There’s no question that the Internal Revenue Service has done a valiant job in disbursing nearly one hundred sixty million coronavirus stimulus checks worth $376 billion to U.S. taxpayers under the American Rescue Plan.

This now represents 84 percent of the $450 billion total earmarked for stimulus funds, the agency noted.

But even before the dust settles on that success, there is already increasing chatter about a fourth or even a fifth round of direct stimulus payments. Know that to date, Congress has green-lighted the delivery of three stimulus checks to most Americans—a $1,200 check in April 2020, $600 in December, and the current $1,400 payments.

For many financially struggling Americans, however, the latest round of stimulus checks will only amount to a short-term solution.

“We need at least one more check,” Adam Ruben, campaigns director at the Economic Security Project, recently told CNBC, adding that the current $1,400 payments will help keep eleven million Americans out of poverty this year.

According to a new survey conducted by Bankrate, it revealed that more than six in ten adults admit the 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).”

Others are mired in an even more dire situation. A shade over 20 percent of Americans acknowledged that the stimulus funds won’t last a full month and another 14 percent said the cash won’t improve their current finances at all.

“Stimulus continues to be a bit of a misnomer, with households predominantly using the money to pay monthly bills and provide day-to-day essentials,” Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst, said in a statement.

“Even households with those bases covered are opting to pay down debt and boost savings—prudent decisions that lead to more sustained spending in the future,” he added.

According to separate research from the financial services firm TransUnion, four in ten Americans are still continuing to experience a loss of income compared to before the pandemic started more than a year ago.

It appears that Washington lawmakers have taken note of such concerning data, as twenty-one Democratic senators recently signed off on a letter to President Joe Biden in support of recurring stimulus 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 recent polling data that revealed 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,” they wrote.

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.