What would need to happen before a second round

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to unveil her plan for another stimulus bill this week. The proposal, which Republicans are eager to dismiss as a liberal wish list, is set to include a second round of direct stimulus checks to Americans.

We “have the direct payments,” Pelosi said on MSNBC on Monday night, adding that “people are craving that.”

The final details on the proposal – how big the checks would be, how frequent payments would be sent – are still unsettled. Some lawmakers, like Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, are pushing to go big. “I don’t think the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed,” he said Monday, but Democrats should push for checks for “multiple months moving forward.”

Before anything gets anywhere close to President Trump’s desk, weeks or even months of wrangling are ahead. Republicans have repeatedly brushed off Pelosi’s proposal, preferring instead a “pause” before negotiating another deal that could include controversial issues like funding the states to vote-by-mail, the Paycheck Protection Program, and infrastructure spending.

Weeks of negotiations ahead

Some Senate Republicans, many of whom are expressing concerns about the ballooning federal deficit, have lately been raising questions about whether there should be more stimulus payments at all.

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One example was during a recent virtual town hall meeting by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). He was not enthusiastic about checks, saying “I doubt there will be another payment.” Instead, “hopefully in the coming weeks here, the economy will reopen and people will get back to their livelihoods,” he said.

Ryan responded: “To think that somehow that we’re going to just wave a magic wand, and the economy’s going to be up and running, I think is fantasy.” His plan, released last month, pushes for monthly payments of $2,000 until employment returns to pre-COVID-19 levels. If Congress doesn’t approve more checks, “it could create a cascading effect of serious decline and lock us into a deep recession or into a depression,” he said.

“There are a lot of Republicans on Capitol Hill who are trying to make Democrats negotiate for the position that they understand needs to happen,” said Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist, about the GOP rhetoric around checks. Petkanas, a former advisor to Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid, added in an interview that he wasn’t certain that was behind some of these recent comments, “but that’s a tried and true tactic.”

A group of Democratic senators, including Kamala Harris, is also pushing for $2,000 checks “throughout and for three months following the coronavirus pandemic.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is another senator leaning against the proposal to send more checks. He told the Hill he wasn’t wasn’t strongly behind the first round of payments and added that “[t]his isn’t your classic recession.”

A White House in the middle

In the middle of the issue is a White House that has sent mixed messages on the topic.

During the first round of negotiations in March, the White House proposal included “two tranches” of checks. The idea at the time was $1,000 per person would go out immediately and another $1,000 would be sent 6 weeks later if the president still had a national emergency declared.

The Trump administration ended up signing on with the Senate Republicans’ push for a single payment for $1,200, with income restrictions. The president fully embraced those payments, even going so far as to put his name on them.

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