AMERICANS could get their second stimulus check in weeks as Donald Trump said the talks are “looking good.”
Lawmakers have instilled new hope in a fresh round of $600 checks in their latest Covid relief package.
If a deal is reached this week, a vote may take place next week.
This is due to a procedural rule that requires a bill to be approved in smaller committees before it reaches the House or Senate floor for votes, a local CBS affiliate reported.
Once this has been approved, the bill will then need to be signed by President Donald Trump.
On Thursday morning, the president tweeted that “stimulus talks [are] looking very good.”
Following Trump’s signature, the Internal Revenue Service will begin to issue the payments.
Back in August, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the payments could be issued as early as one week after the Congress has approved.
“I can have them out immediately. So, if I could get that passed tomorrow, I could start printing them the following week,” he said at the time.
“We did it the first time. I can get out 50million payments really quickly, a lot of it into people’s direct accounts.”
The details were still being worked out, but lawmakers in both parties said leaders had agreed on a top-line total of about $900billion, with direct payments of perhaps $600 to most Americans and a $300-per-week bonus federal unemployment benefit to partially replace a $600-per-week benefit that expired this summer.
It also includes the renewal of extra weeks of state unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.
More than $300billion in subsidies for business, including a second round of “paycheck protection” payments to especially hard-hit businesses, are locked in, as is $25billion to help struggling renters with their payments and provide food aid and farm subsidies, and a $10billion bailout for the Postal Service.
