Getty House Democrats are in the process of drafting a roughly $2.4 trillion coronavirus relief bill.
A new Democratic plan to break the logjam in COVID-19 stimulus relief negotiations has made it through the House. According to CNN, the House passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus relief package on October 1.
However, does it contain a second round of stimulus checks? If so, in which amount? Various amounts have been floated for stimulus checks two, including $1,200, $3,400, and $4,000. Also: What are the chances that the House plan goes into effect so Americans actually get the money?
The answers: Yes, the new plan does include stimulus checks. They would amount to $1,200 per taxpayer. It’s still called the Heroes Act, just an updated version of it.
According to the House Committee on Appropriations, the updated Heroes Act “provides additional direct payments, cushioning the economic blow of the coronavirus crisis with a more robust second round of economic impact payments of $1,200 per taxpayer and $500 per dependent.”
That means that the $3,400 is also true – for a family of four. The $4,000 figure appears to be off the table. That was an amount proposed by a group of Republican senators last summer as a compromise, but it hasn’t really been taken seriously since then or come back up.
As for the most important question: Will the money make it to taxpayers? That remains uncertain. It needs to get through the Republican-controlled Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been in negotiations all week. The two sides remain about a trillion dollars apart. It’s not stimulus checks that they’re hung up over; both sides have stated they agree with the idea of another $1,200 check. It’s the overall pricetag of the plan and other things in it that have stalled talks. In fact, before the House vote, Pelosi had initially delayed the vote so negotiations could continue. She then pushed it through. Senate Republicans previously pushed forth their own “skinny” bill of pared back stimulus relief. But it didn’t include checks and Democrats wouldn’t support it.
With the election looming and President Trump now diagnosed with COVID-19, it’s far from clear what will happen next.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Treasury Secretary Says Both Sides Reached Agreement on Direct Payments to Americans
GettyU.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
That’s because they need the Republican-controlled Senate for anything to get through. Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein tweeted that there seems to be some hope, “Oh boy twitter. (Treasury Secretary Steven) Mnuchin just now on talks with Pelosi: ‘We have reached an agreement that if there is a deal there will be direct payments’ — meaning the $1,200 stimulus checks. Still need the deal tho!”
The plan would also include $600 in weekly unemployment benefits.
Forbes reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mnuchin were resuming talks on October 1. “We’ll have to see. If we have an agreement, we’re going to pass that agreement, then we’re done until after the election,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, according to Forbes.
Pelosi wrote in a letter, “Democrats are unveiling an updated Heroes Act that serves as our proffer to Republicans to come to negotiations to address the health and economic catastrophe in our country. This $2.2 trillion Heroes Act provides the absolutely needed resources to protect lives, livelihoods and the life of our democracy over the coming months. It includes new funding needed to avert catastrophe for schools, small businesses, restaurants, performance spaces, airline workers and others.”
She added, “It has been more than four months since House Democrats sent the GOP Senate $3.4 trillion in desperately needed coronavirus relief grounded in science and data, and Leader McConnell hit the pause button. In our negotiations with the White House since then, Democrats offered to come down a trillion dollars if Republicans would come up a trillion dollars. Then, we offered to come down $200 billion more, even as the health and economic crisis has worsened and the needs have only grown.”
Republicans Want a Plan Closer to $1.5 Trillion
GettySenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
How far apart are the two sides? They’re getting closer, but they’re still quite a ways apart. Initially Republicans wanted $1 trillion as the cap, and Democrats wanted a plan exceeding #3 trillion. Although the Democrats’ proposal represents a compromise from them on the overall amount of the second relief plan, Republicans wanted a plan closer to $1.5 trillion, according to CNBC.
The White House has proposed $1.5 trillion as a counter proposal.
“If it starts with a 2, it’s going to be a real problem,” White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told Reuters on September 30.
According to Forbes, Pelosi said that Mnuchin and she “found areas where we are seeking further clarification” and Mnuchin said, “We’re gonna go back and do a little more work again.” Although by no means definitive on the chances of a second check, that’s rhetoric less sharp than previous comments from the two.
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