Letter to Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury, and Charles Rettig, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service - Ernst Pushes for Fix to Allow More Iowans to Access Relief Payments

Letter

Dear Secretary Mnuchin and Commissioner Rettig:

We write to request that you explore options for allowing certain Social Security and
Railroad Retirement beneficiaries with dependents who missed the April 22nd deadline to still
receive the additional $500 per qualified dependent this year. We are concerned that individuals
were not able to meet the quick turnaround announced in the April 20th guidance and will
otherwise have to wait until next year to receive the full economic impact payments they are
intended to receive under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Additionally, we ask for consideration to be given to other federal beneficiaries who may be
affected by a future deadline, such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients and
veterans receiving Compensation & Pension benefits.

We appreciate your work with the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) to ensure that those seniors, individuals with disabilities, and their
families who are non-filers and receive Social Security, Railroad Retirement, SSI, or VA benefits
are able to obtain a $1,200 economic impact payment without having to take additional action.
The effort to add these groups to the automatic payments process on an expedited basis
eliminates a bureaucratic hurdle for many of those most vulnerable to this pandemic and ensures
that these individuals will quickly receive this much-needed financial relief.

We recognize that efforts to deliver the economic impact payments to qualified
individuals as quickly as possible may make it necessary for some groups to take additional
action to receive their full payments. In particular, individuals who receive benefits from the
SSA or VA, did not file a tax return in 2018 or 2019, and have children under age 17 must
provide further information to the IRS to receive the additional $500 payment per qualifying
dependent. We appreciate the overall objective of not delaying the payments for all beneficiaries
while this additional information is obtained.

We are concerned, however, that guidance released on April 20th allowed just two days
for non-filing Social Security and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries with qualifying dependents
to provide information to the IRS or risk not receiving their qualifying dependent payment until
next year. This short timeline and the limited outreach to-date risk leaving many of these
beneficiaries unaware of the need to take immediate action to receive the full CARES Act
payments this year. Further, only providing an online option may preclude some individuals
from providing the needed information. The online non-filer portal may not be an accessible
option for those who do not have internet access in their homes and are not currently able to use
the computer at their local community center due to safety measures in place during the
coronavirus pandemic. The instructions for the online non-filers portal also continue to tell
Social Security and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries that they should not use the portal.

Given the short timeline and limited outreach, we ask you to explore all available options
for allowing non-filing Social Security and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries with dependents
who missed the April 22nd deadline to receive the additional $500 per qualified dependent
without having to wait until next year. We also urge you to work with stakeholders to engage in
immediate, targeted outreach to those federal benefit recipients with dependents who have not
filed a 2018 or 2019 tax return and ask that you consider options for a non-web-based alternative
to the online non-filer portal.

Sincerely,