Biden releases economic plan with $1,400 stimulus checks, boosted unemployment benefits
Qualifying Washington residents 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’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” also includes aid for businesses, state and local governments and schools and colleges.
He’ll have a decent chance of winning passage of key elements of the plan, since the Senate will be controlled by Democrats after he takes office. The House already has a Democratic majority.
While at least one Democrat in the Senate, Joe Manchin from West Virginia, has said he will oppose completing the additional 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.”
Qualified Washington residents are already receiving, or will soon get, a $600 federal stimulus as a result of an economic aid package approved last month. The $1,400 would bring the total to $2,000.
Who’d get the money?
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 would grow by an additional $100 weekly at first, as it would be added to the $300 a week extra now available until mid-March.
Biden would extend the emergency 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.
Last week, the state reported 27,147 initial regular unemployment claims, down 8.4% from the previous week, and 515,561 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories, down 7.5% from the previous week.
But initial regular claims are still at high levels — 203% above last year’s weekly new claims applications, according to the state’s Employment Security Department.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Biden releases economic plan with $1,400 stimulus checks, boosted unemployment benefits."
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