Biden’s economic plan includes $1,400 checks, boosted unemployment benefits. Can it pass?
Millions of qualifying Californians would see additional stimulus payments of $1,400, and unemployed residents would have their payments boosted by $400 weekly through September under an economic plan unveiled Thursday by President-elect Joe Biden.
Biden, who will be sworn in as the nation’s 46th president on Wednesday, has vowed to make his economic and pandemic relief package a top priority. He pledged to get $2,000 in stimulus payments to Americans last month when President Donald Trump signed a smaller economic relief packs sending $600 checks to most households.
Biden has a decent chance of winning passage of key elements of his $1.9 trillion plan, since the Senate will be controlled by Democrats after he takes office. The House already has a Democratic majority.
The package also includes $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, $130 billion to help schools open and a $20 billion vaccination program, among other efforts.
While at least one Democrat in the Senate, Joe Manchin from West Virginia, has said he will oppose completing the $2,000 stimulus checks for individuals, officials in the Biden administration said they had based the plan on extensive conversations with members of Congress, and held out confidence that it could be passed with bipartisan support.
In a briefing with reporters, a senior Biden administration official said the plan includes “finishing the job and delivering the $2,000 in direct support to Americans,” and “extending and expanding unemployment benefits so that those who are out of work and looking for a job can have some stability as they do.”
Who would get the money?
Qualified Californians are already receiving, or will soon get, a $600 federal stimulus as a result of an economic aid package approved last month.
Biden did not specify exactly who would qualify for the checks, but indications are it would be the same people who now can get payments.
Under the current program, stimulus payments of $600 per adult and $600 per dependent child are available 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
After that, the payment is reduced $5 for every $100 that income goes above those amounts. Biden did say Thursday that he wants to expand eligibility to adult dependents who have been left out of previous rounds of relief.
Unemployment boost
The unemployment benefit, now a maximum of $750 in California. The December economic package added $300 a week to benefits until mid-March.
Biden would extend the benefit programs, and the added compensation, through September.
The senior administration official said the Biden plan aims at “making sure that those workers don’t face the cliffs in unemployment insurance that start as soon as the second week in March under current law.”
A Biden fact sheet says he will “work with Congress on ways to automatically adjust the length and amount of relief depending on health and economic conditions so future legislative delay doesn’t undermine the recovery and families’ access to benefits they need.”
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides benefits to people not traditionally qualifying for unemployment payments, was first due to end last month, but got a last-minute extension through March.
The nonpartisan California Policy Lab found that 859,422 Californians would have lost benefits had the program ended, as well as another 208,024 who were getting regular benefits.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 2:20 PM.
.jpg)