An effort launched by a Denver restaurant owner calling on the federal government to give Americans monthly stimulus payments until the COVID-19 pandemic abates has reached a new milestone. The online petition reached 3 million signatures late Friday.
The change.org petition started by Duo owner Stephanie Bonin in 2020 called on Congress to pass regular checks of $2,000 for adults and $1,000 for kids for the duration of the pandemic crisis.
It picked up 2 million signatures in 2020, putting it on Change.org's top 10 petitions for the 2020. As the signatures kept coming, it made the list again for 2021.
Stimulus payments were one of the most Googled topics of 2021 after Americans received direct payment checks of $1,200 and $600 in 2020 during the Trump administration and another $1,400 under President Joe Biden.
On top of this, the American Rescue Plan in March 2021 included monthly advance child tax credit payments sent to eligible American families. Plus, there was tax forgiveness on the first $10,200 of unemployment Americans received in 2020.
There are no signs that lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are in serious discussions about a fourth direct payment stimulus check. While there have been calls by the public and from some lawmakers for recurring payments, there has been practically nothing in terms of action.
The future of the monthly child tax credit is also in the air. It passed the House in November as part of the $2 trillion Build Back Better bill. But that legislation has not received any Republican support in the Senate and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has said he won't vote for it. He's also said he wants the child tax credit to have a requirement that recipients are employed.
There is, however, some discussion of a potential standalone bill for the child tax credit -- something Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has reportedly said she would consider getting behind.