By Dylan Moroses

Law360 (April 21, 2020, 1:11 PM EDT ) Sen. Ron Wyden, the Senate Finance Committee's top Democrat, pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday regarding the decision to include President Donald Trump's name on coronavirus economic relief checks and sought answers on whether it would delay their distribution.

Wyden, D-Ore., the Finance Committee's ranking member, asked Mnuchin in a letter to explain in detail the rationale for including Trump's name on the checks and which officials were involved in reaching that decision. Wyden said the "unprecedented" choice to include Trump's name on the relief checks may have benefited the president politically at the expense of delaying the payments' delivery to Americans who desperately need them.

"I am concerned that the decision to gratuitously affix the president's name to checks disbursing taxpayer funds may have delayed delivery of money urgently needed by millions of Americans to meet basic needs," Wyden said.

Wyden also asked Mnuchin to acknowledge whether the decision to add Trump's name to the checks was the Treasury secretary's idea. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Wyden weren't immediately available for comment.

Last week, the IRS announced that the payments would be mailed to recipients on time after reports suggested adding Trump's name to the paper checks could delay the process. The Washington Post's report cited unnamed IRS officials who said the decision could delay the mailing of the checks by a few days.

The stimulus payments were authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act that Trump signed into law in March. The legislation directs the IRS to send $1,200 to individual taxpayers and $2,400 to couples filing joint tax returns. The payments are reduced for those with incomes above $75,000 or $150,000 for couples. They are eliminated for people with incomes of more than $99,000 and $198,000 for couples.

The law also includes additional tax measures to help businesses navigate the economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak, such as an increase on the limit for business interest deductions, an employer-based worker retention tax credit and changes to the tax treatment of business losses.

Economic impact payments, as they have been called, are being directly deposited into the accounts of people whose banking information is on file with the Internal Revenue Service. Otherwise, the agency will send paper checks.

The payments will be automatically disbursed for several groups of people that typically haven't filed tax returns with the IRS, including those who receive Supplemental Security Income, military veteran benefits and Social Security benefits, Mnuchin has said.

--Editing by Neil Cohen.

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