'Speed Is Of The Essence': Rep. Neal Details When Massachusetts Residents Could See Stimulus Checks
BOSTON (CBS) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants a federal relief package done by mid-March when unemployment benefits end, according to Congressman Richard Neal. "I understand that you would much prefer, as the Speaker noted and the President noted on Friday, to do this in a bipartisan manner. But speed is of the essence," he said.
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman joined Gov. Charlie Baker for a press conference on Monday.
With his timeline, Massachusetts residents would see benefits by April 1.
Neal said President Joe Biden is open to negotiating a ceiling or phased-out approach on who receives a check.
"So what we did in the CARES Act, which I thought was reasonable: we used the ceiling of $150,000 for joint filers and 75,000 for single filers," said Neal. "I think that we want to make sure that joint filers with $300,000, they're not getting the check."
The congressman said they plan to continue stimulus initiatives for the next year to "try to buy some time to find out where the pandemic leaves us. The pandemic is now a year old and a lot of people in the American family are now hurting and we think this assistance in the timeline that I've laid out is entirely reasonable."
The stimulus package includes a new Child Tax Credit bill where parents would see monthly payments. Neal said he proposed that for parents with children under six it will be $3,600, a year per child. A child ages six to 17 would be $3,000, a year per child.
"What we want to do is change it from people trying to derive the benefit during the tax filing season. We want it for cash flow purposes to be done on a monthly basis," said Neal.
There would also be a phased-out approach for who receives the child tax credit, Neal said.
"I think we learned a hard lesson about making sure there was a federal effort in terms of the national response and saying to the 50 states, 'you're going to do the fill-in,' did not work in the way that we intend it to work now."
