More stimulus money has bipartisan support in Congress, but price tag on Biden’s economic plan has Republicans wary

WASHINGTON — Don’t look for that $1,400 stimulus check from President Joe Biden anytime soon.

While there is still strong sentiment in Congress in favor of the payments, disagreements have emerged over the new president’s overall economic package and those disputes are likely to slow approval of any new stimulus money.

Biden wants a $1,400 per person payment as part of his $1.9 trillion economic aid package; however, the plan’s overall cost has Republican senators reluctant to endorse it. The Democratic-run House is considering taking up the plan as early as next month, but the proposal’s path in the 50-50 Senate is still uncertain.

A key to getting approval for the stimulus payment involves centrist Republicans, and they are wary of Biden’s plans at the moment. A bipartisan group of 16 senators plans to meet with top administration officials this weekend.

“I want very much to hear the justification for a package that is so big, after we just had $900 billion last month, and a lot of that has yet to be disbursed,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of the bipartisan group’s leaders.

The White House said this week that it would be “challenging” to drop the price of the $1.9 trillion proposal, which includes money for unemployment insurance, vaccine distribution and schools.

“But this is a discussion. It’s a conversation. And he is no stranger to the process of bill-making,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

“So we’re at the beginning of the process. And as we continue, there’ll be conversations with members of both parties of what will be in a final package, and rarely does it look exactly like the initial package that is proposed,” she said.

The president has made calls to Democratic and Republican lawmakers about the package, Psaki said on Friday, but she did not say which ones.

Biden will take executive action on Friday afternoon to make it easier for Americans to receive payments Congress has previously approved.

Former President Donald Trump signed legislation in December to provide stimulus payments of $600 per adult and $600 per dependent child for people with adjusted gross incomes at or below $75,000 for an individual, $112,500 for a head of household and $150,000 for a couple filing federal taxes jointly.

Above those levels, the payment drops $5 for every $100 that income goes above those amounts.

The Internal Revenue Service used the same information it relied on to send out last spring’s payments, and many people quickly got the money.

But many did not. They found their payments delayed or became confused about whether they qualified. The White House said an estimated 8 million people did not receive those payments.

The biggest glitch so far involved payments that went into bank accounts that had been closed. The IRS said it will reissue those payments for those who did not receive them.

There have been other points of confusion. The IRS is issuing new economic impact cards with the money and the old ones will not be reloaded. If an individual or family’s income plunged last year or a child was added to the household, the payment can be claimed on the tax return.

Biden’s order seeks to make the process smoother and easier.

Brian Deese, director of the president’s National Economic Council, said Friday that Biden would direct the Treasury Department to consider creating an online portal that would allow people to identify if they are eligible to receive checks. The administration also plans to work with outside organizations to educate Americans who have not received their checks about the resources that are available to them, he said.

“It’s not enough to just say, well, if folks don’t know or if they don’t have a network, then they’re left out in the cold,” Deese told reporters. “We’re gonna work both directly in what the federal government can do and with partner organizations to try to make sure that every American that is entitled to a benefit is actually receiving it.”

Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said “the executive order doesn’t seem to mean much. The IRS has done a pretty good job distributing these payments. It always can be better but improvements will be around the edges.”

Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, said the order “will likely mean more resources will be used by Treasury to find better ways to get future payments to eligible recipients.”

But, he said, “it’s unlikely to make a large impact on distribution prior to the tax season,” since the IRS has sent out most payments. Those still needing the payments are likely to claim them on their tax return.

Where the order could help, Watson said, is a quicker process to get payments to people once the tax season is over.

There is bipartisan support in Congress for more stimulus money. Trump tried last month to get people $2,000 payments, and the House approved legislation.

At the moment, however, the stimulus plan is part of the bigger Biden economic package, which many Republicans don’t support.

“It’s excessive. It’s over the top,” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., a Senate Budget Committee member, said of Biden’s plan.

Moderates on both sides of the aisle have been discussing options.

“There’s been a concern about the cash payment and whether or not there ought to be a different criterion for passing it out and distributing it. That has been discussed at length,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the second-ranking Senate Democrat.

While he called the overall $1.9 trillion package a “non-starter,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., added, “There’s some things in there that aren’t going to happen, there’s some things that can happen.”