The Federal Trade Commission said Americans should be wary if they receive a phone call regarding their stimulus check. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the US government issued $1,200 checks to millions of Americans with a number of businesses closed.

The FTC is warning that scammers could potentially try to trick you out of your personal information. The agency says that fraudsters rig caller ID to make the number appear to come from a government hotline.

“Government agencies usually will not call or email you — especially about something related to money. They almost always contact you by US mail,” the FTC said.

The IRS is sending letters to Americans as a confirmation for receiving the stimulus check.

The FTC says that scammers will claim to be calling over something such as Medicare, Social Security, or in this case, your stimulus check, and will ask for personal information to verify.

“If you get a call or email from the IRS or any government agency asking you for personal information or money, that’s a scam. Hang up the phone or delete the email,” the FTC said.

If you have questions about your stimulus check, you can call an IRS hotline at 800-919-9835.

The IRS said earlier this month that 159 million Americans have received a stimulus check. The IRS is still working on sending out the remaining checks to qualified Americans.

When the $1,200 stimulus payments came out earlier this year, parents were promised an additional $500 for each child they claimed as a dependent. Many low-income families didn’t receive that money, called Economic Impact Payments, because the stimulus checks were based on tax returns.

Now, the IRS is trying to fix that, and is asking parents who did not file a 2018 or 2019 tax return to still go to their website and claim a dependent by September 30. The IRS has set up a non-filers tool to help.

The non-filers site is designed for those with incomes below about $24,400 for couples and $12,200 for individuals, and others who are otherwise not required to file a tax return. Those people typically do not file a tax return, and therefore would not have a record with the IRS of any dependent children.

"Given the extremely high demand for EIP assistance, we have continued to prioritize and increase resource allocations to eligible individuals, including those who may be waiting on some portion of their payment. To help with this, we are allocating additional IRS resources to ensure eligible recipients receive their full payments during this challenging time,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig.

A news release on the IRS’ website also says they will be helping those who may have had part of their payments deducted because of past-due child support. The agency says people do not need to take any action, they are working to resolve those cases where past-due child support was applied.

WASHINGTON — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced on Twitter Thursday the House and Senate have sent the bipartisan COVID relief bill to President Donald Trump to sign. The announcement comes after efforts to quickly increase direct payments from $600 to $2,000 in the stimulus bill initially seemed to have failed to move forward Thursday.

In a tweet, Pelosi stated, "The bipartisan COVID relief & omnibus bill has been enrolled. The House & Senate are now sending this important legislation #ForThePeople to the White House for the President’s signature. We urge him to sign this bill into law to give immediate relief to hard-working families!"

Earlier Thursday, Pelosi issued a statement that the House will be back in session on Monday, "where we will hold a recorded vote on our stand-alone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000."

After months of negotiations, Congress agreed on and passed nearly a trillion dollars in relief aid Monday. The package includes up to $600 payments to individuals, in addition to supplemental jobless benefits, help for small businesses and a moratorium on evictions.

The relief package was also attached to the overall $1.4 trillion government funding bill, which included federal spending and priorities for the next fiscal year across all departments and agencies.

President Donald Trump, who had not personally been involved in the negotiations but rather had surrogates from the administration participate, tweeted a video Tuesday in which he indicated he may not sign the bill and called for larger checks to Americans, around $2,000. The bill has not been signed yet.

Democrats supported the president’s call, and moved quickly to increase the direct payments to $2,000 in order to secure the president’s signature and pass the relief package into law.

The House tried to pass the larger payments addendum during a pro forma session, which is a brief meeting of the chamber where typically only a few members attend. Democrats had hoped to approve the measure by unanimous consent. That did not happen, according to The Hill and CNBC.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer sought to pass the measure, while Representative Rob Wittman wanted to bring up a competing measure, according to The Hill. The representative presiding over the session Thursday morning shot down both requests, saying that according to guidelines, legislation cannot be considered by unanimous consent unless there is the approval of bipartisan leadership.

The Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy said the effort was to "re-examine how we spend taxpayer dollars on foreign aid - as President @realDonaldTrump called for." He then thanked Rep. Wittman for "representing Republicans" in the "fight for the American people."

Pelosi tweeted that since efforts Thursday failed, the House will hold a vote on a stand alone bill on Monday. Her statement also called on the president to help pass the increase he is seeking.

"If the President is serious about the $2,000 direct payments, he must call on House Republicans to end their obstruction," her statement reads.

