Majority Whip Jim Clyburn: $1,400 Checks Will Come ‘Within a Week’ After Passage

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said the next round of stimulus checks, which at this point will be $1,400 rather than a full $2,000 initially promised by Democrats, will come “within a week” of the final passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief measure, which is now going to the House following Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote in the split Senate.

“That’s enough to rescue this economy [for now],” Clyburn told Yahoo Finance, speaking of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal thay passed in the Senate early Friday morning. “We’re going to have to stimulate the economy later on,” he continued.

Harris served as the tie-breaker, sending the package to the Democrat-led House, where it is expected to pass. Notably, the proposal offers $1,400 direct stimulus checks to the American people rather than $2,000, which both Democrat and Republican lawmakers called for during the debate over the $2.3 trillion government spending and coronavirus relief measure, which former President Trump signed in December.

That proposal provided $600 in the form of direct payments, prompting Democrats to up their promise to provide $2,000 checks in the next stimulus package ahead of the runoff elections in Georgia.

While Democrats scored dual victories in the Peach State, the progressive cries for $2,000 checks fell on deaf ears in the Biden administration, which maintains that it is keeping its promise, as $1,400, coupled with the $600 payments in the last measure, equals the promised amount.

Regardless, Clyburn predicted that the next round of stimulus payments will be distributed “within a week” of the measure’s passage.

Meanwhile, dozens of progressives, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) have formally asked Biden and Harris to make $2,000 recurring payments a staple of any future coronavirus relief legislation.

“As the country begins to look towards building to a better future, we need to provide those struggling and left behind with consistent reliable cash payments during this COVID-19 crisis,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent last week, formally asking Biden and Harris to “consider recurring cash assistance when crafting your economic policy priorities moving forward.”

The progressives also requested that those recurring payments extend to individuals who have Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN), which includes illegal immigrants.