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Will there be a fourth stimulus check, after the current third round?
Sigrid Forberg
Mon, March 15, 2021, 9:45 AM·5 min read
Will there be a fourth stimulus check, after the current third round?
The long-awaited third stimulus checks — for up to $1,400 — are finally headed to Americans' bank accounts and mailboxes, after President Joe Biden last week signed his $1.9 trillion COVID relief package into law. If you need more money for bills and to
pay down debt, it's on the way.
And will that be the end? No more direct payments?
Several members of Congress are arguing for a fourth stimulus check and
even more after that, because they point out that many Americans are still struggling more than a year into the pandemic.
But the Biden aid bill won passage with every Republican lawmaker voting no, and it cleared the Senate in a 51-50 squeaker, with Vice President Kamala casting a tiebreaker vote. So is it realistic to hope the president will support further relief payments, and Congress will approve them? Here's a closer look.
Democrats say families need more stimulus checks
Iakov Filimonov / Shutterstock
Fifty Democratic U.S. representatives, including Minnesota's Ilhan Omar and New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have signed a letter pressing the Biden administration to issue recurring stimulus checks to help Americans cover essential needs for the duration of the pandemic.
“One more check is not enough during this public health and economic crisis,” the letter says. It doesn't include a suggested dollar amount for the regular payments, but Rep. Omar tweeted in January that she’d like to see the government provide $2,000 per month to carry people through the crisis.
Ten Senate Democrats have signed a similar letter. "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 senators say.
Last year's very first, $1,200 stimulus checks were primarily spent on groceries, rent and other basic needs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The cash also was used for saving and
investing, and for other expenses. Some consumers likely went
shopping for affordable life insurance, because demand for those policies has surged amid the pandemic.
Friends and foes of recurring checks
Shutterstock
Though the White House hasn't given a response to the letters, the idea of monthly stimulus checks might attract some fans in high places.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell (pictured) last month made a good case for the government to spend more on COVID relief. He testified to Congress that the economy is "highly uncertain," and he indicated that stimulus checks and other aid weren't likely to drive up inflation.
CEOs of retail chains also might like to see more government cash going to consumers. Retail sales surged in January after Round 2 of the checks went out, and Macy's has said it's expecting a big sales boost in the coming months from the third round.
But a plan for future, recurring checks would have no shortage of detractors. Republicans opposed the third checks as expensive and unnecessary, and moderate Democrats may feel that way about recurring payments. They demanded changes for the third round, to "target" the stimulus checks toward the neediest Americans.
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