(Bloomberg) -- Senate Republicans are looking to a 2008 tax rebate program as the template to deliver direct payments to individuals intended to boost consumer spending as economic activity contracts as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.The Senate is looking to quickly draft and pass legislation that could provide swift relief to businesses and individuals struggling as a result of businesses closing, schools shuttering and travel grinding to a halt. White House officials have said direct payments to Americans should be part of the next round of fiscal stimulus that could cost as much as $1.3 trillion.“Some of the ideas we are working on are things that there’s sort of a formula or template for,“ Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Wednesday. “With the checks, we have the 2008 experience. And so there are sort of tried-and-true ways to do this.”Thune reiterated that Thursday morning on Fox & Friends, saying he wanted to get the money “out quickly in the form of individual checks.”President Donald Trump, as well as many Republicans and Democrats, have publicly backed some form of quickly sending payments to every household in the form of checks or a direct deposit.The Trump administration wants to send $1,000 checks to every adult and $500 to children within three weeks of Congress passing a bill, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday on Fox Business. That could be followed by a second round if the national emergency continues, he said.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asked his members to present proposals as soon as Thursday for the next virus-response bill. The provision for the direct payments to households will likely be modeled after Congress’s post-financial crisis law to provide a direct tax rebate to individuals who filed taxes in either 2007 or 2008.A similar rebate program was also used in 2001 as part of an economic response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.Some Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham, have expressed reservations about direct payments to households, saying they would prefer a payroll tax cut. Trump has also said he likes the idea of a payroll levy reduction, but that his advisers have said checks get money to people more quickly.“Your check plus $1,000 doesn’t get you anywhere because there’s no place to spend that,” Graham said.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a plan Tuesday that called for Congress to beef up existing benefits to the jobless and provide state and local aid, among other things. He also said he might consider direct payments similar to those that Republicans are considering.“We may also need to consider ways to provide robust stimulus, potentially, like of direct payments to help individuals and families as well as the broader U.S. economy recover,” according to a document from Schumer’s office outlining his plan.Senator Mitt Romney, one of the the first Republicans this week to publicly support direct payments to households, said lawmakers should couple these payments with higher benefits for the jobless.“The combination of benefits should be able to keep people whole, or near whole, if they do become unemployed,” Romney told reporters.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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