US House OKs $2,000 Stimulus Checks, Sends Bill To Senate

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Monday (Dec. 28) to pass legislation raising individual stimulus check payments to $2,000 instead of $600, CNBC reported, in line with a call from President Donald Trump last week.

It’s still uncertain how the legislation will fare in the Senate, and CNBC reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t respond to requests for comment. McConnell has recently made statements about Trump’s decision to pass the year-end legislation that included more pandemic relief, but he hasn’t said whether he’ll support the larger payments Trump and Democrats have requested.

The House passed the measure Monday in a 275-134 vote, with just enough support to meet the two-third threshold needed to cinch it, CNBC reported. Democrats backed the legislation by a margin of 231-2, while 44 Republicans joined to sign on.

According to CNBC, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would try to pass the bill on Tuesday (Dec. 29) in the Senate.

Sen. Bernie Sanders also said on Monday that he would delay the Senate’s plans to override Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act unless the Senate also passed the $2,000 checks, CNBC reported.

Trump objected to a bill passed last week that included pandemic relief, which came with $600 individual checks for Americans. He said it was a “disgrace” and demanded higher payments of $2,000. He didn’t veto the measure, and instead waited several days to sign it, finally doing so on Sunday (Dec. 27).

If Congress does pass the new $2,000 checks, a senior Treasury Department official told CNBC that the $600 payments would still go out on time, and the rest of the money would be added later.

PYMNTS reported that the stimulus checks could be disbursed smoother this time, as opposed to last time when many residents waited weeks or months to get their checks and others didn’t get them at all. The PYMNTS Disbursements Tracker for December says using solely digital, instantaneous disbursements could make the difference for peoples’ financial health and other issues like security.