Third Stimulus Check: Dems Already Preparing To Approve $1,400 Payments, COVID Bill Without GOP Support

Democrats are already attempting to pass the next economic relief package, which would include $1,400 stimulus payments, even without Republican votes.

On Tuesday night, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., added votes to the chamber’s schedule next week. The process would give Democrats an option to advance President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package through a simple majority vote in the Senate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also issued a letter to Democrats on Wednesday in which she revealed that committee chairs are already laying the groundwork to use budget reconciliation to pass the relief bill and provide millions of Americans $1,400 checks.

“Committee chairs are working on coronavirus relief legislation as a basis for reconciliation, should that step be needed,” Pelosi wrote. “Democrats will not take any tools off the table.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, also suggested they will push ahead with the relief bill even without support from the GOP.

“If our Republican colleagues decide to oppose the necessary, robust, Covid relief that is needed, we will have to move forward without them,” Schumer said. “It is not our preference.”

On Monday, President Biden indicated he would wait “a couple of weeks” before deciding whether or not to use reconciliation as a means to get the bill passed.

“I don’t expect we know we’ll have an agreement ... until we get right to the very end of this process, which will probably happen in a couple of weeks,” he said.

Biden and Democrats have pushed to pass the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan to inject more money into the U.S. economy and provide millions of Americans and small businesses much needed aid.

For the first and second rounds of checks, American individuals earning $75,000 and married couples making $150,000 were eligible to receive the payments. The checks phased out for individuals earning above $99,000 and joint filers making $198,000. It is unclear whether the new round of checks will have the same income thresholds.

In addition to boosting the check’s amount, Biden also pushed to include dependents of any age and mixed-status families in the list of groups eligible to receive stimulus payments. The move could potentially extend federal aid to more than 20 million people.