Spanberger voted to send stimulus checks to inmates. So did Republicans

One thing is missing from a GOP television ad that accuses Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va.,  of voting to send COVID-19 stimulus checks to people who are incarcerated — the disclosure that most congressional Republicans also voted to allow it.

The ad, sponsored by the National Republican Congressional Committee, blames Spanberger of voting for "wasteful spending," such as "nearly $1 billion in stimulus checks for prisoners, including domestic terrorists." A shaded picture appears of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers in 2013.

Republicans have aired similar ads in congressional races around the country. They refer to House and Senate votes in March 2021 on the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that was ultimately signed by President Joe Biden. Among other things, the act provided stimulus payments of up to $1,400 for single tax filers earning less than $75,000 a year and $2,800 to married couples filing jointly who made less than $150,000. Tax filers could get an additional $1,400 for each of their dependent children.

Democrats pushed the bill through Congress on partisan votes, saying the relief was vital. Republicans said the bill was a boondoggle and, during a lengthy Senate debate, offered amendments to put Democrats on the record regarding certain policy points.

Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., put forward an amendment that would prevent the stimulus checks from going to people in prisons. The amendment failed on a party-line vote. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said it would harm the families of those incarcerated.

"Given the stark racial disparities in our criminal justice system, this would cause the most harm to Black and brown families and communities already harmed by mass incarceration," Durbin said on the Senate floor. "Children should not be forced to go hungry because a parent is incarcerated."

Imprisoned people qualified for stimulus payments because of broad eligibility requirements in the relief bill — and others before it. All citizens and legal residents who filed a tax return or completed an Internal Revenue Service form requesting payment, were eligible for a check. The act provided 597,000 incarcerated people with stimulus checks totaling $863 million, according to estimates by the Department of the Treasury.

The amendment was defeated and the relief act passed in the Senate on 50-49 party-line vote with Democrats in the majority.

Four days later, the House approved the bill on a 220-211 vote, with Spanberger and all but one Democrat favoring it and Republicans unanimously opposing it. Democrats did not allow Republicans to introduce amendments before this vote because they needed to pass an exact copy of the Senate bill to advance it to Biden’s desk.

Weeks earlier in debate, however, House Republicans had opportunities to amend the bill and did not try to add a ban on incarcerated people getting checks.

While criticizing Democrats for their votes, the RNCC omits that most Republican members of Congress allowed incarcerated people to receive checks by voting for two earlier rounds of coronavirus stimulus. Both the CARES Act in March 2020 and a supplemental package in December 2020 allowed people in prisons to receive checks. The measures passed with overwhelming bipartisan support with the goal of speedily getting checks to citizens. 

The issue of imprisoned people receiving stimulus checks was not new when the American Relief Plan Act came up in early 2021. After President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act a year earlier, the IRS issued guidance saying the relief checks could not go to incarcerated people. In October 2020, a federal judge ruled against the IRS and said the government had to issue the checks because the CARES Act had no language restricting the payment to people in prisons.

This is important because Republicans afterward supported the second stimulus, in December 2020, that also allowed payments to people who are incarcerated. 

Spanberger, who supported all three coronavirus stimulus bills, has no regrets. Justin Chermol, her campaign spokesperson, said she backed the American Rescue Plan because "Virginia families were struggling to keep up with expenses, small businesses and restaurants needed additional relief to keep their doors open, and COVID-19 vaccination and testing sites needed additional support."

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As the RNCC ad claims, a $1,400 relief check was deposited in Tsarnaev’s prisoner account in June 2021. Tsarnaev is being held in federal prison in Colorado after being sentenced to death for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds. He acted with his brother, who was killed in a police shootout.

What the RNCC doesn’t say is that Tsarnaev didn’t get to keep the money. The funds were seized to pay criminal fines he had incurred and restitution to his victims. 

An NRCC ad says Spanberger supported "nearly $1 billion in stimulus checks for prisoners, including domestic terrorists."

She did so by voting for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act along with other Democrats who argued that stripping payments to imprisoned people from the broad bill would hurt their families. 

One of the recipients was Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber. Republicans unanimously opposed the legislation.

The NRCC omits important information: Republicans voted for two earlier coronavirus relief bills that also, among many things, allowed coronavirus relief checks to go to imprisoned people. And Tsarnaev’s stimulus money was seized to pay restitution to his victims and criminal fines.

The NRCC tells half the story and we rate its claim Half True.