Senate

GOP plan provides $1,200 in cash assistance amid coronavirus

by Jordain Carney

A Senate GOP proposal for the third coronavirus package would provide $1,200 to Americans who make up to $75,000. 

The provision is included in a nearly 250-page bill unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday. 

Setting the details of the cash assistance was spearheaded by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. 

“Preventing the spread of the coronavirus will take a financial toll on individuals, families and businesses,” Grassley said in a statement. 

Under the GOP plan the amount of cash assistance would scale down between $75,000 and $99,000, when it would be phased out. It would also provide an additional $500 per child. 

But a GOP summary of the bill, noted that individuals with little or no tax liability would receive roughly half—a minimum of $600. 

“Taxpayers with little or no income tax liability, but at least $2,500 of qualifying income, would be eligible for a minimum rebate check of $600 ($1,200 married). Qualifying income includes earned income, as well as Social Security retirement benefits and certain compensation and pension benefits paid to veterans. This ensures relief gets to low-income seniors and disabled veterans,” the summary reads. 

The detail sparked quick calls for some GOP senators to “fix” the language, so that lower earners could receive the same $1,200 check. 

“The current bill has promise but it shouldn’t give lower earners smaller checks —that’s directly contrary to my proposal. We need to fix this to ensure lower earners get equal payments,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) tweeted on Thursday night. 
 
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) added that the Senate GOP bill “needs to be fixed.”
 
“Relief to families in this emergency shouldn’t be regressive. Lower-income families shouldn’t be penalized,” Hawley said. 

The decision to include the cash assistance comes despite fierce GOP pushback from certain Republican senators, who argued that it would not stimulate the broader economy.

Some GOP senators wanted to instead expand unemployment insurance. 

“Here’s what I think. Direct payments make sense when the economy is beginning to start. It makes no sense now,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters after the lunch, adding that the number under discussion is “all over the board.” 

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) added that he believed the direct cash payments should be “as a supplement unemployment, not to the people that are still working every day, you know, just a blanket cash check to everybody in America that’s making up to $75,000.”

But the idea has picked up steam with Republicans and the Trump administration, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin floating the idea of $1,000 checks to all Americans. 

Asked if he thought it would be in the bill despite the GOP opposition, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) added, “I’d bet on it, if I was a betting person.”   

—Updated at 10:07 p.m.

Senate