SAN FRANCISCO (KRON/NewsNation) –  Some good news if you’re in need of some monetary relief amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday revealed $600 COVID stimulus payments to Americans may begin to arrive by direct deposit as early as tonight, while paper checks will begin to be mailed starting Wednesday, Dec. 30.

Later in the week, you will be able to check the status of the checks on the IRS website.

After a delay, President Donald Trump signed the bill — which included $600 per adult and per dependent child — into law Sunday evening.

“As President, I have told Congress that I want far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child,” the president said in a statement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brought a standalone bill to the House floor Monday to increase check sizes.

“Now, the President must immediately call on Congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and to join him and Democrats in support of our stand-alone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000, which will be brought to the Floor tomorrow,” Pelosi said.

The House approved the bill Monday afternoon and sent the measure to the Senate. The Senate denied the bill, but McConnell introduced a new bill Tuesday afternoon.

Now that President Trump has signed off, the wheels will be set into motion for the Internal Revenue Service to begin issuing the Economic Impact Payments.

In August, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said payments could be issued as quickly as one week after Congressional approval.

Here’s how long it took last time to get checks:

  • March 25 — CARES Act passes Senate
  • March 27 — CARES Act passes House
  • March 27 — President signs CARES Act
  • April 10-11 — IRS direct deposits started arriving
  • April 18 — Paper checks mailing began

In a document to financial institutions, the IRS said the initial batch of 81 million electronic payments were deposited by April 15. Paper checks began being printed on April 18. The Treasury Department had the ability to print 5 to 7 million checks.

Another factor likely to speed up the timeline: the IRS system is up-and-running already and those who weren’t set up to automatically get payments likely already put in their bank information or mailing address in the IRS database.

The GAO also found the government had sent an estimated $1.2 billion to deceased people. It’s unclear if that finding will change the way the distribution would happen.

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