Thanks to extensions, the federal government is funded through Sunday night. However, if the funding bill with the COVID relief package included is not signed by the president before Sunday night, it could mean a government shutdown on Monday.

President and First Lady Trump are currently at their Mar-a-Lago resort for Christmas.

One day after President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion stimulus bill into law, the House of Representatives voted to increase direct payments to most Americans from $600 to $2,000 per person.

The bill had wide Democratic support, but failed to capture a majority of Republicans. The bill passed with just over two thirds of the House voting in approval.

The vote won the Democratic caucus by a 231-2 margin, Republicans voted 44-130 and independents voted 0-2.

The legislation now goes to the US Senate, where its future is in question. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who largely controls what legislation gets to the floor, has been mum on whether he’ll allow the CASH Act to get a vote.

Some Republicans in the Senate appear ready to back the proposal.

“I share many of my colleagues’ concern about the long-term effects of additional spending, but we cannot ignore the fact that millions of working-class families across the nation are still in dire need of relief,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said. “Congress should quickly pass legislation to increase direct payments to Americans to $2,000.”

Last week, Trump originally hinted he would not be supportive of signing the stimulus bill without changes. But with millions losing unemployment benefits and a number of hard-hit industries suffering, Trump signed the bill.

Meanwhile, Democrats pounced on the opportunity to increase stimulus payments to $2,000, a proposal that some Democrats called for early on in the pandemic.

As it stands now, most Americans making less than $75,000 a year will receive a $600 check ($1,200 for couples making under $150,000 a year).

"Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted minutes after Trump’s call for $2,000 checks. "At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 – Democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!"

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer similarly took aim at the president on Twitter.

"We spent months trying to secure $2,000 checks, but Republicans blocked it," Schumer tweeted.

A group of progressive senators, led by Sens. Ed Markey, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris weighed $2,000 per month payments to Americans amid the pandemic. That plan ultimately went nowhere.

Until two weeks ago, direct payments were not part of the stimulus plan. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the time that direct payments were "dead," and was focused on getting funds for the Paycheck Protection Program and enhanced unemployment passed. The varying levels of support for direct payments were enigmatic of the quarrels between the White House, House Democrats and Senate Republicans.

If the proposal to increase stimulus checks to $2,000 is signed, the overall cost of the stimulus bill would go from $900 billion to $1.36 trillion, according to House data released on Monday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday that some Americans would begin receiving $600 stimulus checks from the federal government by the end of the night.

This comes two days after President Donald Trump signed into law a $900 billion stimulus package, which included the direct payments.

Mnuchin said Tuesday that the stimulus checks would arrive in some bank accounts via direct deposit “as early as tonight and will continue into next week.” The department will also begin sending out paper checks on Wednesday.

MORE INFO: What is known about second round of stimulus

Mnuchin said that later this week, Americans can check the status of their refund payments by going to this website.

The stimulus bill provides most Americans making less than $75,000 a year a direct payment of $600 (couples making less than $150,000 a year will get $1,200). Heads of households making $124,500 annually also will receive the full $600.

The amount given per child under the age of 17 will increase from $500 to $600. Some young adults who are considered dependents will not be eligible for a payment.

Those making $75,000 to $87,000 ($150,000 to $174,000 for couples) will get a prorated check. Those making over $87,000 ($164,000 for couples) will not receive a check.

While most Americans who received a stimulus check in the spring will receive one, changes to income between 2018 and 2019 could alter payments.

Although the $600 checks will be welcomed relief for many Americans, the amount might come as a disappointment for some. On Monday, the House voted to increase the payments by $1,400 to $2,000. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, said that he will not put that bill up for an immediate vote. McConnell is hoping to leverage a repeal to Section 230 into the legislation. Section 230 was a 1996 federal code that gives websites legal protection for materials posted by users.

Justin Boggs is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @jjboggs or on Facebook.

Congress is ending a chaotic session, a two-year political firestorm that started with the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, was riven by impeachment and a pandemic, and now closes with a rare rebuff by Republicans of President Donald Trump.

In the few days remaining, GOP senators are ignoring Trump's demand to increase COVID-19 aid checks to $2,000 and are poised to override his veto of a major defense bill, asserting traditional Republican spending and security priorities in defiance of a president who has marched the party in a different direction.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a top Trump ally, tried to bridge the divide Thursday, saying Congress could try again to approve Trump's push for bigger COVID aid checks in the new session, which opens Sunday.

