The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have started the process of sending out the $1,400 direct payments included in President Biden's coronavirus relief law, the agencies said Friday, The Hill reported. The Biden administration has said that people will start to see the payments in their bank accounts as early as this weekend. The IRS said Friday that some people may see the payments in their accounts as pending or provisional in the coming days, ahead of the official payment date of March 17. People will be able to start to check the status of their $1,400 stimulus payments on the IRS's website on Monday, the agency said Friday. Americans will be able to look up the status of their payments using the IRS's "Get My Payment" web tool. The first batch of payments is being sent by direct deposit, and additional tranches will be distributed by direct deposit, paper check and debit cards in the coming weeks. Treasury and IRS officials said they expect people to start receiving paper checks and debit cards before the end of the month. Read more.
In related news, President Biden is expected to tap Gene Sperling, a veteran of Democratic administrations, to lead the implementation of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law, an administration official said yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sperling led the White House National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama and served as an informal adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign. Biden is set to give remarks Monday on the implementation of the law, which includes direct payments, an extension of enhanced jobless benefits and an extension of the child tax credit. Last week, he stressed the importance of the next steps, recalling that in 2009, as vice president, he took on a leading role to ensure that the Recovery Act dollars were being deployed effectively. “It’s one thing to pass the American Rescue Plan. It’s going to be another thing to implement it. It’s going to require fastidious oversight to make sure there’s no waste or fraud, and the law does what it’s designed to do,” he said. Read more. (Subscription required.)
