When will your $1,400 stimulus check arrive? House looks to pass COVID plan quickly

Another round of stimulus checks could hit bank accounts soon after the U.S. Senate passed the $1.9 trillion relief legislation on Saturday, taking the bill a step closer to reality.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said the House will vote on the package on Tuesday before sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law.

“On Tuesday, the House will consider the Senate’s amended version of the American Rescue Plan, so that we can send this bill to President Biden for his signature early next week. Democrats are delivering on our promise to take action to defeat this virus and provide the assistance the American people need until our economy can reopen safely and fully,” Hoyer said.

The Senate passed the bill on Saturday in a 50-49 party-line vote with no Republicans supporting the deal. The House will now have to either approve the Senate’s plan, which changed some provisions from the original House version, or meet with the chamber to draft a finalized bill before it can head to Biden’s desk.

When would checks go out after the bill becomes law?

Biden said that $1,400 stimulus checks will start going out to Americans this month and that more than 85% of households will qualify to receive payments, Reuters reported.

The current version of the legislation individuals making under $75,000 and couples making under $150,000 will get the full $1,400 payment. The plan would send reduced checks to people earning more than $75,000 and $150,000 for joint filers, and cap the payments at earnings of $80,000 and $160,000, respectively, The Associated Press reported. Under the House’s bill, payments would’ve been gradually phased out and cut off for individuals making $100,000 and couples making $200,000.

If the bill is signed into law by Mar. 14, the deadline Democrats have set because it’s when enhanced unemployment benefits expire, the first round of payments would go out before the beginning of April, according to CNET.

But, when your payment actually arrives depends on how long it takes for the IRS to process the funds and the form of payment you’ve been issued.

If the bill is signed into law on Mar. 10, the first round of direct payments could be sent out the week of Mar. 17, paper checks could be sent out the week of Mar. 24 and people could receive payments through prepaid debit cards during the week of Mar. 31, CNET reported using the same timeline seen during December’s rollout of the $600 stimulus checks.

What’s next for the relief deal?

Now House members must tackle the Senate’s version of legislation that now looks a bit different than the proposal they passed at the end of February.

The Senate’s version of the legislation left out a federal minimum wage increase to $15 per hour. Senate Democrats were forced to abandon the minimum wage hike after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the provision couldn’t be passed under budget reconciliation, which allows for “expedited consideration” of legislation on spending, taxes and debt.

Democrats in both the House and Senate passed the bill through reconciliation, allowing Democrats to bypass the 60-vote requirement for advancing the legislation in the Senate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said that House Democrats will “absolutely” pass the bill even if it doesn’t include the pay raise, calling the bill “a tremendous step forward to defeat the virus and provide relief to families and small businesses in need.”

“The House now hopes to have a bipartisan vote on this life-saving legislation and urges Republicans to join us in recognition of the devastating reality of this vicious virus and economic crisis and of the need for decisive action,” Pelosi said Saturday.

The legislation is unlikely to win bipartisan support in the House after no Republican voted for the Senate version of the bill. The deal required the support of the entire Democratic caucus in order to pass in the upper chamber, and in order to keep the vote of Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, federal unemployment benefits were kept at $300 per week instead of raised to $400 as proposed in the House bill.

Republicans have decried the cost of the bill and called for more “targeted” relief for families during the pandemic by lowering the income threshold requirements for direct payments.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said Saturday that “the Senate has never spent $2 trillion in a more haphazard way or through a less rigorous process,” The New York Times reported. He urged his fellow Senate Republicans to vote against the bill.