Mnuchin on Future Coronavirus Relief: ‘We Do Support Another Round’ of Direct Payments

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says President Donald Trump’s administration is eying another round of direct payments to help Americans struggling financially due to coronavirus shutdowns.

During Thursday’s appearance on CNBC, Mnuchin touted the trillions of dollars the government has spent to help keep small businesses and Americans afloat amid the coronavirus shutdowns.

However, he admitted that there is still more than needs to be done to help the economy as the virus continues to spread.

When asked about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) call to limit another round of direct payments to individuals who report an income of $40,000 or less, Mnuchin said, “Well I’m not going to go into the specific details today on that.”

“What I would say is, we do support another round of economic impact payments … and we could get that into hard-working Americans’ bank accounts very, very quickly,” he added.

He continued to say that the administration will negotiate the “level and the criteria” with senators.

When it comes to the timeline for passing another relief package, Mnuchin said the administration would like to pass a bill between July 20 and the end of the month.

Watch the interview below:

Mnuchin has previously said that the administration was considering another round of direct payments.

In June, Mnuchin testified before the Senate Small Business Committee that he believed the government would need to pass another relief bill to stimulate the economy.

“We will have a significant amount of unemployment, and we’re going to need to look at doing something there,” he added.

He continued, “I think we’re going to seriously look at whether we want to do more direct money to stimulate the economy, but I think this is all going to be about getting people back to work.”

Congressional Republicans have held off on additional relief spending to allow lawmakers to evaluate how the previous spending bills were working.

In May, McConnell said that Congress would take a look at a future coronavirus relief spending “the next couple of weeks.”

Mnuchin’s comments on Thursday as the government reported that another 1.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits, for the week ending July 4. 

As states began to reopen, the number of Americans filing for unemployment dropped significantly. However, the decrease in claims become more gradual as the number of coronavirus cases has been ticking up across the county leading several states to halt their reopening plans.