5 States With the Largest Average Stimulus Checks

Roughly two months ago, the idea of shutting down nonessential businesses as a means of slowing the transmission of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) sounded farfetched. Today, the vast majority of states have enacted stay-at-home orders that have closed nonessential businesses and, in the process, put more than 26 million people out of work in a four-week stretch. It's an unfortunate but necessary evil needed to flatten the COVID-19 transmission curve.

It's this unprecedented disruption to the U.S. economy and labor market that drove Congress to pass, and President Trump to sign, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act into law on March 27. At $2.2 trillion, the CARES Act is the largest economic stimulus package ever passed by lawmakers.

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