Stimulus checks: Biden puts $2,000 payments back in play

An economic package passed by Congress in December provided for fresh $600 stimulus payments despite calls from politicians on both sides of the aisle for bigger checks. Biden’s plan calls for adding up to $1,400 to the payments — totaling $2,000 for those eligible, according to a fact sheet provided by the administration on Thursday.

Current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a standalone bill on increasing the value of the checks, but with Democrats about to take control of the chamber — and of Congress — following victories in two Georgia Senate runoff elections, Biden will likely have the votes to approve increased relief spending.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said that one of the first bills he’d like to pass once he becomes Senate majority leader would raise stimulus payments to $2,000.

How much will recipients actually get?

Those eligible for the stimulus payments could receive up to $1,400 that would top off the $600 payments that began going out earlier this month. In a letter to his Democratic colleagues sent this week, Schumer indicated that he is planning on payments that would increase the total payout to $2,000.

“Democrats wanted to do much more in the last bill and promised to do more, if given the opportunity, to increase direct payments to a total of $2,000,” he wrote.

Undocumented immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers are ineligible for the payments. But in a change from the first round, which was sent last spring, their spouses and children are now eligible as long as they have Social Security numbers.

During the first round, the federal government sent $1,200 payments to eligible Americans. They were mostly sent out between April and August.