Republican Sen.Josh Hawleyintroduced legislation Monday to provide tariff rebate checks of at least $600 per adult and child to American families, similar to the stimulus checks the government distributed during the Covid pandemic. Hawley, R-Mo.,submitted his legislation afterhaving pledged to do so Fridayafter President Donald Trumptold reportershe would be interested in sending a tariff-related rebate check to Americans. "Like President Trump proposed, my legislation would allow hard-working Americans to benefit from the wealth that Trump's tariffs are returning to this country," Hawley said in a statement. Hawley, who championed stimulus check legislation with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during the Covid pandemic in 2020, put forward his new bill to echo that past effort. The program would be set up as a refundable tax credit, with the government sending checks this year should the bill advance through Congress and get Trump's signature. The bill would ensure that each adult and dependent child would get at least $600. It would also allow a larger rebate per person should tariff revenue exceed projections. The bill would reduce the rebate by 5% for joint filers who have adjusted gross income in excess of $150,000, a head of household whose income exceeds $112,500 and an individual taxpayer whose income exceeds $75,000. The Treasury Departmentreported this monththat customs duties totaled about $27 billion for June, an increase of about $4 billion from May. But June also saw inflation tick up slightly as Trump's wide-ranging tariffsstarted to work throughthe U.S. economy. The independentTax Foundation projectedthat Trump's tariffs would raise $2.5 trillion in revenue over the next decade, but that, through price increases, they would effectively increase taxes on the average U.S. household by nearly $1,300 this year and nearly $1,700 in 2026, should they remain in full effect. Hawley's bill has a long road ahead of it before it could become law. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.,poured cold waterthis year on different proposal to send direct checks to Americans. Johnson's comments were in response to the idea of a "DOGE dividend" check, in which the government would send part of the savings created by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency directly to U.S. taxpayers. But DOGE fell far short of then-leader Elon Musk's projectionof as much as $2 trillion in savings, and Musk has broken with Trump afterhe left the administration in May.