Trump’s name to be printed on relief checks – Treasury Department

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The Treasury Department ordered for President Donald Trump’s name be printed on the relief checks to be sent to roughly 70 million Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic — based on Washington Post’s report, citing senior IRS officials.
• According to two senior agency officials, the move to imprint Trump’s name would cause delay because there will be alteration in the computer code, but the Treasury Department claimed that delivery will proceed as scheduled.
• The checks are set to be mailed to people who have no bank accounts registered in the IRS and are different from the ones deposited to 80 million Americans’ bank accounts earlier this week.

Citing senior Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s name will be printed on the stimulus checks as ordered by the Treasury Department.

The checks would be delivered to millions of American workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic — from the budget approved by the Congress in March in accordance with the $2 trillion stimulus package.

According to the Post, two senior agency officials said that some of the $1,200 checks were reported to be released late given the route to have Trump’s name on it. The move also marks the first time for a president’s name to appear on a check disbursement.

The Treasury Department, however, denied that the development would cause a delay, as it told the Post that the checks will be delivered as scheduled.

The department did not respond quickly to The Hill’s request for comment.

The Post reported that Trump’s full name will be displayed on the memo line. Recipients of the checks bearing the president’s name are around 70 million Americans.

The act to imprint the president’s name followed after Trump privately proposed doing it to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Post reported.

The official signatory of the stimulus checks is an official of the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Service, since the president is not authorized to be a signer for legal disbursements. Trump’s name would be displayed instead below the line that reads “Economic Impact Payment,” according to administration officials.

The checks are set to be mailed to people who have no registered bank details with the IRS, the Post reported — saying that the checks are separate from the ones deposited earlier this week to 80 million Americans’ bank accounts which did not have Trump’s name.

The decision to imprint Trump’s name was cascaded to the IRS’s information technology on Tuesday, a Treasury official told the Post. Including Trump’s name would involve altering a computer code which could cause delay, the official said.

Following reports that he expressed interest in signing the checks, Trump early this month denied the he’s interested in doing so.

“There’s millions of checks. I’m going to sign them? No. It’s a Trump administration initiative. But do I want to sign them? No,” he said in a briefing on April 3.

Around 150 million Americans have qualified for the $1,200 one-time cash relief assistance.

Source: The Hill