Pelosi Skeptical of Limiting New Stimulus Checks to People Making Less Than $40,000

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks at her weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 11, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday stated that more stimulus checks should not be limited to people who are making less than $40,000 per year, which was suggested by a top GOP senator this week.

“I think there are many families, depending on the size of the family, so many different things, that $40,000 would have to explained, justified, the rest,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “I think families making over $40,000 probably need assistance, again, depending on their family situation.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters in Kentucky that the next round of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus stimulus checks could be sent to those people. It’s not clear whether that would apply to an individual, a family, or a couple.

“I think the people who have been hit the hardest are people who make about $40,000 a year or less. Many of them work in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry, as all of you know, just got rim-racked — hotels, restaurants — and so that could well be a part of it,” he told reporters.

The Senate is currently on its July recess and will not return until July 20, but McConnell said that senators will attempt to pass a measure after they get back.

Traders, some in medical masks, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, N.Y., on March 20, 2020. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

“I‘ll be unveiling something which will be a starting point in a few weeks and we’ll be dealing with the administration and the Democrats,” McConnell said, adding that the next stimulus legislation will likely be the last.

“This is not just for businesses. This is for hospitals, doctors, nurses, nonprofits, universities, colleges, K-12, so that people who acted in good faith during this crisis are not confronted with a second epidemic of lawsuits in the wake of a pandemic that we’re already struggling with,” he said.

Also on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he supports another round.

“As soon as the Senate gets back, we’re going to sit down on a bipartisan basis with the Republicans and the Democrats and it will be our priority that between the 20th and the end of the month, we’re going to pass the next legislation,” he said in an interview.

President Donald Trump said the stimulus payments would potentially be larger than what Democratic lawmakers proposed, possibly referring to the House Democrat-passed HEROES Act, which would authorize payments of up to $1,200 for both eligible adults and children, capping at around $6,000 for a family of five. The CARES Act, signed into law in March, sent out checks of up to $1,200 to eligible people and $500 to children.