House passes bill to boost stimulus checks to $2,000

Capitol.
(Image credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The House voted Monday to send $2,000 stimulus checks to qualifying Americans, rather than the $600 direct payments included in the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill passed last week. The new legislation, which required a two-thirds majority vote, passed narrowly, 275 to 134.

Republicans accounted for 130 of the no votes, with the remaining four split evenly between Democrats and independents. President Trump came out strongly against the $600 checks and appeared at some points ready to veto the entire relief bill unless the figure jumped to $2,000.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.