Fourth Stimulus Check Unlikely, But Californians To Get $600 Direct Payments

The government is unlikely to send another round of stimulus payments as lawmakers focus on President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan, a report said. Californians, on the other hand, are expected to receive another round of stimulus checks after the state’s legislature approved the “Golden State Stimulus II” plan.

Democratic lawmakers have previously voiced support for recurring stimulus payments to help Americans survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration has so far sent three rounds of stimulus checks.

“The pandemic has served as a stark reminder that families and workers need certainty in a crisis. They deserve to know they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. They should not be at the mercy of constantly shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions,” a group of seven Democrats wrote in a May 17 letter addressed to Biden.

However, a bipartisan-backed outline of Biden’s infrastructure bill released last week did not include provisions for more direct payments. Biden’s $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which includes funding for education, child care, and paid family leave, also did not include provisions for more payments. There also has been no proposal of a fourth check, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, both chambers of the California legislature cleared a proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., to send additional stimulus checks to state residents, sending the measure to the governor's desk.

Under the proposal, which was introduced by Newsom in May, individuals who earn up to $75,000 a year and did not receive the first round of the state’s stimulus payments would get $600. Families with dependents would receive an additional $500.

In the “Golden State Stimulus II” plan, immigrant families who are living in the country illegally would also receive $500, according to San Francisco Gate.

The bill containing the new checks is now on Newsom’s desk, but it is waiting for the rest of the state’s $262.6 billion budget bill, which is still being hashed out by lawmakers.

Under the operating budget plan, all four-year-olds living in the state may join the state’s two-year kindergarten program by 2025 or 2026 for free. The spending plan also allocates $12 billion for homelessness programs over the next two years.

The budget plan is also expected to pay the health care costs for low-income, undocumented immigrants aged 50 and above, according to the Associated Press.