Republican lawmakers want to send another round of stimulus checks to American households to help them weather the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The checks would be similar in quantity to the first round, but not as generous as the package proposed by Democrats in May.
Details about a possible second round of controls emerged Monday when Senate Republicans described their fourth phase of federal coronavirus response efforts, which would include other stimulus measures, such as increased unemployment benefits.
But the Republican bill, called the Health, Financial Aid, Liability Protection and Schools Act, or HEALS, provides less money for children than a Democrats’ stimulus bill, which was passed by the House in May.
However, the Republican stimulus package would provide households with benefits almost identical to the first round of checks, which were issued through the bipartisan CARES Act beginning in April after it was passed in March. Those checks helped improve the finances of more than 160 million households, and families paid bills or saved money for a future emergency.
According to census data, almost half of all Americans have reported loss of income from March to early July, underscoring the financial stress that many households are experiencing during the pandemic.
Another massive round of stimulus controls could even help the dying economy recover this fall, analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note from the client earlier this month.
“We expect the bulk of these payments to reach consumers in late August, which should boost consumption in September in particular,” Goldman analysts said. “It is well documented that the $ 1,200 stimulus payments paid early in the second quarter had noticeable effects on consumer spending, especially for low-income households.”
How much would you get under the bill from the Republican Party?
This is how the Republican proposal for stimulus checks would work:
- All unmarried US citizens and US residents with adjusted gross income of up to $ 75,000 would receive $ 1,200, or the same that was delivered in the first round of checks.
- Like the first round, married couples would be eligible for $ 2,400 as long as their income is less than $ 150,000.
- To qualify, you cannot be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer, and you will also need an eligible Social Security number to work.
- Like the first round, payments would be reduced for single people earning more than $ 75,000 and married people earning more than $ 150,000, and payments are eliminated entirely for singles earning more than $ 99,000 and married couples with income over $ 198,000.
- Dependents, like children, would receive $ 500 each.
How does the Republican Party bill differ from the first round of checks?
Answer: Mainly through your treatment of dependents.
Under the CARES Act, which authorized the first stimulus checks, children 17 and older were excluded from the $ 500 payments. That meant that many juniors and seniors in high school received nothing.
The CARES Act also excluded “adult dependents” from the $ 500, which means that millions of college students and adults with disabilities who are claimed as dependents did not qualify for stimulus payments.
But the Republican proposal makes it clear that college students and other dependent adults would be eligible for payments in a second round.
“Unlike the CARES Act, where the additional $ 500 was limited to taxpayers with a dependent child under the age of 17, the additional $ 500 will now be provided to taxpayers with dependents of any age,” said a summary of the proposal. released Monday by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa.
How does that differ from the Democrats law?
The Democrats’ rival proposal, the Omnibus Health Emergency and Economic Recovery Solutions, or HEROES, Act, is more generous than the Republican Party proposal.
Democrats would provide $ 1,200 per household member, including dependents. In other words, instead of the $ 500 per child that families received in the first round of checks, and which is what Republicans propose for the second round, families would receive $ 1,200 per child.
This is how it would be different for a family of married parents and two children with incomes less than $ 150,000.
- Under Democrats law, that family would receive $ 4,800 ($ 2,400 for parents and $ 1,200 each for their children).
- Under the Republican bill, that same family would receive $ 3,400 ($ 2,400 for parents and $ 500 for each child).
It also appears that fewer immigrants would receive checks under the Republican bill versus the Democrats bill, as the latter proposes to send money to people who have a “taxpayer identification number,” a number used by immigrants to pay taxes, instead of a Social Security Number. Both the first round of checks and the last Republican proposal would require recipients to have a Social Security number.
If you want to check how your family would fare under the two proposals, it may be worth checking out Omni Calculator’s stimulus calculators.
Here is the calculator for the Republican bill.
And here is the calculator for the Democrat account.
Will the Republican proposal be approved?
Both lawmakers and analysts say the Republican proposal is likely to change, given the differences between the Republican bill and what Democrats proposed in their May bill.
“This legislation serves as a starting point for bipartisan negotiations,” Grassley said in a statement Monday.
Even though stimulus verification proposals are not that different, Democrats and Republicans are widely separated on other issues, such as extra unemployment aid, and Republicans are proposing major cuts to the $ 600 in additional federal unemployment benefits that were paid through this month.
The Republican plan “should be seen primarily as an opening offer in the negotiations, and not as a framework for a final bill,” Height Securities analysts wrote in a research note. “There is little overlap between them.”
When could I get a second stimulus test?
As negotiations between Democrats and Republicans begin, analysts expect a final stimulus package to be approved in August.
The checks may come later in August, especially since the Treasury and IRS have already sent out some 160 million stimulus checks in the first round and presumably have their systems set up to quickly send out a second round of checks.
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