Another Round of Relief Payments?
Top House Democrats want to see more aid for individual taxpayers in the next coronavirus stimulus bill, and on Tuesday the White House indicated that it is looking into making additional direct payments to households, Roll Call’s Jennifer Shutt reported. “That’s something that we’re studying very carefully, and I know that people in the House are as well,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told reporters. The IRS said this week that under the terms of the first stimulus package – which provided stimulus checks of as much as $1,200 per adult and $500 per child – it had made more than 89 million payments totaling about $160 billion as of April 17. Overall, the agency expects to send out about 150 million payments worth nearly $300 billion. Although there are concerns that the next stimulus package could take weeks or longer to negotiate as partisan differences resurface, Hassett expressed confidence it will get done. “I expect that it’s very likely there will be a … deal,” he said. “So I think the odds of there not being another round, at least one more round, of legislation are pretty low.”
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