'These are survival checks': Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley slammed $600 coronavirus stimulus checks as insufficient

• Rep. Ayanna Pressley criticized the $600 dollar stimulus checks reportedly included in Congress's latest coronavirus relief package proposal as "survival checks," on MSNBC's "The ReidOut" on Friday.
• Republican and Democratic lawmakers are in talks of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package which reportedly includes direct payments of around $600 per individual, Business Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported.
• Progressive Democrats have urged for a larger stimulus check for Americans to be included in the coronavirus relief package. Most recently 17 lawmakers wrote a letter urging Congress to include $2,000 stimulus checks in the package.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley did not mince words when criticizing the $600 dollar stimulus checks which are reportedly included in Congress's latest proposal for a coronavirus stimulus package.

"At this point, these are not even stimulus checks. These are survival checks," the Massachusetts congresswoman said in an interview on MSNBC's "The ReidOut" on Friday.

"My constituents need these moneys to remain safely housed," Pressley said, adding that "600 dollars does not even cover one month's rent."

As Business Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported, following a prolonged contention over a stimulus package, Republican and Democratic lawmakers are in talks of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package as of Wednesday morning, and the proposal reportedly includes direct payments of around $600 per individual - roughly half of the $1,200 stimulus in March.

Pressley criticized that the GOP-led Senate is "completely disconnected and removed from the hardship that American people are experiencing every day."

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Progressive Democrats have urged that congress includes $2,000 stimulus checks in the coronavirus relief package, noting that "this type of direct assistance has proven to be critical to lifting people out of poverty and have been among the most effective programs to address the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic," Zeballos-Roig reported. Earlier this month, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders have both pushed for a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks.

Ocasio-Cortez, also a member of "the squad" of progressive lawmakers alongside Pressley, criticized Senate Republicans that they "just [don't] care" and slammed the $600 checks as an "insultingly low amount," Business Insider's Sophia Ankel reported.

• Read more:
• A group of 17 progressive Democrats is pushing for $2,000 stimulus checks to be in the next coronavirus relief package
• AOC says the GOP 'just doesn't care' about struggling Americans as stimulus talks get pushed into the weekend
• All your questions about a 2nd stimulus check, answered
• AOC urges public to tell Congress that one-time $600 stimulus checks are not enough