DONALD Trump is set to sign the $900billion stimulus deal “imminently,” meaning the relief payments could be issued as soon as next week.
The billion dollar bill will now head to Trump‘s desk with the White House already confirming that he plans to sign it in the coming days.
His spokesperson Ben Williamson said on Sunday that the president didn’t plan on delaying before the legislation was passed by Congress.
“President Trump has pushed hard for months to send Americans badly needed financial relief,” he said, a Politico reporter tweeted
“We look forward to Congress sending a bill to his desk imminently for signature.”
The Senate passed the emergency coronavirus legislation at around 11.42pm on Monday after two weeks of tense cross-party talks.
Two hours after it passed in the House, United States senators approved it with a 92-to-6 vote at around 11:42pm last night.
It includes $600 for individuals and $2,400 for families (two adults, two children or dependents), $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits, small business aid, and funds for schools and universities.
Trump signed a stopgap spending bill to keep the US government open until December 28 because the paperwork still has to be completed on the $900billion package, which he has yet to sign into law.
“Most of these will be direct deposits. We call them ‘checks in the mail,’ but most will be direct deposits,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC yesterday.
“It will be within three weeks. We are determined to get money in people’s pocket immediately. So that will be within three weeks.”
Now that Trump is set to “imminently” sign the bill, the IRS and Treasury could well start sending out the payments over the next seven days.
This is a significantly shorter timeline than the 19 days it took when the Cares Act was passed.
“I can get out 50 million payments really quickly. A lot of it into people’s direct accounts,” Mnuchin said back in August – but different groups will be prioritized for different reasons.
It also depends what form of payment you’ll be getting i.e. direct deposit or a check. First in line will be those who got it directly into their accounts.
“For most Americans, these payments will go out really quickly and in a similar timeline to the first round of stimulus checks,” Chantel Boyens, a former Office of Management and Budget official, told CNBC.
People who haven’t logged banking information with the IRS will get a paper check or a prepaid debit card and the Treasury can deliver five to seven million of these per week.
If Trump signs it today, the first direct payments of $600 could go into bank accounts by the week of January 4, those receiving checks could get them by January 11, and EIP cards by the the week of February, noted CNET.
If Joe Biden doesn’t sign it until February 3, this would push everything back by nearly a month with direct deposits being issued from the week of February 8, checks by the week of February 16 and EIP cards by March 15.
It will be March 8 and April 12 by the time the direct deposits are made and March 15 and April 19 for checks if Biden doesn’t sign until March 3 and April 7 respectively.
