Is a 4th Stimulus Check on the Way? Here's What's Happening
President Joe Biden has not yet announced support for a fourth stimulus check to Americans recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but many continue to call for another round of support.
More than 2.3 million Americans have signed an online petition at Change.org to urge Congress to pass legislation oferring recurring stimulus checks.
“Moving forward Congress needs to make recurring checks automatic if certain triggers are met,” the petition said.
“No more waiting around for our government to send the help we need,” the petition added.
President of the United States: Recurring $2000 fourth Stimulus Check – Sign the Petition! https://t.co/FFegZ10aCo via @Change
— ?PRM – Political Op? (@DavidDeeOfPRM) June 4, 2021
The petition said, “Our country is still deeply struggling. The recovery hasn’t reached many Americans – the true unemployment rate for low-wage workers is estimated at over 20% and many people face large debts from last year for things like utilities, rent and child care.
“These are all reasons that checks need to be targeted to people who are still struggling and that Congress needs to learn from this past year.”
A letter signed by seven Democratic lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee in May pushed for a series of recurring checks.
“The pandemic has served as a stark reminder that families and workers need certainty in a crisis,” the letter said.
“They deserve to know they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to the calls for a fourth round of stimulus payments on Thursday.
“He’s happy to hear from a range of ideas on what would be most effective and what’s most important to the economy moving forward,” Psaki said, according to a White House transcript.
“But he’s also proposed what he thinks is going to be the most effective for the short term, for putting people back to work, to getting through this pivotal period of time, and also to making us more competitive over the long term.”
In March, Newsweek reported that 64 members of Congress had said they supported some form of recurring payments.
A letter calling for recurring stimulus checks signed by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and 52 others argued something needed to be done to help non-white Americans during the pandemic.
“Worsening systemic inequities, such as food insecurity and housing instability, are most severe for Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, who are suffering higher infection and mortality rates of COVID-19 and higher unemployment levels, compared to white Americans,” the letter said.
The letter said that the first round of payments — when the CARES Act dished out $1,200 checks — “was used very quickly, with lower-income individuals spending more than forty percent of their payments within the first ten days. As aid ran out, up to eight million people, disproportionately Black and Latino adults and children, were forced into poverty.”
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