Here's What You Need to Remember: The packages proposed by Biden will likely take several months to gain potential approval from Congress, and will likely be subject to considerable amounts of negotiation and horse-trading, while Biden has nearly no votes to spare. Should a groundswell emerge for more checks, it would likely happen after that process is over.

President Biden addressed a joint session of Congress Wednesday night for the first time as president. In the speech, timed for his 100th day in office, Biden touted the American Rescue Plan and the vaccine rollout, while laying out his plans for future packages called the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. The speech also had shorter sections on foreign policy, gun violence, and other topics.

But what wasn’t promised in the speech was another round of full-on stimulus checks for all Americans. Biden did propose, as part of the American Families Plan, an extension of the new Child Tax Credit to at least 2025, but there was no proposal for checks to every American, which were distributed twice in 2020 and again with the Rescue Plan this year.

Does this mean the idea of a fourth stimulus check is dead? It would appear that they’re unlikely, at least in the short term.

Even so, per WBNS, there remains a lot of interest in the idea of a fourth stimulus check. In fact, the phrases  "Biden speech stimulus" and "Biden 4th stimulus" showed increased searches during Biden’s address.

A large group of Democratic lawmakers wrote to Biden earlier this spring asking him to include a fourth stimulus round in his infrastructure package.

“We urge you to include recurring direct payments and automatic unemployment insurance extensions tied to economic conditions in your Build Back Better long-term economic plan. This crisis is far from over, and families deserve certainty that they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. Families should not be at the mercy of constantly-shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions,” the letter, signed by more than 20 Democratic senators and 50 House members, said.

The packages proposed by Biden will likely take several months to gain potential approval from Congress, and will likely be subject to considerable amounts of negotiation and horse-trading, while Biden has nearly no votes to spare. Should a groundswell emerge for more checks, it would likely happen after that process is over.

“We kept our commitment and we are sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85% of all American households.  We’ve already sent more than 160 million checks out the door. It’s making a difference. For many people, it’s making all the difference in the world… together — we passed the American Rescue Plan,” Biden said in the Wednesday speech, per his prepared text, as published by Politico.  “One of the most consequential rescue packages in American history. We’re already seeing the results.”

Biden also said in the speech that thanks to the Rescue Plan, child poverty has been cut in half this year.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver. This article first appeared earlier this year.

Image: Reuters.