The push for recurring stimulus checks continues as 7 Democrats urge Biden to include them in infrastructure – Business Insider

Americans have received three stimulus checks since the start of the pandemic, but a growing number of Democrats have pushed for recurring payments to ensure the economic recovery continues. Last week, seven more Democrats joined the cause.

Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California, wrote a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to include recurring direct stimulus payments and unemployment benefits tied to economic conditions in his American Families Plan.

The letter cited a poll from April that found that six in 10 adults said the latest round of stimulus checks would last them less than three months. Many respondents said they'd spend the checks on necessities like food and rent, stressing the need for long-term payments.

"The pandemic has served as a stark reminder that families and workers need certainty in a crisis," the Democrats wrote. "They deserve to know they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. They should not be at the mercy of constantly shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions."

They added that jobless aid and stimulus payments "work in tandem": While unemployment benefits replace lost income from work, stimulus checks are "crucial for supporting struggling families that fall out of its reach."

A recent report from the Economic Security Project found that sending two more rounds of stimulus checks could keep 12 million more Americans out of poverty. On April 23, Insider reported that Democrats and Americans increasingly think that stimulus checks should be recurring.

House Democrats have long wanted to go beyond the $1,200 checks included in the CARES Act. Last May, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California released a plan to give Americans $2,000 monthly checks for the duration of the pandemic.

Harris told MSNBC in July: "Through the course of this pandemic and crisis, we need to give people $2,000 a month as recurrent payments people below a certain income level to help them and sustain them through these months of crisis so that at the end of it they can get back up on their feet instead of having fallen deep, deep, deep into the crevices of this crisis."

Late last year, 125 economists wrote an open letter calling for additional payments. And in March, 21 Democratic senators urged Biden in a letter to include recurring direct payments in his $4 trillion infrastructure plan.

Biden is negotiating with Republicans on the size of his infrastructure package and has not commented on including recurring payments in his plan.

But given that the White House on Friday offered to cut Biden's $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan down to $1.7 trillion, the inclusion of recurring stimulus payments and extended unemployment benefits is unlikely.

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The push for recurring stimulus checks continues as 7 Democrats urge Biden to include them in infrastructure - Business Insider