Getty Self-supporting students who are not declared as dependents on someone's tax return can claim the $1,200 stimulus payment themselves.
President Elect Joe Biden says that Americans hoping for a second round of COVID-19 stimulus checks might be in luck. He thinks a second stimulus check is “in play.”
Biden made the comments on December 4, 2020 in a news conference.
His comments come after a bipartisan plan for stimulus relief gets more Republican support in the U.S. Senate. That plan, though, doesn’t include a second round of checks at all.
The bipartisan plan does include $160 billion to help state, local, and tribal governments deal with the pandemic’s costs. According to CNN, the bipartisan plan resulted from talks that included Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy and Mitt Romney alongside Democratic Senators Joe Manchin, Mark Warner and Jeanne Shaheen and an independent, Angus King.
Here’s what you need to know:
Biden Said the Bipartisan Play Would Be Better If It Included $1,200 Checks
GettyPresident-elect Joe Biden.
Biden made his comments on the checks in the context of the bipartisan plan, which would clock in at $900 billion, somewhat in between the $2.2 trillion Democrats wanted and $500 billion that Republicans had said they were willing to accept.
A second round of stimulus checks “may be still in play,” he said, according to CNBC.
“I think it would be better if they had the $1,200 [payments to families],” Biden said when reporters asked about the bipartisan plan.
He added, “And I understand that may be still in play. But, I’m not going to comment on the specific details. The whole purpose of this is, we’ve got to make sure people aren’t thrown out of their apartments, lose their homes, are able to have unemployment insurance [that] they can continue to feed their families on as we grow back the economy.”
The Bipartisan Plan Has Been Gaining Critical Support
GettyChuck Grassley
The bipartisan plan comes as Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been in gridlock for months over the cost of a second relief plan. Biden, as with President Donald Trump, doesn’t have authority to get it done on his own because the U.S. Constitution gave funding authority to Congress.
Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas have now indicated that they may support the bipartisan plan, according to NJ.com.
According to CNBC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have now signed onto the bipartisan plan too as a “basis” for starting more talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Democrats have indicated they think the plan is a good start but say they want to add more into it. That’s where Biden’s stimulus checks comments come into play; he’s trying to use the power of his soon-to-be bully pulpit to get Democrats more of what they want. Although stimulus checks weren’t include in the initial bipartisan proposal, both Republicans and Democrats are on record as saying in the past that they hoped to send another round of direct payments to the American people.
In the news conference, CNBC reported, Biden indicated that both sides need to compromise and that he was willing to do so, saying, “If you insist on everything, you’re likely to get nothing on both sides.”
READ NEXT: Wife Shoots D.C. Police Detective Husband After Sharing Wedding Video, Police Say