Voters listen to Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang as he speaks during a campaign stop in Nevada, Iowa, January 28, 2020.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah wants the government to cut a $1,000 check for every American adult as the spread of the coronavirus rapidly shuts down the economy. Fellow Republican lawmaker Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is proposing cash stipends to help people pay their bills. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at a White House press briefing on Tuesday that "Americans need cash now," meaning "in the next two weeks."

On the other side of the aisle, Democratic Reps. Tim Ryan of Ohio and Ro Khanna of California support a payment of $1,000 to adults, as part of a plan laid out by President Barack Obama's former chief economist Jason Furman. Rep. Katie Porter, another California Democrat, tweeted her support for Romney's effort on Monday.

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For anyone who followed Andrew Yang's performance in the Democratic primary, this idea that's now percolating in Washington sounds familiar. Well before COVID-19 became a worldwide health crisis, Yang was proposing a "freedom dividend" that would put $1,000 a month into the pockets of every American over a certain age, a reflection of the impact automation is having on the workforce.

Off the campaign trail, it's called universal basic income, or UBI, and it's been a topic for years in Silicon Valley, where the world's top engineers are building algorithms to replace humans across seemingly every sector of the economy. Billionaire techies Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have endorsed UBI, and start-up incubator Y Combinator launched a trial in Oakland in 2016 and has since expanded it.

The city of Stockton, California, about 80 miles east of San Francisco, started an 18-month pilot early last year, paying $500 a month to 125 low-income residents. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat from New York and a Bernie Sanders backer, praised Stockton Mayor Michael Stubbs on Monday for leading the charge.

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Not until a global pandemic landed in the U.S., forcing the widespread closure of businesses across cities and states, did the concept of UBI move from the labs of northern California into the mainstream. Policymakers are rapidly discovering that, with income poised to completely dry up for workers at restaurants, bars, movie theaters and hotels, millions of non-salaried Americans living paycheck to paycheck could soon be unable to afford food, rent and utility bills.

Putting cash in their pockets may be the most efficient way to ease the burden.

"This is waking the world up to the fact that people need an ability to weather systemic shocks," said Sam Altman, the CEO of research lab OpenAI and previous president of Y Combinator, where he helped start the basic income project. "One way to do that is to give them cash."

The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed a coronavirus relief bill on Saturday, as legislators from California to New York prepared to implement rules that would force residents to stay home. While the bill would require health plans to cover testing at no cost, ensure that large employers offer two weeks of paid sick leave, offer payroll tax credits for employers providing leave benefits and provide funding for state unemployment benefits and local food assistance, there's nothing about sending money directly to families.