“I am with President Trump on this," Graham said on Fox News.

“Our economy is really hurting here,” he said. "There’s no way to get a vote by Jan. 3. The new Congress begins noon Jan. 3. So the new Congress, you could get a vote.’’

As the Senate grinds through the New Year's holiday, the one-two rebuke of Trump's demands punctuates the president’s final days and deepens the divide between the Republican Party's new wing of Trump-styled populists and what had been mainstay conservative views.

The stalemate is expected to drag into the weekend.

An exasperated Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said this week, “After all the insanity that Senate Republicans have tolerated from President Trump — his attacks on the rule of law, an independent judiciary, the conduct that led to his impeachment — is this where Senate Republicans are going to draw the line — $2,000 checks to the American people?”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has shown little interest in Trump's push to bolster the $600 relief checks just approved in a sweeping year-end package, declaring Congress has provided enough pandemic aid, for now, as he blocked repeated Democratic attempts to force a vote.

Opening the Senate on Thursday, McConnell called the House-passed bill matching Trump's $2,000 request “socialism for rich people” who don't need the federal help. He prefers a more targeted approach.

The refusal to act on the checks, along with the veto Friday or Saturday of the defense bill, could very well be among McConnell's final acts as majority leader as two GOP senators in Georgia are in the fights of their political lives in runoff elections next week that will determine which party controls the Senate.

Trump made an early return Thursday to the White House from his private club in Florida.

Trump and President-elect Joe Biden are separately poised to campaign in Georgia ahead of Tuesday's election as GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

It's a dizzying end to a session of Congress that resembles few others for the sheer number of crises and political standoffs as Trump's presidency defined and changed the legislative branch.

Congress opened in 2019 with the federal government shutdown over Trump's demands for money to build the border wall with Mexico. Nancy Pelosi regained the speaker's gavel after Democrats swept to the House majority in the midterm election.

Related video: Pelosi slams McConnell for halting stimulus checks

The Democratic-led House went on to impeach the president over his request to the Ukrainian president to “do us a favor” against Biden ahead of the presidential election. The Republican-led Senate acquitted the president in 2020 of the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

When the pandemic struck, Congress rallied with unusual speed and agreement to pass a $2 trillion relief package, the largest federal intervention of its kind in U.S. history.

The COVID-19 crisis also shuttered the Capitol and altered the workings of Congress. The House changed its rules to allow proxy voting, a first, so lawmakers could avoid the health risks of travel to Washington. The Senate ultimately halted its traditional daily lunches.

The usually bustling halls of Congress became eerily silent most days. Many members tested positive for the virus.

The Congress had few other notable legislative accomplishes, and could not agree on how to respond to the racial injustice reckoning that erupted after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement.

Instead, the Senate was primarily focused on filling the courts with Trump's conservative judicial nominees, including confirming his third Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett.

As the session appeared to be winding down, Trump stunned Washington days before Christmas by delaying his signature on the latest $2 trillion-plus COVID relief and year-end funding package over his fresh demands for additional aid.

Trump’s push for $2,000 checks gained sudden momentum when dozens of House Republicans joined Democrats in approving the measure Monday. But the effort fizzled in the GOP-led Senate.

Democrats embraced Trump's demand, a rare alliance with the Republican president, but his own party split between those few joining his push for more aid and others objecting to more spending they said was not targeted to those who need it most.

Liberal senators, led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who support the relief boost are blocking action on the defense bill until a vote is taken on Trump’s demand.

McConnell offered an alternative aid bill, linking the $2,000 checks with Trump's other priorities, including a complicated repeal of protections for tech companies like Facebook or Twitter and the establishment of a bipartisan commission to review the 2020 presidential election.

But the GOP leader has scheduled no votes on his measure and it would be unlikely to have enough support in Congress to pass.

For now, the smaller $600 checks are being sent to households. Americans earning up to $75,000 qualify for the payments, which are phased out at higher income levels, and there’s an additional $600 payment per dependent child.

The outgoing president has been berating Republican leaders for the standoff, but he appears more focused on gathering GOP support for his extraordinary Electoral College challenge of Biden's victory when the vote is tallied in a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is among those leading Trump’s challenge to the Electoral College result, but he was rebuked Thursday by GOP Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who warned colleagues off what he called a “dangerous ploy” that could damage trust in elections.

