Mnuchin confirms plan for $1,000 cash payments to all Americans

The White House’s coronavirus stimulus plan could see every American get two $1,000 checks from the government within nine weeks, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Thursday.

“This is an unprecedented situation, where for good reason the government has instructed major parts of the economy to close down so that we can win this fight against this virus,” he said in an appearance on Fox Business.

“While we’re doing that, we understand there are impacts on hard-working Americans, and the president is determined to support them,” he added.

The $1 trillion package the White House and Senate Republicans plan on presenting would provide every adult American with a $1,000 check, plus another $500 for each child. A family with two parents and two children, for example, would get $3,000.

“As soon as Congress passes this we’d get this out in three weeks, and then six weeks later, if the president still has a national emergency, we’ll deliver another $3,000,” Mnuchin said. Earlier in the week, Mnuchin had pointed to a two-week target to send out cash payments.

That portion would amount to half of the bill’s overall spending.

Another $300 billion in the bill would be used to help businesses keep people on payroll and offer loan forgiveness for those that do after the crisis ends.

Already, unemployment claims have shot up by some 33 percent between the first two weeks of March.

A final $200 billion would be devoted to securing lending to airlines and other critical industries hit hard by the pandemic.

The bill would be the third, and largest, in the government’s response to coronavirus. The first $8.3 billion law focused on health agencies and first responders, while the second, which Trump signed Wednesday, put roughly $104 billion toward emergency paid leave, free coronavirus testing and expanded unemployment insurance.