House Democrats yesterday released key portions of their coronavirus relief package, including a section that would provide $1,400 checks to most Americans, The Hill reported. As with previous rounds of direct payments, single taxpayers with annual income up to $75,000 and married couples that make up to $150,000 would qualify for the full payment amounts. However, the payment amounts above those thresholds would phase out at a faster rate than the payments from the first two rounds. Single filers with income above $100,000 and married couples with income above $200,000 would not be eligible for any payments. The release of bill text came after policymakers and economists debated what the income eligibility requirements should be for the payments. Republicans and some centrist Democrats argued that the payments should be more targeted to lower-income households because those households are most in need of relief and most likely to spend the money quickly. But progressives argued that the income requirements shouldn't be tightened so people who lost substantial amounts of income during the pandemic could quickly receive their payments. Eligible households would be able to receive payments of up to $1,400 per person, including for adult dependents, who were left out of the previous rounds. The bill directs the Treasury Department to issue payments to people based on their 2019 or 2020 tax returns, and it allows the department to make payments to non-filers based on information available to it. Read more.
In related news, Democrats yesterday released a sweeping plan to provide more than $50 billion in additional assistance to U.S. airlines, transit systems, airports and passenger railroad Amtrak and create a $3 billion program to assist aviation manufacturers with payroll costs, Reuters reported. The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal will provide $30 billion to transit agencies, $14 billion for passenger airlines, $8 billion to U.S. airports, $1 billion for airline contractors and $1.5 billion to Amtrak, the draft legislation says. U.S. House committees are set to vote on the legislation on Wednesday. President Joe Biden had proposed $20 billion for struggling U.S. transit agencies — and nothing for airlines — while Democrats had pushed for more transit help, citing the collapse in travel demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Transit agencies have previously been awarded $39 billion in emergency assistance by Congress. New York’s Metropolitan Transit Agency says daily subway travel has recently been down 70% or more. Read more.
Also, Democrats are furthering their efforts to expand the child tax credit in an attempt to reduce poverty and provide more assistance to families amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Hill reported. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) introduced his panel’s portion of House Democrats’ broader coronavirus relief package, which is expected to include a one-year expansion of the child tax credit. Additionally, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) yesterday reintroduced a bill to permanently expand the credit. Both measures would make the credit fully refundable, so that lower-income families can receive the full credit amount. They would increase the annual credit amounts from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under age 6 and $3,000 for older children. The expanded credit amounts would phase out for higher earners, though the thresholds are slightly different in the two proposals. Additionally, the measures call for the IRS to make advance payments of the credits on a monthly basis, so that families could receive payments of $300 per month for children under 6 and $250 per month for older children. Each bill directs the IRS to establish an online portal in which taxpayers can notify the agency about changes that occur during the year pertaining to income, number of children and marital status. Read more.
