The $ 1,400 pandemic aid payments that President Joe Biden advocated are a baby step closer to reaching Americans in need.
The House Ways and Resources Committee on Thursday night voted to advance a large part of Biden’s proposed $ 1.9 trillion pandemic aid package – including the part that would provide direct payments of $ 1,400 to the majority of Americans. Here are the latest news on what to know about the next round of stimulus checks.
Who could receive payments of $ 1,400?
Many elements of the latest relief bill remain in flux, while legislators reflect on income limits.
The most recent version of the bill presented by the Forms and Resources Committee on Thursday offers a refundable tax credit of $ 1,400 that would go to individuals who earned up to $ 75,000 and would be eliminated completely when an individual’s income level reaches $ 100,000. For joint filers, this payment could be up to $ 2,800 and would be phased out between $ 150,000 and $ 200,000.
The Treasury is instructed to issue this credit as an advance payment based on tax returns of 2019 or 2020 and the department is asked to make a disclosure to non-taxpayers to inform them how to request advance payment, according to the committee.
“In the past two days, the Ways and Means Committee has considered aggressive, science-based solutions that will provide the urgent relief that our country so badly needs,” said Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., In a statement at Thursday night applauding the group for advancing portions of the aid package. “From unemployment insurance to accessibility to health insurance, the work we have done is substantial and it is exactly what the American people have been asking us to do in this moment.”
The advance of the bill by the Forms and Means Committee, however, is just one of the many obstacles it has to go through before it becomes law.
Income limits have been at the center of a heated debate as Republicans push for targeted help for low-income individuals and Democrats call for widespread relief that at least go to working families with the same income limits in the previous round of relief checks. .
Earlier this week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that discussions about the $ 1,400 check are still ongoing, but that President Biden is unlikely to support any income limit below $ 60,000.
“So his opinion is that a nurse, a teacher, a fireman, who is earning $ 60,000, should also not be left without any support or relief. It is just a matter of what the raise looks like – what it looks like in a final package, but it’s still being negotiated at this point, “said Psaki.
When pressed on Senator Bernie Sander’s assessment of Vermont that it would be “absurd” to reduce the limit on who should receive the $ 1,400 checks, Psaki refused to answer, but said that once a limit was found, they would be happy to have the discussion.
When can people expect to see checks?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, gave an estimated timeline of the bill’s status during her weekly news conference on Thursday.
“We hope to finish our appointments on the committee this week and then send it to the budget committee next week for them to work on their will on it, then to the rules committee and then to the plenary, and we hope to have it all this done in late February, “said Pelosi.
She added that they intend to have him “at the president’s desk in time to make up for the March 14 deadline, when some unemployment benefits will expire”.
When pressed, she doubled up, reiterating that the plan is “to approve it by the end of February, so that we can send it to the president’s desk before unemployment insurance expires.”
If the bill is passed around March 14, most eligible Americans can expect to see their checks by the end of March.
It took approximately two weeks for direct deposits to be delivered to Americans during the first round of relief through the CARES Act last March, although the wait was much longer for those who did not declare taxes or chose another option to receive relief. – – for example, by means of a check sent by mail.
During the second round of pandemic aid that included checks for $ 600 for most Americans and was sanctioned in late December, however, many received their payments faster than last spring, as the infrastructure was already ready to withdraw the money .