Pelosi: ‘Shameful’ for Trump to order his name on coronavirus stimulus checks

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday blasted President Trump’s decision to have his name printed on the stimulus checks that will be mailed out to individual Americans as the coronavirus pandemic rattles the economy.

“Delaying direct payments to vulnerable families just to print his name on the check is another shameful example of President Trump’s catastrophic failure to treat this crisis with the urgency it demands,” Pelosi said in a statement.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday night that some senior IRS officials said the process of adding Trump’s name to the checks could slow their delivery by a few days.

But the Treasury Department denied that printing Trump’s name on the checks is causing a delay, with a spokeswoman saying Wednesday that they are “scheduled to go out on time” with “absolutely no delay whatsoever.”

Treasury spokesperson response to last night’s inaccurate and misleading Washington Post story: pic.twitter.com/5K7SNa6PFC

— Monica Crowley (@TreasurySpox) April 15, 2020

The Post reported that it will be the first time that a president’s name appears on a payment disbursed by the IRS.

The checks will still have the signature of a Bureau of the Fiscal Service official. Trump’s name will be in the memo line under a line identifying the check as an “economic impact payment.”

According to the Post, the decision for the checks to include Trump’s name was made Tuesday, causing the IRS’s information technology team to rush to make a programming change that two senior officials said would “probably” lead to a delay in issuing checks.

The IRS will mail the checks to people who do not have banking information on file with the agency. People who do have banking information on file with the IRS will receive their payments by direct deposit.

Qualified Americans are eligible for a one-time payment of up to $1,200 if they earn $75,000 or less, with individuals making up to $99,000 eligible for smaller payments on a prorated basis. Families will also receive an additional $500 per child.

The payments were established by the $2 trillion relief package passed by Congress last month.