Supporting Relief Checks for Texans Married to Foreign Nationals

Friday, I announced my support for the American Citizen Coronavirus Relief Act, a bill to retroactively send economic recovery checks authorized by the CARES Act to Texans who did not originally qualify because their spouse is a foreign national and do not have a Social Security Number. 

This pandemic has hit all Texans hard, and we shouldn’t make it harder by withholding recovery resources based on the status of a U.S. citizen’s spouse. The intent of these recovery checks is to provide a lifeline to as many U.S. citizens in dire need of support as we could, and this bill will allow us to help more Texans while we continue to fight the coronavirus.

The CARES Act authorized recovery checks for each adult with a Social Security Number (SSN) who makes up to $99,000 annually; however, U.S. citizens who file joint tax returns with spouses who do not have SSNs were deemed ineligible. This bill would allow those U.S. citizens to receive a recovery check of up $1,200 and an additional $500 for each citizen child.