Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said today (Tuesday) that the Trump administration wants to send checks to Americans “in the next two weeks” in an effort to help people cope with the economic fallout due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re looking at sending checks to Americans immediately,” Mnuchin said during a press briefing from the White House. “Americans need cash now, the president wants to get cash now. I mean now—in the next few weeks.”
As the White House held its press conference Tuesday -- with President Trump, Vice President Pence, Mnuchin and the coronavirus task force present -- the Dow rallied nearly 1,000 points, after sustaining historic losses on Monday.
“The president has instructed me we have to do this now,” Mnuchin added, though did not give specifics, except to say that the amount would be significant and that millionaires would not receive it.
Fox News has learned, however, that Mnuchin is pressing GOP senators for a package that would send $200 billion-plus of payments to Americans by early April.
Mnuchin’s comments came as the White House is in negotiations with lawmakers on Capitol Hill for Congress to approve a sweeping economic stimulus package to help U.S. businesses and taxpayers deal with the economic fallout from the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus
Mnuchin, on Tuesday, also announced that the Treasury Department would not extend the deadline to file taxes by the April 15 deadline, as much of the tax filing can be done online.
“We encourage Americans who can file taxes to continue to file taxes on April 15 because for many Americans, you will get tax refunds and we don’t want you to lose out on those tax refunds,” Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin added that if individuals or corporations owe money to the Internal Revenue Service after filing their taxes, those payments now are able to be deferred for up to 90 days interest-free.
“If you owe a payment to the IRS, you can defer up to $1 million as an individual, and $10 million to corporations, interest-free and penalty-free for 90 days,” Mnuchin continued. “File your taxes, you’ll automatically not get charged interests or penalties.”
Mnuchin was planning to outline a nearly $850 billion package during a lunch with Senate Republicans Tuesday, which Trump administration officials hope to have approved by the end of this week.
The coronavirus task force also predicted Tuesday that the number of cases in the U.S. could peak in approximately 45-days.
As of Tuesday morning, there were more than 4,660 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, in 49 states, including Washington, D.C. The U.S., so far, has seen 85 coronavirus-related deaths.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.