New Family-Focused Stimulus Check Plan Introduced by Four Republican Senators

There's a new stimulus check proposal on the table. This one is coming from four Republican senators: Sens. Cassidy (La.), Daines (Mont.), Romney (Utah), and Rubio (Fla.). They want the next stimulus check payments to focus on families, because other federal relief measures, such as enhanced unemployment benefits, are not adjusted for family size. So, their plan is to send a $1,000 stimulus payment to all American citizens equally, regardless of age or dependent status. That means money will be available for families with adult dependents, including those with disabilities or college students.

Like the first-round payments under the CARES Act, the proposed second-round stimulus checks would be reduced for people with a higher income. If you're single, married but filing a separate tax return, or a qualifying widow(er), the phase-out would kick in if your adjusted gross income (AGI) is above $75,000. If you're a head-of-household filer, the AGI threshold would be $112,500. If you're married filing a joint tax return, it would be $150,000.

The senators' stimulus check proposal is structured like the CARES Act plan in other ways, too. For instance, nonresident aliens would not get a check. Anyone who could be claimed as a dependent on someone else's tax return would not get one, either (although the person who claims them as a dependent would get an extra $1,000). You would also have to have a Social Security number to receive a payment.

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To illustrate the focus on families, the senators note that a mom and dad with two dependent children would get $4,000 under their plan (assuming there was no phase-out). Under the CARES Act, that same family only got $3,400. A single parent with two children would get $3,000 under the senators' plan, while that family only got $2,200 under the CARES Act. And so on, and so on.