Stimulus checks
This story is developing.
Senate Democrats don’t want debt collectors to take your stimulus check.
Here’s what you need to know.
Stimulus Checks
A group of Senate Democrats want to help you keep your $1,400 stimulus check. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced a bill Wednesday that would prevent debt collectors from seizing your stimulus check to satisfy past-due debt. In some cases, absent this legislation, a debt collector could seize your payment before you can even track your stimulus check.
“We passed the American Rescue Plan to put money in people’s pockets so they can pay their bills, not to line the pockets of predatory private debt collectors,” Brown said. Our bill would mean American workers and their families don’t have to worry their stimulus checks” will be gobbled up by financial predators, and the House should pass it immediately.”
What the stimulus package says about stimulus checks
While the new $1.9 trillion stimulus package — the American Rescue Plan of 2021 — grants individuals stimulus checks up to $1,400 and married/joint filers stimulus checks up to $2,800, the legislation doesn’t protect you against debt collectors. Why? Congress passed the legislation strictly along partisan lines, without a single Republican vote in the Senate. Therefore, Congress passed the stimulus package using budget reconciliation, which is a legislative tool that Congress can use to pass legislation with a simply majority vote rather than a 60-vote threshold. With budget reconciliation, Congress is limited in terms of sculpting legislation that directly pertains to the budget. As a result, Democrats in Congress couldn’t include a prohibition against seizure of stimulus checks. This new proposed legislation, which is separate from the stimulus package, seeks to change that. In contrast, Congress passed the Cares Act — the $2.2 trillion bipartisan stimulus package that didn’t involve budget reconciliation — to include a moratorium on debt collection of federal student loans.
As Wyden noted, the stimulus checks are meant for the American people to provide essential emergency relief, not to satisfy debt repayment. Therefore, Democrats hope to pass this legislation immediately, hopefully with Republican support, to protect American families so that they can keep their stimulus payments.
“Relief payments are intended for struggling families, not predatory private debt collectors,” Wyden said. “Our legislation would ensure help gets to the folks who need it to pay rent and buy groceries. Senate Republicans supported this critical protection in the December relief package, and we hope to pass our bill right away.”
