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Calculate your second stimulus check total: $600, $1,200, more?

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If the second round of stimulus checks stays at a $600 per person cap, our stimulus check calculator can help you estimate your household’s expected total.

How much money would you or your family get with a second stimulus check of up to $600 for adults and dependent children? That’s the question once again now that President Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday night that he would not sign the new $900 billion relief bill that Congress passed Monday night, making it law. At least not without a second stimulus check of up to $2,000 per person.

While we monitor that new turn of events, we’ll share what we know now about the way the IRS would calculate the $600 direct payment. Understanding the upper limit is easy, but as with the first payment, there’s a tangle of rules in place that together decide how much stimulus money your household can actually get. For example, the most an adult who qualifies for the second stimulus check can get is $600 apiece. That becomes more complicated as you add in child dependents — each one under 17 years old would bring in an additional $600. And the reality is that with this second round of stimulus payments, more people are expected to hit an income limit that could make them ineligible for any check at all.

Our calculator for this second stimulus check breaks down how much you might be able to receive, based on the rules Congress has set out for this $600 payment (here’s the calculator for the $1,200 stimulus check from March). Keep in mind that our calculator tool is for estimates only, and is not a final figure supplied by the IRS. There may be other factors that could determine the final size of your payment. This tool will not store or share your personal details. This story was recently updated.

Before you estimate your second stimulus check total…

Before you can get an estimate of your second check amount (assuming the $600 upper limit), you’ll need your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your 2019 tax information. On your 2019 federal tax return, you can find that figure on line 8b of 2019 1040 federal tax form. Keep reading for how to estimate your amount if you don’t typically file taxes.

To estimate the amount of the second check, you enter all your child dependents age 16 and younger for $600 apiece. For tax purposes, a single taxpayer claims no dependents, where a head of household is a person who does not file jointly and claims at least one dependent.

Stimulus check qualification basics

Broadly, here’s who is eligible for money with the second stimulus payment. Payments top out at $600 apiece, and as you reach the upper AGI limit, the amount of your check will decrease. A family of four that qualifies, for example, could receive up to $2,400. For a complete breakdown, check out our stimulus check qualifications guide.

To get the full $600 stimulus per person, either:

  • As an individual without qualifying children, you have an adjusted gross income of up to $75,000 (this completely phases out at $87,000, down from the $99,000 used for the first check).
  • You file as the head of a household (you claim children) and earn under $112,500.
  • You file jointly without children and earn less than $150,000 and no more than $174,000 (down from $198,000 from the first check).
  • Any dependent child under age 17 will count for an additional $600.

Note, if you don’t qualify for a second stimulus check based on 2019 data but you would qualify based on your 2020 financial situation, you will not receive a second check this year. However, you can get that amount as a credit against your 2020 taxes.

If you qualify based on 2019 tax information but will be over the limit in 2020, you will receive a second check and do not need to repay it.

How would you receive your second stimulus payment?

If the IRS has your banking information on file, either from your federal taxes or from the first stimulus payment, your payment should come directly to your bank via direct deposit. The Treasury Department said as of this summer that about 75% of recipients were paid via direct deposit, 22% by paper check, and 3% through a prepaid EIP card.

When could the payments be sent out?

Soon. According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, “The good news is [direct deposit] is a very, very fast way of getting money into the economy. Let me emphasize: People are going to see this money at the beginning of next week.”

Starting in the new year, the IRS will send out payments on paper checks and prepaid EIP cards to those for whom it does not have banking information on file. But sending the payments shouldn’t drag on for months, as the first payments did. By Jan. 15, if the IRS has not sent your payment — or sent the wrong amount — you can claim your money when you file your taxes this year.

What if you aren’t typically required to file taxes?

As with the first checks, the IRS will automatically send stimulus checks to many who normally aren’t required to file a tax return — including older adults, Social Security and SSDI and SSI recipients, certain veterans, and railroad retirees. The IRS refers loosely to this group as nonfilers.

If you fall in one of these categories, enter your best guess in the calculator where it asks for your adjusted gross income.

 

 

Happy Holidays!

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Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season!

Warmest Wishes,
Orbit and the Houston Astros

91-year-old British grandad wins the internet with his vaccination story

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A 91-year-old British grandfather has won the internet’s heart after giving an interview after being among the first people in the world to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial.

“Well, there’s no point in dying now when I’ve lived this long, is there?” Martin Kenyon, the London man, bluntly told outside Guy’s Hospital on Tuesday.

The interview came after the United Kingdom began its first round of COVID-19 vaccinations, administering injections to people over 80 who are either hospitalized or have outpatient appointments scheduled as well as some nursing home workers.

