Fourth stimulus check: Does the new bipartisan infrastructure plan include payments?

Maine Senator Susan Collins was interviewed on Face the Nation on Sunday 12 June and spoke about a bipartisan infrastructure bill she is leading. During the interview, she described the emerging package as “targeted” and “responsible.”

The proposal is much smaller than President Biden's 2.3 trillion dollar proposal, American Jobs Plan. The bulk of the 1.2 trillion dollar plan supported by members of both parties will go to investments in physical infrastructure and scraps the majority of social spending that Biden includes in his proposal. However, many within the Democratic caucus oppose the new proposal because they support those social programs and polling has shown that the American people do too.

The plan allocated $579 billion dollars for investments in physical infrastructure such as roads and bridges. In her interview with Face the Nation, Sen. Collins highlighted that it “includes provisions for resiliency, for strengthening the materials that we use to build our roads and bridges, and to strengthen our electrical infrastructure, and it includes energy provisions that are important to the administration, and many of our members as well.”Exactly what these energy provisions have yet to be announced. However, one of the details that has leaked is the possible application of a fee for electrical vehicle owners, which has been categorically rejected by climate-focused lawmakers.

Does the proposal include funding for a fourth stimulus check?

At this point, neither the American Jobs Plan nor the bipartisan proposal contains funding for an additional stimulus check. With GOP members uniformly opposed to the passage of another check, it is unlikely that one be added. As negotiations on the bill continue, the only possible way it could be included is if Democrats make it a bargaining chip wherein they trade its inclusion for a Republican priority.

Which Senators are in favor?



More than twenty Senators -- ten from each party -- have now signed onto a bipartisan infrastructure bill. A press release put out by the office of Susan Collins’ stated that the group of lawmakers support the bill that because it “provides an historic investment in our nation’s core infrastructure needs without raising taxes." The group has also stated that they "look forward to working with our Republican and Democratic colleagues to develop legislation based on this framework to address America’s critical infrastructure challenges.”

Democrats

Republicans