Republican Talking Point Omits Key Details About Stimulus Payments to Inmates

Some congressional Democrats voted for COVID-19 relief bills that resulted in stimulus checks being sent to inmates — but so did some congressional Republicans.

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was one of the prisoners eligible for a $1,400 stimulus check – but he didn’t get to keep it, because a federal court ruled that the payment could be seized to pay Tsarnaev’s criminal fines and for restitution to his victims.

But those two facts – that Republicans voted for previous stimulus checks and Tsarnaev didn’t keep his check – were omitted from Republican attacks on a number of Democrats who voted for the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

That law – like two previous COVID-19 relief bills that were enacted in 2020 with overwhelming bipartisan support – did not block inmates from receiving economic impact payments intended to help individuals and families during the pandemic.

For example, in Florida, a TV ad from Sen. Marco Rubio’s reelection campaign says that Rep. Val Demings, his Democratic challenger, “joined [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi to give a billion [dollars] in stimulus checks to convicted criminals and illegal immigrants.”