Stimulus Checks Unlikely Until Biden Takes Office, Some Senators Say

Last week, a bipartisan group including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), proposed a $908 billion stimulus package as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) remained hundreds of billions of dollars away from reaching an agreement.

Their proposal includes extended unemployment benefits, state and local aid, small business relief, and funds for transportation, healthcare and rental assistance, but no money for direct payments, a popular element of the first major coronavirus stimulus package.

Discussions over the new package are ongoing, but over the weekend, several senators said another round of stimulus check would only be possible once Biden and a new Congress take office next year and try to negotiate another round of relief: “Those who want the direct stimulus checks, that will be something that a president-elect Biden will grapple with,” Warner told CNN Sunday. 

Bill Cassidy (R-La.), another member of the bipartisan group, did not dismiss the possibility of another stimulus check Sunday, but said it would have to “be part of a different piece of legislation” than the $900 package. 

Some senators, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have gone as far to call stimulus checks a poison pill, with Graham telling reporters Thursday direct payments “probably breaks the coalition.”

Biden threw his weight behind the $900 billion package on Friday, but has remained adamant that any bill passed during the lame-duck session is “at best just a start.”