Proposed House bill would provide some as young as high schoolers with $2,000 monthly payments

House Democrats are proposing a $2,000-a-month stimulus payment for individuals 16 and older to help them during the coronavirus. 

Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Tim Ryan of Ohio have introduced the proposal as stand-alone legislation titled the Emergency Money for the People Act.

A spokesperson for Ryan's office told Just The News on Tuesday that he is working with House leadership to include his bill in future coronavirus stimulus legislation.

The Khanna-Ryan proposal would provide the monthly payments to qualified recipients for one year. To qualify, individual recipients must make less than $130,000 annually and couples filing joint tax returns would have to make less than $260,000.

The proposal has 37 co-sponsors including Reps. Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Ted Lieu, of California.

Khanna’s office said 16-year-olds would not have to file tax returns to qualify for the $2,000 per month.

“They would have to fill out an online form that must be accessible via mobile phone to fill out" with their Venmo, Paypal, "other mobile money or direct deposit" information, a Khanna spokesperson said.

Khanna’s office also told Just The News that illegal immigrants and non-citizens who file tax returns with tax ID numbers would qualify for the monthly direct payments in the bill.

Illegal immigrants who are able to “demonstrate continuous presence” in the U.S. and meet the bill’s income requirements would also qualify, according to the spokesperson.

“The bill doesn't specify the method in which they would prove their identity, so the Treasury Department would have to determine the methods they would use,” the spokesperson for Khanna’s office also said.

If the "employment-to-population ratio" for ages 16 and older is above 60 percent after a six-month period, then the stimulus payments would stop. If the ratio remains below 60 percent after six months, then the payments would restart for another six-month timeframe, according to the text of the bill.

The direct payments “would not count as income in order to protect eligibility for any of the income-based state or federal government assistance programs,” according to Khanna’s office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposed a new $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus package on Tuesday that includes more direct stimulus payments, federal funding for state and local government aid and expanding voting by mail.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that Congress should wait to pass another coronavirus stimulus bill until the $2.2 trillion CARES Act is fully implemented. McConnell has signaled that the Senate won’t act on further coronavirus stimulus until after Memorial Day.