Third Stimulus Check: Here's Who Will Get $ 1,400 Under the House Relief Plan
With the House in full swing on the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package on Friday, many wonder if they will qualify for the promised $ 1,400 stimulus checks included in the proposal.
The short answer from now on: If you got a check in the last round, you will get one this time too.
While that could change as the measure progresses through the Senate, the current plan keeps income thresholds at the same mark as the last payment of $ 600.
If you need a review, anyone who has earned $ 75,000 or less will receive the full amount, and couples who earn $ 150,000 or less will receive $ 2,800 in aid payments. As your income level rises above these thresholds, the amount you will receive decreases. The current plan calls for a phasing out of direct payments for single people earning $ 100,000 and couples earning $ 200,000.
Republican leaders and even some Democratic lawmakers have called for and proposed lower thresholds to ensure direct payments go to the Americans who need them most. However, President Joe Biden has rejected that.
In addition to those $ 1,400 payments, the proposal includes an increase in the child tax credits and offers additional weekly federal unemployment benefits of $ 400 through August. It would provide hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments, schools closed, COVID-19 vaccines and testing, and airlines and other businesses in trouble.
One thing the House measure will include, but the Senate likely won't: $ 15 minimum wage.
Biden's proposal appears highly likely to die in the Senate after the Senate MP said Thursday that the cherished progressive goal should be removed from aid legislation, Senate Democratic aides said.
The finding by Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber's nonpartisan arbiter of its rules, means Democrats face an overwhelmingly uphill battle to raise the minimum wage this year in the face of strong Republican opposition.
Biden, a supporter of the $ 15 increase, was "disappointed" with the result, but respected the MP's ruling, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The Senate has a long tradition of heeding the decisions of MPs with few exceptions, a story that is revered by traditionalists like Biden, a 36-year Senate veteran.
"He will work with the leaders of Congress to determine the best way forward because no one in this country should work full time and live in poverty," said Psaki.
Democrats are pushing the massive coronavirus relief measure in Congress under special rules that will allow them to avoid obstructionism in the Senate by Republicans, a tactic that Democrats would need 60 unattainable votes to defeat.
But those same Senate rules prohibit provisions with an "incidental" impact on the federal budget because they are primarily driven by other policy purposes. MacDonough said the minimum wage provision failed that test.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the minimum wage plan would remain in that House legislation anyway, saying, "House Democrats believe that raising the minimum wage is necessary."
She probably had few options: Many House Democrats are progressives who insist that the party fight for the pay increase. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, one of the main sponsors of the minimum wage increase, said Democrats should not be swayed by "the advisory opinion of Republican and parliamentary obstructionism."
Democrats can afford little dissent over the minimum wage or anything else on the COVID-19 relief bill. They only have a 10-vote lead in the House and have no votes to spare in the Senate 50-50.
Despite their slim majority in Congress, Democratic leaders hoped that approval of the package by the House would be followed by approval in the Senate, where changes appear likely. Democrats aim to get the legislation to Biden's desk by mid-March.