Kenyon described getting to the hospital and the lunch he had had before.

“Of course I couldn’t damn well find anywhere to park my car, so I was late,” he quipped. “Anyway, I’m here now. I got inside and they put me on the list. I went off and had a rather nasty lunch and then came back and they were ready for me.”

Kenyon added that the process was easy and painless: “No, it didn’t hurt at all. I didn’t know the needle had gone in ’til it had come out.”

Kenyon said he has grandchildren that he hasn’t hugged in months and would like to do so for Christmas: “I hope I’m not going to have the bloody bug now. I don’t intend to have it.”

According to the Evening Standard, Kenyon was an anti-apartheid activist and friend of Desmond Tutu.

And he wasn’t the only person in the U.K. to gain some viral fame on Tuesday. The country’s first recipient was grandmother Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week.

“It’s the best early birthday present I could wish,” Keenan said.

The second was none other than William Shakespeare, 81. Sharing the same name as the U.K.’s most famous poet and playwright, Bill, as family and friends call him, said he was “pleased” to get the shot.

In an interview Wednesday morning with Piers Morgan on “Good Morning Britain,” Kenyon called the attention he’s received “rather ridiculous” and hoped it was just “24-hour nonsense.”

Kenyon kept up his British wit in the interview, asking Morgan, “Now who are you?”

Morgan said Kenyon had been going to the hospital for other reasons and was able to get the vaccine.

“It seemed sensible to get on with it,” Kenyon told Morgan.

Kenyon also stressed the importance of others getting vaccinated.

“I think it would be foolish of them to be reluctant about it if it means the chance of them behaving normally instead of being worried they might get the horrible bug,” he said.

Virus cases trigger rollback of restrictions in Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers and Liberty counties

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Southeast Texas leaders received news Monday night that the state would mandate a rollback of relaxed COVID-19 restrictions after state data showed the region had more than 15% of its available hospital resources in use for patients infected by the virus for the seventh day in a row.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has been tracking numbers for each of the Trauma Service Areas (TSA) — groupings of counties that share health care resources or rely on each other during events like the pandemic — and has designated regions that meet the sustained 15% threshold as “high hospitalization areas.”

The TSA region — which includes Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, Liberty, Jefferson, Orange, Hardin, Jasper, and Newton — has been hovering above the 15% threshold for 12 days now, but the count reset on Dec. 14 after state data showed resources dipped to 14.39%.

But, with active cases exponentially growing and Jefferson County breaking a record for its deadliest month before the end of December, the region hit a high of 39% of its resources in use on Thursday and recorded 21.5% in use on Sunday.

“Under the criteria laid out in GA-32, your area, TSAR, meets the definition of a high hospitalization area and so may not conduct elective surgeries or reopen to the higher levels allowable under GA-32,” the letter from DSHS said.

Starting at 8 a.m. today, businesses are expected to roll back to 50% occupancy inside buildings, and bars will close to indoor service.

The counties in high hospitalization areas will have increased restrictions until COVID hospitalizations drop below 15% for seven consecutive days, which could take some time based on incoming active cases and growing death counts.

Beaumont reported three more deaths on Monday to add to the already record-breaking month of 45 deaths in Jefferson County so far in December.

Since Friday, 130 new cases have been reported in Jefferson County; 53 came from Beaumont’s Monday report alone.

Individual counties can ask the state for an exemption to the rollback if there haven’t been more than 30 cases within a two-week period.

Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel said he would ask the state to consider an exemption for his county, but he had doubts about the success of the request since the county’s infection rates disqualified it for the provision.

“I just hate to see the businesses and people that have been through so much this year be hit again,” he said.

“If it was shown that COVID was being spread through our businesses, I would be 100% in support, but I don’t think we have the evidence of that.”

Instead of the rate of new cases, McDaniel will ask that the state consider its contact tracing investigations as evidence that the county is capable of reopening.

While local public health agencies and their contact tracers do have some of the most accurate information about what is happening in communities, issues with the ability to track infections have increased.

Mike White, Jefferson County Emergency Management Coordinator, said signs indicate restrictions have become less effective as the pandemic stretches on.

“We’ve been doing this almost a year now, and I think people are getting COVID fatigue,” he said.

“It is showing because we see people being less and less stringent on what they are doing.”

Beaumont Public Health Director Sherry Ulmer told the Enterprise on Dec. 14 that lack of compliance with surveys and fact-finding after a case was detected had made it difficult to say whether there had been an increase in infections contracted from public places.

What has become clear, especially after the Thanksgiving holiday, is the number of cases driven by large private gatherings in homes and other enclosed spaces.

