U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH) led 20 of his congressional colleagues in suggesting that a telephone hotline be set up for Americans without broadband service who lack access to the U.S. Treasury Department’s economic impact payments (EIPs).
Authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the EIPs are designed to support vulnerable Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the only way to track stimulus payments or to update banking and address information to ensure EIPs arrive is online, wrote Rep. Balderson and his colleagues in an April 30 letter sent to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig and U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“Many of our constituents do not have access to broadband during this pandemic whatsoever. Low-income Americans often do not have internet in their homes and can no longer access school or public forum servers, such as libraries and community centers. In the rural areas we serve, this problem is even more pronounced,” Rep. Balderson and the lawmakers wrote.
“Entire communities do not have broadband infrastructure in place,” they noted. “With no access to broadband and normally limited internet access points now completely closed for public safety and social distancing reasons, our rural constituents are entirely isolated and unable to access the IRS’s website.”
Specifically, the lawmakers asked Rettig and Mnuchin to answer questions about whether the IRS would consider creating a telephone hotline option to serve rural and low-income constituents; permit furloughed IRS employees to assist these constituents; and if the IRS would allow congressional offices to update information or track payments on constituents’ behalf, according to their letter.
“Congress created these direct-to-individuals stimulus payments as a way to support the most vulnerable Americans — often, rural and low-income Americans without other options for financial support. These are the constituents most in desperate need of immediate relief — they cannot wait,” wrote Rep. Balderson and the members, who included U.S. Reps. Mike Turner (R-OH), Bill Flores (R-TX), Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA), Bill Johnson (R-OH), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Dave Joyce (R-OH), and Bob Latta (R-OH).