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A second round of stimulus checks are in the works, but a new study says people who are poor, Black or Latino were less likely to receive the $1,200.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans were scrambling Thursday to finalize a $1 trillioncoronavirus relief package that will include another round of $1,200 stimulus checks and additional funding to help schools recover from the pandemic.
GOP leaders and the White House agreed Wednesday on key parts of the legislation, which will serve as a starting point for negotiations with Democrats, who have already passed their own bill in the House. Congress and the White House are under pressure to clinch a deal on a fresh pandemic aid package, with a federal program of expanded unemployment benefits set to run out within days.
One item that will be missing from the GOP plan is President Donald Trump’s demand for a payroll tax cut. Republicans abandoned that proposal even though Trump had suggested he might not sign any bill that doesn’t include it.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters that a payroll tax cut will not be included in the bill because the focus is getting money to workers quickly. “The payroll tax takes time,” he said.
Trump said on Twitter that Republicans abandoned the payroll tax because of objections from Democrats.
“The Democrats have stated strongly that they won’t approve a Payroll Tax Cut (too bad!),” he wrote. “It would be great for workers. The Republicans, therefore, didn’t want to ask for it. Dems, as usual, are hurting the working men and women of our Country!”
More stimulus checks?: Many Americans might not get another relief check. Here’s where things stand on another COVID-19 bill
The Republican relief package comes as the U.S. continues to reel from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 143,000 Americans and wreaked havoc on the economy. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans filing jobless claims rose for the first time since March, with 1.4 million people filing for unemployment claims.
GOP leaders hoped to release details of the package on Thursday. But Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said it could be as late as Monday before the package is made public.
Democrats immediately slammed the GOP package, saying it doesn’t go far enough to counter the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the proposal “doesn’t reconcile with the needs of the American people.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “unsatisfactory and fundamentally unserious.”
The Republican legislation will include a limited extension of unemployment benefits, Mnuchin told reporters on Capitol Hill.
An extra $600 that Americans receive on top of their weekly unemployment benefits is set to run out at the end of the month. Mnuchin said the GOP plan would extend those supplemental benefits but not at the current level. Instead, the supplemental benefits will be restructured to replace 70% of a worker’s lost wages, Mnuchin said.
“We realize there are a lot of hardworking Americans, because of COVID, still won’t have jobs, and we do not want that to expire,” Mnuchin said. “On the other hand, we’ve said we were in a different situation last time.”
Some Republicans argued the extra $600 was a disincentive for some Americans to return to work because they were earning more through unemployment than through their job. Replacing the $600 with a new formula that will replace 70% of a worker’s lost wages is an attempt to address those concerns.
The relief package will be rolled out in separate pieces of legislation instead of one comprehensive bill. Because the unemployment benefits will expire at the end of the month, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the Senate may have to take that up first, along with school funding, and then deal with the other issues later.
The Republican proposal will provide $70 billion in new funding for elementary and secondary schools. Half will be distributed on a per capita basis, while the rest will be awarded to schools that reopen this fall.
Mnuchin said the bill also will include $16 billion in new coronavirus testing, tax credits to encourage companies to hire workers and another round of direct payments to individuals.
Mnuchin said the GOP proposal for more direct payments has “the exact same provisions as last time,” when $1,200 stimulus checks were sent to individuals earning $75,000 or less
Since the coronavirus outbreak first hit the U.S., Congress and the White House have approved more than $3 trillion in aid, passing a series of bills that provided loans and grants to businesses hurt by the pandemic, stimulus checks to Americans, expanded unemployment for laid-off workers and money for increased testing and vaccine research.
For this round, House Democrats passed a $3 trillion bill in May that includes an extension of the $600 increase in unemployment benefits, a second $1,200 stimulus check for individuals and families, about $1 trillion for state and local governments, additional worker protections and more money for testing and contact tracing.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the House bill as “a non-starter” and said Republicans would come up with their own plan.
Contributing: Christal Hayes
Michael Collins covers the White House. Reach him on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS.
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