Congress, so far, has sent three one-time stimulus checks of up to $1,200, $600 and $1,400. More than two million people now officially believe that these stimulus payments were insufficient to meet the financial needs of people struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, these people have also signed a petition asking Congress to send $2,000 recurring stimulus checks as long as the coronavirus pandemic lasts.
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This petition was posted last year on Change.org by restaurant owner Stephanie Bonin. The petition urges Congress for “immediate checks and recurring payments” to “make sure that we won't be financially ruined for doing our part to keep the country healthy."
“I'm calling on Congress to support families with a $2,000 payment for adults and a $1,000 payment for kids immediately, and continuing regular checks for the duration of the crisis," the petition says.
Bonin has been updating the petition regularly since posting it last year. More recently, the petitioner has come up with statements to make expanded child tax credits permanent. Also, Bonin noted that the $1,400 stimulus checks approved by President Joe Biden "won't solve our problem.”
Bonin believes that single checks won’t address issues as “people are just too far behind.” Further, she says that people ought to know when the checks are coming, and thus, the best thing that Congress could do is to approve monthly stimulus checks.
Bonin's petition has gotten so much support that it featured in Change.org’s "Top 10 petitions that changed 2020." If the petition surpasses its goal of 3 million signatures, it will become one of the top signed petitions on Change.org.
Growing support for recurring checks
Demand for more stimulus checks is not just made by common people but by several U.S. representatives and senators as well. For instance, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and 52 other House Democrats, earlier this year, urged Congress to approve recurring checks.
Similarly, on March 30, 21 Senate Democrats wrote a letter urging Biden to make recurring checks a part of his next stimulus bill.
“This crisis is far from over, and families deserve certainty that they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads," read a part of the letter.
So far, the Biden administration hasn’t included recurring payments in either of their stimulus packages. Biden, however, did talk of giving a five-year extension to the expanded Child Tax Credit, as well as making the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers permanent.
With growing support for recurring checks, it will be interesting to see whether or not the Biden administration approves the monthly payment. As per the March data from the U.S. Census Bureau, about 30% of Americans were unable to fully cover household expenses.
