Mnuchin expects people to start receiving stimulus checks next week

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday that he expects Americans will start receiving stimulus checks as early as next week from the COVID-19 relief package that Congress is poised to approve.

“The president wanted direct payments, so we will be sending out next week direct deposit,” Mnuchin said on CNBC. “I expect we’ll get the money out by the beginning of next week.”

Lawmakers and the White House reached an agreement on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package on Sunday that includes direct payments of up to $600 for adults and children. Congress still needs to vote on the bill, whose text had not yet been released as of Monday morning, and President Trump still needs to sign it.

The payments in the bill will be the second round of direct payments that Congress has provided in an effort to help people cover expenses during the coronavirus pandemic. In March, Congress enacted payments of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child in the CARES Act.

Mnuchin’s timetable for the second round is faster than the timetable was for the CARES Act payments. The first round of payments was enacted on March 27, and taxpayers whose direct deposit information was already on file with the IRS started receiving their payments in mid-April.

Mnuchin called direct payments a “very, very fast way of getting money into the economy.”

“It’s money that gets recirculated in the economy, so people go out and spend this money, and that helps small business and that helps getting more people back to work,” he said.