As Christmas approaches, McDaniel is concerned about gatherings that could lead to another spike and prolonged restrictions for the region.

“If anything at all, maybe this will help some people see it is a bad idea to have a large group of people together for Christmas,” he said.

“Christmas is just the time of year when families gather. I’m not going to say they shouldn’t, because I don’t think I have the authority.”

Congress approves long-awaited $900 billion Covid rescue package

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Congress voted Monday evening to approve a far-reaching $900 billion Covid relief package that promises to accelerate vaccine distribution and deliver much-needed aid to small businesses hit hard by the pandemic, Americans who have lost their jobs during the economic upheaval, and health care workers on the front lines of the crisis.

The White House has said that President Donald Trump will sign the legislation once it reaches his desk.
The final passage of the aid package came after Hill leaders announced Sunday evening they had finally reached a deal after months of bitter partisan stalemate and days of contentious negotiations that created uncertainty over whether an agreement could be reached at all or if talks would collapse.
The rescue package, which was negotiated on a bipartisan basis, was combined with a massive $1.4 trillion government spending bill to fund federal agencies for the new fiscal year in a 5,593-page bill.
It will include direct payments of up to $600 per adult, enhanced jobless benefits of $300 per week, roughly $284 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans, $25 billion in rental assistance, an extension of the eviction moratorium, and $82 billion for schools and colleges.
“We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time: More help is on the way,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday night announcing the deal.
A deal was reached only after both parties relinquished some of their key demands along the way to make it happen.
Faced with Republican opposition, Democrats were forced to abandon a push for roughly $160 billion in aid to cash-strapped states and cities, while Republicans dropped a demand for liability protections after Democrats signaled that was a red line.
Democrats are already signaling that they want to see more relief passed in the next session of Congress after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
“I consider this the first step and again, more needs to be done,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference Sunday evening.
“That will be happening under the Biden-Harris administration,” she said.

Rank-and-file senators frustrated

Lawmakers were asked to vote on one of the largest rescue packages in American history with virtually no time to read and digest the details. Legislative text for the package was posted online just before 2 p.m. ET Monday, only hours ahead of final votes in both the House and Senate.
Senators in both parties expressed frustration with the process in which the top four congressional leaders cut a deal and let staff from relevant congressional committees iron out the legislative language with leadership aides.
“It’s terrible,” said Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican of Indiana. “You wouldn’t have that kind of format in anything. It means we are putting all of that responsibility in a few.”
There will be no ability to amend the legislation, and lawmakers will be left with a take-it-or-leave-it proposition with the government on the brink of another shutdown at midnight Monday.
“None of that is any good,” Braun said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, told CNN: “It’s a mockery of legislation.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, was frustrated at how the negotiators agreed to jobless benefits of $300 per week for just 11 weeks — when he and other senators from both parties agreed to a proposal that included 16 weeks of the enhanced benefits. He will have no ability to amend the legislation once the Senate considers it.
“It’s awful,” Manchin said. Asked who he blamed, Manchin said: “I blame all of us for allowing all of this to happen.”

What’s in the relief package

Here are key provisions that will be included as part of the agreement, according to summaries of the legislation released by Democratic and GOP leadership:
  • Direct payment checks of up to $600 per adult and child
  • Aid for struggling small businesses, including more than $284 billion for forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans and $15 billion “in dedicated funding for live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions”
  • $300 per week for enhanced unemployment insurance benefits
  • $20 billion to buy vaccines and make “the vaccine available at no charge for anyone who needs it” and $8 billion for vaccine distribution
  • $20 billion for coronavirus testing efforts
  • $25 billion for rental assistance and an eviction moratorium extension
  • $82 billion for education providers like schools and colleges, including aid to help reopen classrooms safely, and $10 billion for child care assistance
  • The deal will rescind “$429 billion in unused funds provided by the CARES Act for the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending facilities”
  • $13 billion in increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and child nutrition benefits
  • $7 billion to bolster broadband access to help Americans connect remotely during the pandemic
  • $45 billion to support transportation services, including $2 billion for airports, $1 billion for Amtrak, and $16 billion for “another round of airline employee and contractor payroll support”
  • A tax credit “to support employers offering paid sick leave”

Congress drops $500 million for states to bolster election security from the final spending package

Congressional negotiators dropped $500 million for states to bolster their election security after opposition from Republicans during closed-door talks over the massive 2021 spending package steaming through Congress, according to Democrats involved in the matter.
Democrats tried to include $500 million in election assistance grants to states to improve their election infrastructure. But Senate Republicans objected to including the money — and the provision was ultimately excluded. The funding was included in a House-passed appropriations bill but not the Senate’s version of the measure.
Republicans in the past have argued such money is duplicative, but Democrats contend that it is critical to safeguard future elections — and also note that it’s Trump himself who has questioned the reliability of the election systems.
Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat who chairs a key House Appropriations subcommittee and has championed the money, raised concerns that the funding did not make it into the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package.
“It’s an amazing disconnect,” Quigley told. “We want it because of foreign interference and to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the system.”
Quigley added: “Their President is complaining about all this, but his party killed any chance … to protect these systems going forward in the future as the equipment gets older and older.”
Aides to McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not respond to requests for comment.

