Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) again said that stimulus payments should be $2,000 per month, not $1,200 or an extra $600 per week for people who collect unemployment insurance.
She added: “Through the course of this pandemic and crisis, we need to give people $2,000 a month as recurrent payments—people below a certain income level—to help them and sustain them through these months of crisis so at the end of it, they can get back up on their feet instead of falling deep deep deep into the crevices of this crisis. And, it does not make any sense, to your point, when we have Republicans in Congress who are standing in the way of supporting working people who have recently lost their jobs—[and] have every intention of working—when we can get through this crisis and [they] just need help from their government.”
The proposal would provide up to $2,000 per month for people earning up to $120,000 per year, married couples would get $4,000 per month, a family could receive $2,000 for each dependent up to three, and the payments would last for three months until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate have suggested that the measure, along with the House Democrat-passed HEROES Act, would not pass.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has previously said that he would like to see direct payments to people who make less than $40,000 per year in the next stimulus package.
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