During a Monday rally in Atlanta, Biden said the payments would "go out the door immediately" if Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock win the state's U.S. Senate seats, saying their victories would "put an end to the block in Washington" on approving the $2,000 payments.

Runoffs for Georgia's two U.S. Senate races are being held Tuesday after none of the candidates won a majority of the vote in the Nov. 3 election as required by state law. First-term Republican Sen. David Perdue faces Ossoff for one seat, and first-term Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler faces Warnock for the other.

Republicans have 50 seats and Democrats have 48 in the Senate with the two Georgia seats yet to be decided. If Democrats win both races, they will control the chamber as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will serve as a tie breaker. Republicans only need to win one seat to maintain control. Democrats hold a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Any possibility of $2,000 payments depends on the 117th Congress, which was sworn in Sunday, after the Senate adjourned last week without voting on the increase.

The $900 billion coronavirus relief package signed into law in December included $600 direct payments to most Americans, half the size of the checks sent out under the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which passed in March.

President Donald Trump demanded that the payments be increased to $2,000, initially refusing to sign the package passed by Congress. Democratic lawmakers supported the larger checks, but the increase faced opposition from some Republican lawmakers expressing concern about the bill's price tag.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell initially blocked Democrats' proposal for increasing the checks and later combined the increase with some of Trump's other demands opposed by Democrats.