While there are some people who still haven’t received their third stimulus check as part of the last round of COVID relief- Congress is making a push to fund fourth and fifth checks.
There’s growing support behind lawmakers that are pushing for at least one more round of funding, with a few yet calling for a fifth, too.
Over 80 lawmakers in Congress have signed a letter urging President Joe Biden to direct another round of payments. “Families and workers shouldn’t have to worry about whether they’ll have enough money to pay for essentials in the months ahead as the country continues to fight a global pandemic and recession,” the letter says.
“A fourth and fifth check could keep an additional 12 million out of poverty,” the Ways and Means Committee members supporting it argued. The letter doesn’t suggest a dollar amount for those payments, but other members of Congress have pitched $2,000 monthly checks for the duration of the pandemic.
When the pandemic would end- is something of a debate, too. A Change.org petition has gained 2.2 million signatures asking for Congress to make payments of $2,000 per month to adults and $1,000 per month per child.
The price tag of another round of checks would cost more than $600 billion. However, data also shows that around 40% of Americans say they are making less now than they did before the pandemic.
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