Republicans Are Trying to Gut the Next Round of COVID-19 Relief Checks
Republican senators are offering a new COVID-19 relief framework that would limit survival checks to $1,000 and cut off aid to millions more Americans — and President Joe Biden seems open to some of the GOP’s restrictions.

Sen. Mitt Romney heads to the floor of the Senate on January 26, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
A group of Republican senators is pushing to cut the size of the next round of COVID-19 relief checks and significantly limit who’s eligible to receive the payments, as the Biden administration continues to indicate that it would be open to further restricting who’s eligible for survival checks.
Last month, President Joe Biden promised that $2,000 checks would “go out the door immediately” if Democrats managed to win the two Georgia senate runoff races and claim control of the Senate. After Democrats pulled off two miracle victories in Georgia, Biden quickly narrowed his pledge to new $1,400 checks, asserting that the $600 checks authorized by Congress in December were a down payment on his plan.
On Sunday, ten moderate Republicans proposed new $1,000 checks instead as part of their own scaled-down coronavirus relief package. Under their proposal, survival checks would go to far fewer Americans than in previous relief bills — only to “families who need assistance the most,” according to a letter they sent to the White House.