Ayanna Pressley calls reduced stimulus checks ‘an insult’
"We have seen progress on this front. However, the current $600 proposal does not go far enough to help our constituents in crisis."
Congressional leaders have reportedly agreed on a second round of stimulus checks, as a new COVID-19 relief package begins to take shape ahead of the holidays.
But at $600 a person, Rep. Ayanna Pressley says the proposed payments are “hardly sufficient.”
“It is an insult,” the Massachusetts congresswoman said in a floor speech Thursday afternoon.
Pressley, who has called for recurring relief payments since the beginning of the pandemic, urged leaders to include more robust stimulus checks, as the United States continues to set new record-high levels of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.
“The people we have taken an oath to serve and protect need direct cash to survive the winter,” the Boston Democrat said. “We must send them survival checks immediately.”
As the Washington Post and Politico reported Tuesday, there are still a number of disagreements left to resolve between Republicans and Democrats, the latter of which have called for more financial relief to be included in the roughly $900 billion package.
However, the two sides have reportedly come together on the second round of stimulus checks, though the payments would be $600, compared to the $1,200 payments sent out as part of the CARES Act last spring. According to the Post, the second round would provide $600 per adult and $600 per child. And similar to the first round, the full amount would go to anyone who earned less than $75,000, with less amounts going to those who made up to $99,000.
The package also reportedly includes a new $300 boost to unemployment benefits (similar to the since-expired $600 increase in the CARES Act) and several hundred billion in financial support to small businesses, transportation, vaccine distribution, and schools.
The inclusion of a second round of stimulus checks comes after progressive Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, spoke out against a previous bill framework that did not include direct payments. In a letter last week to Democratic colleagues, the six senators specifically called for a round of $1,200 checks to adults and $500 to their children.
However, Sen. Bernie Sanders — a signatory who had threatened to vote against a bill that didn’t include stimulus checks — said Wednesday that he was “happy” with the $600 amount.
“It is a step forward, and I’m going to do my best to make sure that we come as close to the $1,200 as we possibly can,” the Vermont independent said in Senate floor speech.
Pressley’s office also said later Thursday that she wouldn’t necessarily vote against a package with $600 checks and would “determine her vote once a final deal is struck and we see final legislative text.”
“Congresswoman Pressley continues to fight to ensure direct cash relief is included in any final COVID package,” a spokesperson told Boston.com. “Over the last 48 hours, as a result of ongoing organizing and pressure from Congresswoman Pressley and the Progressive Caucus, we have seen progress on this front. However, the current $600 proposal does not go far enough to help our constituents in crisis and the Congresswoman will continue to push for a package that meets the scale of the challenges we face.”
Given the economic impact of the pandemic and the amount of financial relief Congress has allocated for businesses, Pressley said in her House floor speech that “families deserve direct cash, real survival checks.”
“Some of my colleagues are patting themselves on the back for sending corporations payouts—corporations, by the way, who have profited off of people during this pandemic—and shaming families on the edge,” she said, adding that “The pandemic has not discriminated in its hardship, but it would seem compassion and empathy have.”
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