New Stimulus Checks Could be Coming. Here’s When You Could Get Yours

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans received multiple stimulus checks to relieve the financial pressure caused by the pandemic-related closures. These checks helped people to stabilize their finances and avoid financial disaster in the wake of closed businesses and mass layoffs. Now, Americans continue to face financial struggles after years of high inflation. And, tariffs imposed upon imports have only served to drive up prices further.  To help give back some of these tariff funds and ease the burden for millions, President Trump has proposed a new stimulus payment. The new payment would total $2,000 per person and, as the President explained on social media, it would come from funds distributed from tariff revenue. So, if the President follows through on his proposal to distribute payments of “at least $2,000 per person,” to everyone except high earners, when will you receive the funds?

When will you get your $2,000 stimulus check?

Tariffs have brought in a substantial amount of revenue, with CNN reporting that the U.S. government has collected over $200 billion in tariff revenue. With over 163 million Americans filing a tax return in 2024, this falls short of the $326 billion it would likely cost to send every person another $2,000 stimulus payment. Still, the President did indicate that some high earners would be excluded and not everyone would be eligible, so the gap between the revenue collected and the money needed to fund a stimulus package is likely smaller. This doesn’t mean that Congress is guaranteed to pass another stimulus package, though. The Trump Administration does not independently have the power to distribute checks from the stimulus funds, so a bill would need to pass the House and Senate before it could get to the President’s desk. The exact timeline for how quickly this could happen would depend on how broad the support is for the legislation. When the first COVID stimulus package, the CARES Act, was passed, lawmakers acted with great speed, passing the legislation in March of 2020 shortly after widespread shutdowns were announced. However, the second COVID-19 stimulus package was not signed until December 2020 after months of intense negotiations, and the third package was not signed into law until March of 2021. Since there is no COVID-19 emergency to force lawmakers to act urgently in this particular situation, it is more likely to take months, rather than weeks, for a bill to get through Congress authorizing the President’s planned $2,000 stimulus payment — if it gets through Congress at all. There is, however, a framework for legislation that could speed up the process. When President Trump proposed the idea of a tariff-related rebate back in July, Senator Josh Hawley introduced the American Worker Rebate Act of 2025. This legislation was referred to the Committee on Finance, and it has not yet advanced, but with President Trump’s encouragement, it’s possible that it could eventually come to a vote and result in your stimulus check coming faster.

Lawmakers may act before midterms

Congress is currently embroiled in a government shutdown fight, so the harsh reality is that is unlikely that a tariff rebate bill or stimulus check bill is going to be voted on in the coming weeks. However, if consumer sentiment is negative in the lead-up to the 2028 midterm elections, it is possible that more lawmakers would get on board with the idea to improve the way their constituents feel about their financial situations.  Some democrats would likely have to join with republicans to pass the bill, though, unless Republicans decided to try to move the bill through a procedural process called reconciliation.