Senate HEALS Act Includes Another $1,200 Stimulus Payments: Here’s Who Will Qualify

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks to the media after weekly policy luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 21, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The Senate Republican-proposed HEALS Act introduced on Monday will include another $1,200 stimulus check to those who are eligible.

The $1 trillion bill includes an extra $200 per week in unemployment, said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which is a sum that is down from $600 per week in the earlier CARES Act. More money for schools and liability protections for hospitals and businesses are also included in the measure.

According to a memo (pdf) from the Senate Finance Committee, a second payment of up to $1,200 will be sent in a similar fashion as the first round of payments that were authorized in the CARES Act.

Qualifying individuals earning a gross adjusted income up to $75,000 per year in 2019 and couples earning up to $150,000 will get $2,400. The checks will then be reduced by $5 for every $100 in income, and it won’t be sent at $99,000 per individual and $198,000 for couples, the memo said. The payments will also phase out as the income of head of household filers with one child exceeded $146,500, or the income of a joint filer.

For children, the HEALS Act will authorize payments of $500.

“Unlike under the CARES Act where the additional $500 was limited to taxpayers with a dependent child under 17, the additional $500 will now be provided to taxpayers with dependents of any age,” the memo read. “Even individuals who have no income, as well as those whose income comes entirely from non-taxable means-tested benefit programs, such as SSI benefits, are eligible for the full rebate amount.”

The House Democrat-proposed HEROES Act would authorize payments of $1,200 per dependent, rather than $500.

Like the CARES Act, most Americans will not have to take any additional steps to get an economic stimulus payment. The IRS will either use a taxpayer’s 2019 tax return or their 2018 tax return as an alternative.

In the new measure, the Senate clarified that anyone who died before Jan. 1, 2020, will not receive a check, and it also precludes anyone who is in prison from getting one.

The IRS has said that it needs one’s bank account information or address to either provide a direct payment or a check. Those can be provided on the IRS’s website.

The stimulus payments appear to be the least contentious issue that is dividing Republicans and Democrats from approving a deal. On Monday, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters that they reject the HEALS Act in its current form.

“We are somewhat frustrated. We had hoped there would be a bill, and instead in the Senate they’ve put little pieces here and there and everywhere. It’s pretty clear they don’t have 51 votes in the Senate for a proposal,” Schumer told reporters on Monday night after he met with the two White House officials.

House Democrats have said they want to extend the $600 weekly unemployment until January of next year.

Republicans, meanwhile, have countered in saying that Monday’s proposal is a “starting point” for negotiations between the two parties.

The HEALS Act, HEROES Act, and CARES Act were all designed to offset economic damage suffered during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.