A new coronavirus relief bill proposed by some lawmakers would allow for more recurring stimulus checks and automatic unemployment insurance extensions, CNBC reported.
“This crisis is far from over, and families deserve certainty that they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads,” the lawmakers, led by Sen. Ron Wyden, wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday (March 2).
The group of lawmakers, also including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown and others, said in a letter that families “should not be at the mercy of constantly-shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions.”
While the lawmakers didn’t specify exactly how much the recurring checks or unemployment benefits should be for, they wrote that the extensions of both will help with the millions of Americans who can’t qualify for unemployment insurance.
In addition, leaders said the updates will be able to help do away with poverty. They cited research from the Urban Institute from 2020, showing that the $1,200 relief checks from that time could help 12 million people stay out of poverty. In addition, when the initial $1,200 checks from early in the pandemic ran out, poverty increased.
There were also the $600 personal checks sent out in January, which PYMNTS reported had positive effects on spending and spiking personal income 10 percent. Disposable personal income, calculated through subtracting income taxes, was up 11.4 percent. The stimulus checks were making up around $1.6 trillion of the $1.9 trillion increase.
Currently, Congress is working on getting out Biden’s $1.9 trillion bill, which includes one-time $1,400 checks and extra $400 per week unemployment payments. The package is currently headed for the Senate after being passed in the House, PYMNTS reported. The bill passed along party lines in the House.
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