Financially struggling Americans this week will likely receive more concrete answers on whether there eventually will be a fourth or even a fifth round of coronavirus stimulus checks.  

Know that to date, Congress already approved the delivery of three stimulus payments to eligible Americans—a $1,200 check in April 2020, $600 in December, and the current $1,400 payments.

President Joe Biden is expected to reveal more details regarding a new spending plan that could likely set aside billions of dollars for cash-strapped Americans on Wednesday. Biden will unveil in a speech a $1.8 trillion proposal that the White House has called the American Families Plan, which is slated to include increased funding for education, child care, and paid family leave. 

It is, however, currently unclear whether the Biden’s administration’s plan will, in fact, include a fourth round of stimulus checks—as both the president and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki have stayed mostly silent on the issue.  

Many Washington lawmakers, though, have pressed Biden for much of the year to quickly green-light recurring stimulus payments to help ease the sufferings of low-income Americans. Last month, twenty-one Democratic senators signed off on a letter that supports fast-tracking such payments.

“We urge you to include recurring direct payments and automatic unemployment insurance extensions tied to economic conditions in your Build Back Better long-term economic plan,” the senators wrote. 

They also pointed to polling data that showed that a majority of Americans strongly support recurring stimulus payments.  

“Polling shows 65 percent of Americans support recurring cash payments ‘for the duration of the pandemic.’ This includes support from 54 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents. Economists support the idea too,” the senators wrote. 

Even as far back as January, Rep. Ilhan Omar contended that low-income Americans deserve more financial assistance. “A one-time payment of $2,000 is simply not enough,” she said. “The American people are counting on us to deliver transformative change, and we need to meet the moment by delivering monthly payments of $2,000.”  

According to a recent survey conducted by Bankrate, the data indicated that more than six in ten adults admit the current stimulus payments “won’t sustain their financial well-being for more than three months, as most plan to allocate proceeds toward covering monthly bills (45 percent), daily necessities such as food and supplies (36 percent), and outstanding debt (32 percent).”  

Moreover, roughly 20 percent of Americans have acknowledged that the stimulus funds won’t last a full month and another 14 percent said the checks won’t improve their current finances at all.  

In addition, although unemployed workers claiming benefits continued to decline last month, the figures are still higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.  

Image: Reuters