Stimulus Checks: Senate Democrats ‘Have Not Heard a Peep’ From GOP About Payments

Americans are still eagerly awaiting a potential, second stimulus check. But, according to Senate Democrats, they haven’t heard any word from their Republican counterparts about the topic. This news comes a few days after it was reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, was coming around to the idea of sending out additional economic impact payments.

During a conference call with public workers and advocates for state and local funding, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said that he had not heard a word from McConnell or other Republican lawmakers regarding an additional stimulus package, per CNN. He said, “We have not heard a peep from (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell or the Republicans or the administration on any proposal, even though we’ve been asking for weeks and weeks and weeks.” Schumer added that whatever plan that McConnell and the Republicans do come up with would need some Democratic support to pass in the Senate. He said, “McConnell knows from the previous bills that passed in the Senate he’s got to work across the aisle.”

Back in late May, McConnell opened up about enacting another stimulus package, telling reporters in Kentucky that the next package would be the last one amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As CNBC reported, McConnell said that the next bill “will be written in the Senate” and will be “supported by” President Donald Trump‘s administration. He also said that it “will be narrowly crafted, designed to help us where we are a month from now, not where we were three months ago,” and Americans could expect to hear more updates about it in a month. (There has been no information released about their plan as of right now, even though it has been over a month since McConnell made that statement.) Although, based on what Schumer had to say recently, it’s unclear whether Republicans have made any significant headway regarding another stimulus plan.

Even though there have been no concrete plans in place just yet, President Trump himself has also said that he supports enacting another stimulus package. He even said that he would support “larger” payments than those that were given out under the CARES Act. Trump told Fox News in early July, “I support actually larger numbers than the Democrats, but it’s got to be done properly. I want the money getting to people to be larger so they can spend it. I want the money to get there quickly and in a non-complicated fashion.”