Schumer to New Yorkers: COVID stimulus payments expected before end of March
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed Monday that $22 billion is coming very soon to eligible New Yorkers’ bank accounts.
Taking a victory lap after engineering passage of President Biden’s giant COVID stimulus package, Schumer said the money will help those hurt the most by the pandemic.
“These $1,400 checks, first and foremost, help people who need help,” Schumer said. “Second, they’re coming soon. They’ll be here in about two weeks, give or take a few days.”
Flanked by New Yorkers set to directly benefit from the $1.9 trillion economic relief package, Schumer predicted most taxpayers would see stimulus payments within about two weeks.
“If you’re a working person, like these folks are, you don’t put (the money) the bank,” he said. “Because you need to spend it. And most people spend it.”
“People need the money,” Schumer added. “There are so many people who have lost their jobs.”
Most taxpayers who make less than $75,000 a year will qualify for the $1,400 checks, or married couples who make less than $150,000. They will also get $1,400 for each dependent child.
The benefit phases out quickly for taxpayers who make more. Individuals who make more than $80,000 and couples who make $160,000 won’t get anything.
Schumer said he expects the House to pass the bill Tuesday and Biden to sign it into law within days.
He also promised the sprawling relief package will help people across the economic spectrum, including those who must spend more on transportation and education due to the year-long pandemic.
Disappointed with service cuts on the Long Island Rail Road that began Monday, Schumer said that Congress has given the MTA $14.5 billion precisely to avoid harming commuters.
“They should not make the cuts,” he said. “The whole purpose of giving ... the MTA money is people need the trains to get to work. And not everybody works 9-to-5.”
Schumer resisted joining growing calls for Gov. Cuomo to resign amid allegations of inappropriate behavior and harassment.
Even as the senator said the claims by three separate former female staffers are “serious, troubling and have to be listened to,” he said he was confident that New York Attorney Letitia James will “turn over every stone” in her probe of Cuomo.
