House passes $2,000 second stimulus check. What now?

Late Monday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted to bump the just-approved $600 stimulus payments to $2,000 per person. The House-approved CASH Act now moves to the Senate. The Monday vote in the House followed President Donald Trump’s signing the $2.3 trillion combination federal-budget and COVID-relief bill on Sunday, which authorized the checks for up to $600 each for qualifying adults and children.

The CASH Act — short for Caring for Americans with Supplemental Help Act — would change the amount each eligible adult and child received in the just-signed law from $600 to as much as $2,000 each.

In addition to authorizing a second stimulus check for $600, the bipartisan relief package Trump signed on Sunday renews programs both Democrats and Republicans agree are critical, including $300 federal unemployment benefits, money to help small businesses meet employee payroll, a month-long extension to the end of January of a federal eviction ban and assistance to help distribute the coronavirus vaccine.

Immediately after signing the bill Sunday, Trump began pressuring Congress to quickly approve the larger $2,000 payments. “As President, I have told Congress that I want far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child.”

Trump’s reversal on approving the relief bill came at the end of a weekend where US leaders from President-elect Joe Biden to Senators Pat Toomey and Bernie Sanders criticized Trump’s delay in signing the package into law. While Congress passed the legislation last Monday, Trump waited until Sunday to sign it.

“The compromise bill is not perfect, but it will do an enormous amount of good for struggling Kentuckians and Americans across the country who need help now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted minutes after Trump signed the bill.

The possibility for a $2,000 check, however, hangs by a thread. Now that the House has approved the increase, the proposal moves to the Senate, which will be in session on Tuesday. It’s not clear if the Republican-led Senate will take up the proposal for a larger payment.

Biden has referred to the stimulus portion of the joint package as a “first step and down payment,” forecasting a larger bill after he’s sworn into office — including a third stimulus check.

House on Monday voted in favor of the $2,000 second stimulus check bill

Now that the House of Representatives has passed the Cash Act (PDF) to authorize the $2,000 second stimulus payment per qualifying adult and dependent, it goes over the Senate to consider. It isn’t clear if the legislation will come up for a vote in the Senate. It all depends on whether Trump will continue to hold sway with Senate Republicans in his final weeks before Biden is sworn in as president, or whether a $2,000 check — which could greatly increase the size of the COVID-19 relief allocation — will divide the party.

“If the president is serious about the $2,000 direct payments, he must call on House Republicans to end their obstruction,” Pelosi said Dec. 24. “On Monday, I will bring the House back to session where we will hold a recorded vote on our stand-alone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000 … Hopefully by then the president will have already signed the bipartisan and bicameral legislation to keep government open and to deliver coronavirus relief.”

Democrats advocated through the summer and fall for a larger second stimulus check as part of a broader aid package. Trump distanced himself from negotiations, and his administration’s own negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, offered the $600 ceiling for the second stimulus check totals. 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers passed the two-in-one omnibus package by overwhelming margins on Dec. 21, after months of frustrating on-and-off negotiations.

While we closely follow the situation, read on for more information about the $2,000 stimulus check amount (the figure was advanced by a number of Democrats in mid-2020), the scenarios that could play out next and what we know about a third stimulus check for 2021. This story is updated often with new information.

Trump’s $2,000 stimulus check figure treads familiar terrain

Since spring, several Democrats have suggested a $2,000 stimulus check, including Vice President-elect Sen. Kamala Harris, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey and one-time presidential hopeful (and now New York mayoral hopeful) Andrew Yang. Some supporters of this figure have even suggested sending checks on a monthly rather than a one-time basis.

Biden already supports a third stimulus check

Many US leaders seem to see the $900 billion stimulus bill as a precursor to a larger relief package in 2021, one that may include a third stimulus check and other provisions that Republicans and Democrats agreed to leave out this round to pass a critical deal. 

“This bill is just the first step, a down payment, in addressing the crisis — crises, more than one — that we’re in,” Biden said Tuesday, emphasizing that he would like to see a third stimulus check.

How quickly could the IRS send your payment?

Aid may begin to go out within the next week, with certain funding programs possibly receiving financial help before the end of 2020. On Dec. 21, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gave the following week as the target for sending payments via direct deposit to people who qualify for a second stimulus check to receive their payment, intended to bring direct cash flow to tens of millions of Americans.

Because of the delay signing the bill, the timeline could shift, since agencies need time to set up their processes and communicate with recipients about what they need to do or expect.

You can calculate your second stimulus check total now. Here’s which payment group you might be in. Here’s what we know about how quickly we think the IRS could send a second stimulus check, and here are more details about weekly unemployment insurance.

Why didn’t the bill include a $1,200 or $2,000 second stimulus check?

A second stimulus check has had wide bipartisan support ever since the CARES Act passed. Over the last several months, everyone from Trump and Biden to members of Congress, economists and everyday people have advocated for another direct payment.

Trump has previously called for “more money than they’re talking about” in stimulus checks, as large as $1,200 or $2,000 per person. Aides reportedly convinced him at the time that making such demands would jeopardize a stimulus bill, The Washington Post reported, and the White House offer was officially extended at $600 tops.

Although many favor a $1,200 direct payment in theory, a second smaller stimulus check has helped keep costs below the $1 trillion cutoff that Republican lawmakers have in the past said they’d support. 

Stimulus checks aren’t cheap. The IRS said this summer that it had spent $270 billion sending out 160 million checks, and on Dec. 15, Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican who has been involved in crafting the bipartisan stimulus proposal, forecast a cost of $300 billion if the checks were once again included for $1,200 per person. Republicans reportedly bridled at the cost.

For more information about stimulus checks, here’s how soon you might get your second stimulus check now, what you should do to speed up the delivery of a potential second check and what to know about the HEALS, CARES and Heroes stimulus bill proposals that could help inform a final package.