House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has support in the Senate for her push to include recurring monthly payments of $2,000 to individual Americans for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. Three Senate Democrats have jumped on board that plan with their own bill.
Sens. Kamala Harris, Ed Markey, and Bernie Sanders are releasing the Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act on Friday. Their bill would send $2,000 to every American making less than $120,000, and $4,000 to married couples filing jointly, with $2,000 for each of the first three children in a family. Significantly, it would be retroactive to March, helping to mitigate at least some of the damage done thus far by a botched federal response to the crisis. Harris pointed to that failure, saying that their bill recognizes that they have done not "nearly enough to meet the needs of this historic crisis." Sanders said that "Congress has a responsibility to make sure that every working-class household in America receives a $2,000 emergency payment a month for each family member," and Markey added that the plan is "the most direct and efficient mechanism for delivering economic relief to those most vulnerable."
The payments would last until three months after the Health and Human Services Department declares the public health emergency over, giving the American people a cushion during the economic recovery period. Answering a problem that arose with the one-time $1,200 cash payments already sent, it would bar debt collectors from seizing any of the money. Everyone (below the income cap) just gets the money, without having to have a Social Security number or having filed taxes.
They're going to have to help Pelosi steamroll her massive bill thorough the Senate. The House has lost huge amounts of momentum, allowing Trump and Senate Republicans to push a narrative that things are returning to normal and states are reopening even as the crisis deepens. "We have an emergency of such magnitude that no one has ever seen before. This is probably the worst situation that is only getting worse and should be getting better," Pelosi told reporters Thursday. That sense of urgency, however, hasn't been reflected in House’s actions over the past three weeks.
With unemployment claims spiraling and the coronavirus still raging, the need becomes more critical every day. A program like this one with continuing direct payments is becoming increasingly urgent.
To keep up with what's been done so far, here's a primer on bills passed to date.