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Home Business Loans Will There Be a Second Stimulus Check from the Government?
That $1,200 stimulus check was a wonderful lifeline during the coronavirus economic downturn. And there’s a chance there could be a second stimulus check on the horizon.
The HEROES Act recovery package proposal the House of Representatives passed in May included another round of $1,200 checks. But that bill faces an uphill fight in the Senate and requires President Trump’s approval.
No one can deny that many small businesses and customers are in a disastrous spot. We are now officially in a recession, and for those who are unemployed, the additional $600 weekly unemployment benefit runs out at the end of July. Many states are pausing or backtracking on their reopening plans, creating on-again, off-again uncertainty that has been costly for small businesses.
With prospects for work or income not improving for many Americans, let’s size up whether the federal government might distribute another round of stimulus checks.
When asked in June, President Trump vaguely endorsed the idea but did not commit. So Fox Business’ Blake Berman asked the president explicitly on July 1 whether he supported “another round of direct payments for individuals.”
“I support it, but it has to be done properly,” Trump said. “I support actually larger numbers than the Democrats. But it’s got to be done properly. We had something where it gave you a disincentive to work last time.”
That seemed like a reference to the enhanced unemployment benefits, so Berman pressed Trump on whether he was referring to stimulus checks or unemployment checks.
“I want the money getting to people to be larger so they can spend it,” the president told him. “I want the money to get there quickly and in a non-complicated fashion. They wanted to make it too complicated. Also, it was an incentive not to go to work. You’d make more money if you don’t go to work. That’s not what the country’s all about.”
Trump sounds supportive of the idea of more stimulus checks but did not give a definite yes answer or mention any dollar amounts.
Nancy Pelosi’s HEROES Act passed the House of Representatives in May and approved another round of $1,200 stimulus checks. It also approved $3 trillion in other forms of government aid.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate version would depend on liability protections for businesses that reopened. And nothing will be approved in the Senate anytime soon, as they’re currently on recess until July 17. Then the Senate is only back in session for 5 weeks before their Labor Day break, from August 10 til September 7. So there is little room to get anything done.
In other words, any additional stimulus check would not be approved until late July or August at the earliest. And who knows how long it will take for the government to send stimulus checks.
Your second stimulus check might not be rounded off to a perfect $1,200, even if your first one was. This Omni Calculator Second Stimulus Check Calculator gives you a good idea what you can expect given what the congressional legislation looks like.
If your small business needs that money sooner, you may want to consider a small business loan or a business line of credit to get through the current downturn.
Joe Kukura is a San Francisco freelance writer whose work also appears in SF Weekly and SFist. He’s written financial advice for NerdWallet, tech industry analysis for the Daily Dot, sports content for NBC Bay Area, and good, old-fashioned clickbait for Thrillist.
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