President Joe Biden reasserted his commitment to providing additional COVID-19 relief checks to U.S. residents during a recent call with House Democrats. During the call, Biden told his colleagues that he would be in favor of providing most Americans with an additional $1,400 in COVID-19 relief.
“We can’t walk away from an additional $1,400 in direct checks that we proposed because the people need them,” President Joe Biden reportedly told House Democrats.
“We can better target them, but I’m not going to start my administration by breaking a promise to the American people."
While on the call, the President also urged U.S. Representatives to “go big, not small” when developing a new COVID-19 relief package.
"I'll have your back. I ask that you have mine,” Biden said.
In addition to pushing for additional $1,400 COVID-19 relief payouts, the President is pushing for more COVID-19 vaccine funding. Biden has asserted his support for allocating $400 million toward coronavirus vaccines, testing and other medical needs.
Further COVID-19 relief would be a great boost to marginalized communities that have been disproportionately impacted during the most recent stages of the pandemic. Over the course of the pandemic, Black Americans are 3.7 times more likely to be hospitalized from the virus and 2.8 times more likely to die from COVID-19. However, Black Americans have not received the vaccine at the same rate as white Americans. Thus far, only 5% of Black Americans have received the vaccine. Increasing vaccine funding could make the treatment more widely available to Black Americans
House Democrats believe that the latest COVID-19 relief package could be pushed through the Senate as early as this month.
“If the package includes a minimum wage, I suspect Manchin is a hard no. I also expect more targeted direct checks,” one House Democrat told The Hill.
“Other than that, I don’t see anything stopping the package from moving through [Congress] rather seamlessly.”
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