The challenge is not expected to change the election outcome, with Biden set to be inaugurated Jan. 20. But it will be among the first votes tallied in the new Congress.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is likely to become the Senate majority leader following a pair of Democratic pickups last week in the Georgia runoff elections, said last week providing Americans with additional stimulus funds will be his first priority.

The Senate’s majority leader sets the agenda for the chamber. When Democrats along with President Donald Trump called on stimulus checks to grow from $600 to $2,000 per person late last month, current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the bill from getting a vote despite a majority of senators indicating they would support the proposal.

Additional stimulus also has the support of members of the House, who already voted in favor of increasing the last round of stimulus checks to $2,000, and President-elect Joe Biden.

“One of the first things that I want to do when our new senators are seated is deliver the $2,000 checks to the American families,” Schumer said last Wednesday morning.

But things changed quickly after Schumer’s speech. Following last Wednesday's riot at the Capitol, Democrats have found a new goal: Impeaching Trump.

While the House is expected to move swiftly on impeaching Trump on Wednesday, the US Senate is not set to reconvene until next week. On Tuesday, Schumer requested McConnell to call senators back to Washington to hold an immediate trial of Trump. Democrats say that Trump’s comments last Wednesday incited a riot at the US Capitol. Five people died in last week’s riot.

“I've asked him to call the Senate back. All he needs is my agreement. I'm still minority leader, and his agreement, he's majority leader. And we could come back ASAP and vote to convict Donald Trump and get him out of office now, before any further damage is done,” Schumer said.

Schumer and Democrats are hoping to have a trial concluded by the time Biden takes office on Jan. 20, but without McConnell’s consent, that proposition is practically impossible.

Having a trial drag into the start of Biden’s administration could hamper Biden’s ability to get approval for additional stimulus. Biden acknowledged that an impeachment trial after he takes the oath of office could slow down his push for additional stimulus.

"Can we go half day on dealing with the impeachment and half day getting my people nominated and confirmed in the Senate, as well as moving on the package?" Biden said “That's my hope and expectation."

WASHINGTON — Congress is moving forward with President Joe Biden's America Rescue Plan, which will include another round of unemployment benefits and stimulus checks.

While final details are unclear, with the bill only in the beginning stages of being drafted, $1,400 checks will almost certainly be included.

But just because you got a check last time doesn't mean you'll receive a check when this legislation is passed.

HISTORY OF CHECKS

The first stimulus check was worth $1,200.

The second stimulus check was worth $600.

Each time, if you earned $75,000 per year or less ($150,000 for couples filing jointly), the IRS deposited the full amount in your bank account.

But that number may change.

A number of senators are pushing for a lower income limit, with full checks only going to Americans earning around $50,000 a year or less.

During his speech at the White House Friday, Biden spoke of individuals making $30,000 or $50,000. An important detail because he didn't include the amount of $75,000.

WHY REDUCE IT?

"Most people, tallying up all Americans, are earning around $50,000," Kyle Pomerleau, a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, said.

Pomerleau's research indicates around 88% of households would still receive some form of stimulus checks if the threshold is lowered.

New economic data has also indicated that Americans making less than $50,000 a year have suffered the most during this pandemic.

"One thing lawmakers need to think about is the cost," Pomerleau said.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The issue will likely divide Democratic senators over the coming weeks.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, has indicated a desire for more targeted relief for lower income earners.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is pushing for similar thresholds to be used this time that were used last time.

By now, you may be one of the more than 80 million Americans who has a little extra cash in your bank account. But before you spend it all in one place, or spend it at all, you need to make sure spending it is actually a wise choice.

"For the people for whom it’s an uncertain question, where the dollars are going to come for food next week, then this is a matter more of survival as opposed to spending it,” said Mac Clouse, a professor of finance at the University of Denver. “And they need to use these dollars to make up for what they normally would have had."

He says the first thing you need to do is look at your budget and the things you normally spend money on in a month.

"Put them into an order of what are the things that have to be paid, what are the things that I might be able to talk to the creditors and see if I can get some extensions, and things like rent maybe put it off for a month or two, or car loans," suggested Clouse.

If you are in a position to spend some of that money, Clouse suggests looking at your local businesses. They have less reserves and less capability to stay afloat in a situation like this. His best advice is to put it into your savings account.

"It’s not going to earn them a lot of interest but now’s not the time to be looking for investments that are earning a rate of return and taking risk," said Clouse.

There's already information out on how Americans who got their checks are spending them.

The online bank Current says people appear to be spending it on basic needs like food, groceries, and gas, and not splurging on big-ticket items.