Republican proposals in the U.S. Senate.
According to Fox Business, the Republican plan, which still needs to come to a vote, would give many Americans another $1,200 check using almost the same guidelines as last time. Those earning under $75,000 would qualify for the $1,200, whereas those earning up to $99,000 would get gradually smaller amounts.
However, there’s one change that would mean many Americans would see more money than $1,200 in the second round of checks.
According to Fox Business, this time, families who have adult dependents (those over age 17) would get an extra $500 for each dependent. This would allow parents of adult college students, for example, to get the payment for each child, as long as they remain an adult dependent.
“A married couple with two children could receive up to $3,400,” Fox explained.
There was another big sign that a second round of stimulus checks could bring more money to people. President Donald Trump said in a recent interview in Texas that the checks might be “way higher” than the $1,200 sent out to many Americans last time. “The Democrats are holding back the $1,200 to $3,400 (family of four) checks that were ready to be sent out!” Trump tweeted on July 31.
Here’s what you need to know:
Many College Students Were Left Out of the Stimulus Checks Last Time But Republicans Want to Fix That
GettyWill there be a second coronavirus stimulus check?
Not all adult dependents are college students. However, many are, and those students were left out of the first round of stimulus checks. This is despite the fact that many college students are service workers who also lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
The HEALS act, which is the name of Senate Republicans’ second stimulus relief proposal, would fix that. It “includes just a few people that were unintentionally left out of the last one. Mostly dependents, college and adults, that are somebody else’s dependents,” Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said on July 27.
The key language that would mean some Americans could see more than $1,200: “A dependent of any age” would qualify a person for the extra $500.
According to CJNet, in the first round of checks, “the cutoff to receive a $500 dependent check was age 16 and younger and college students under 24 were not eligible to receive a check.”
A Countering Proposal Would Give All Dependents Checks
However, there’s a counter proposal by a group of Senators that would send Americans $1,000 checks, according to a press release sent out by the GOP senators. Thus, the final amount is going to depend on how negotiations turn out in the Republican controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently said that could take weeks to unfold, not days, which could push a second stimulus check into September.
Here’s the thing about the counter proposal, though; if that plan were adopted, some Americans who received nothing last time would get checks. The $1,000 checks would go to Americans “regardless of age or dependent status.”
“The Coronavirus Assistance for American Families Act would provide payments of $1,000 for adults and children with Social Security numbers (SSNs). A family of four would receive an additional $600 more than under the CARES Act,” a press release from U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) reads.
Their plan would:
Disburse Economic Impact Payments of $1,000 for both adults and children with SSNs equally, $2,000 if filing jointly. A family of four would receive $4,000.
Includes eligibility for adult dependents, including those with disabilities or college students.
Includes eligibility for US citizens married to foreign nationals but does not include eligibility for foreign nationals or ITIN filers.
Trump Told a Texas Journalist That the Second Stimulus Checks ‘May Go Higher’ Than $1,200
GettyPresident Donald Trump has signaled interest in another round of stimulus payments — but this likely won’t be approved until August at the earliest.
Trump made the comments on July 29 as the U.S. Senate continues to debate the provisions of a second relief package for coronavirus, which is expected to contain a second round of direct payments to Americans. After Trump landed in Texas, he sat down for a one-on-one interview with a local television station, YourBasin.com. That’s when he made the remarks about stimulus checks.
When the journalist asked Trump, “Is $1,200 dollars enough?” the president replied, “We’re going to see it may go higher than that actually.”
The Democratic-controlled House previously passed a plan that would give many Americans a second stimulus check. However, the plan still needs to make it through the Republican-controlled Senate, which has experienced some dissent among Republican ranks over the amount of spending in the broader relief plan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put the blame on Democrats for the delay in approving a plan in a tweet, writing, “Democrats are holding up urgent help for struggling people over completely unrelated liberal wish-list items, like massive tax cuts for rich people in blue states. Economists across the spectrum say it’s a terrible idea. This is how serious they are about these negotiations.” Democrats have challenged some Republican stances on the relief plan, such as their desire to cut the $600 weekly unemployment benefit approved to deal with the pandemic.
The journalist also asked Trump how big he thinks the stimulus checks should be. “Where would you like to see it at?” she asked.
“I’d like to see it be very high because I love the people I want the people to get it you know the economy is going to come back we just had tremendous job numbers as you know it was just announced we had great retail sales numbers so this is all coming back we had the greatest economy we’ve ever had and we had to close it up because you know we had to do it we saved millions of lives by doing that but now we’re bringing it back and now it’s going to come back we gotta take care of the people in the meantime,” Trump told YourBasin.com.
The reporter also asked Trump whether he was happy “with the coronavirus relief package that the Tepublicans are bringing to the table?”
Trump responded: “So we’re working on that right now Katie, it’s being working on that very hard. I think probably we’re going to have something that is going to be very good over the next week or so we want to take care of people that don’t have jobs were taking care of a lot of people very important we have to do it smart but we want we very generous.”
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