A second stimulus check may be delayed, but it’s far from dead – CNET

The best chance for a stimulus package by the end of 2020 may forego one thing that tens of millions of Americans crave: a second stimulus check for as much as $1,200 per qualified adult. Neither of the two main proposals Democrats and Republicans currently support includes a direct payment for 2020. But that doesn’t mean another wave of direct payments is out of the question.

Top Democrats, including President-elect Joe Biden, have now put their support behind a new $908 billion bipartisan bill. Presented by Republicans and Democrats, the framework contains funding for enhanced unemployment aid, small business payroll assistance and more — but no stimulus check. (It’s likely that cutting a direct payment to individuals and families this time around is one way to limit short-term costs and increase the chances of some amount of aid going through.)

While another direct payment may be left out in the cold this cycle, the outlook for a follow-up package in 2021 remains hopeful, giving a second direct payment delivered directly to you another chance. 

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Next stimulus checks: What to expect

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Support for another direct check remains, even if it doesn’t make the smaller bill

Top lawmakers and President-elect Joe Biden have repeatedly acknowledged since November that a December 2020 bill won’t be enough to carry the country through spring, teeing up a larger stimulus package for 2021.

Leading up to this point, bipartisan support for another stimulus check has been strong, with Republicans, Democrats and Biden all calling for more money to go to families and individuals.

“We need to continue the funding for the vaccine, the delivery of the vaccine,” Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, said Nov. 29 on CNN. “Direct money to struggling families would be helpful and some extension of unemployment.”

The incoming president himself has all but guaranteed a renewed effort on stimulus in 2021, prepping to act on a packed agenda in his first 100 days as president, which includes signing executive orders.

“Right now, the full Congress should come together and pass a robust package for relief to address these urgent needs. But any package passed in a lame-duck session is lucky to be at best, just a start,” Biden said Tuesday while introducing picks for his future economic team. 

“My transition team is already working on what I’ll put forward in the next Congress to address the multiple crises we’re facing, especially our economic and COVID crises,” he said. Biden is expected to apply pressure for his own stimulus plan after the Jan. 20 inauguration, though without Congressional support, there’s little he could do about a stimulus check.

However, Biden appears to remain confident he can bend the ear of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is expected to remain the Senate leader and also expected to oppose Biden’s efforts, if Democrats do not win both Jan. 5 run-offs for contested Georgia Senate seats.

“I think there are trade-offs, that not all compromise is walking away from principle,” Biden told The New York Times in an interview published Dec. 2. “He knows me. I know him. I don’t ask him to embarrass himself to make a deal.”

For more information on stimulus checks, here’s how you might get more money in your next check, or a smaller payment next time around. Here’s who may not qualify. And this is when you might realistically be able to get another check if and when it’s passed, based on key dates.