Second stimulus bill

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What we know about the second coronavirus economic relief bill of 2020.

After months of impasse, Congress has finally brokered a deal on a more than $900 billion coronavirus economic relief bill, expected to be passed by the House and Senate on Monday. President Trump is expected to sign it.

The final deal includes $600 stimulus checks for individuals who make $75,000 a year or less, a $300 boost to weekly unemployment insurance, the second round of forgivable loans for small businesses, $25 billion in rental assistance, and targeted aid for schools and struggling public transit systems. Democrats had been hoping to get broader aid for states and local governments that have been struggling with lost revenue, and Republicans had hoped to get liability protection for businesses, but neither measure made it into the final bill.

Economic relief is badly needed; the Labor Department estimates 19 million people are currently on unemployment insurance, and coronavirus cases and deaths in the US are reaching record highs. Emergency use of two different coronavirus vaccines has been authorized by the federal government, but experts say it will be a painful few months until enough Americans are vaccinated to make a measurable difference in daily life.

Joe Biden to receive COVID vaccine on Monday

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President-elect Joe Biden on Monday received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe.

The president-elect took a dose of Pfizer vaccine at a hospital not far from his Delaware home, hours after his wife, Jill Biden, did the same. The injections came the same day that a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, will start arriving in the states. It joins Pfizer’s in the nation’s arsenal against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than 317,000 people in the United States and upended life around the globe.

“I’m ready,” said Biden, who was administered the dose at a hospital in Newark, Delaware, and declined the option to count to three before the needle was inserted into his left arm. “I’m doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it’s available to take the vaccine. There’s nothing to worry about.”

The president-elect praised the health care workers and said President Donald Trump’s administration “deserves some credit getting this off the ground.” And Biden urged Americans to wear masks during the upcoming Christmas holiday and not travel unless necessary.

Other top government officials last week joined the first wave of Americans to be inoculated against COVID-19 as part of the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history.

Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other lawmakers were given doses Friday. They chose to publicize their injections as part of a campaign to convince Americans that the vaccines are safe and effective amid skepticism, especially among Republicans.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband are expected to receive their first shots next week.

But missing from the action has been President Donald Trump, who has spent the last week largely out of sight as he continues to stew about his election loss and floats increasingly outlandish schemes to try to remain in power. It’s an approach that has bewildered some top aides who see his silence as a missed opportunity for the president, who leaves office on Jan. 20, to claim credit for helping oversee the speedy development of the vaccine and to burnish his legacy.

Trump, who in the past has spread misinformation about vaccine risks, has not said when he intends to get the shot. He tweeted earlier this month that he was “not scheduled” to take it, but said he looked “forward to doing so at the appropriate time.”

The White House has said he is still discussing timing with his doctors.

Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October and given an experimental monoclonal antibody treatment that he credited for his swift recovery. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory board has said people who received that treatment should wait at least 90 days to be vaccinated to avoid any potential interference.

“When the time is right, I’m sure he will remain willing to take it,” White House spokesperson Brian Morgenstern echoed Friday. “It’s just something we’re working through.”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, however, offered a different explanation for the delay. She told reporters last week that Trump was holding off, in part, “to show Americans that our priority is the most vulnerable.”

“The President wants to send a parallel message, which is, you know, our long-term care facility residents and our frontline workers are paramount in importance, and he wants to set an example in that regard,” she said.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was the first to receive authorization, “is safe and likely efficacious” for people who have been infected with COVID-19 and “should be offered regardless of history of prior symptomatic or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

While there is no recommended minimum wait time between infection and vaccination, because reinfection is uncommon in the three months after a person is infected, the committee said people who tested positive in the preceding 90 days “may delay vaccination until near the end of this period, if desired.”

The panel also recommends that those who received Trump’s treatment put off vaccination for at least 90 days.

“Currently, there are no data on the safety and efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination in persons who received monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma as part of COVID-19 treatment,” they wrote, recommending that vaccination “be deferred for at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information becomes available, to avoid interference of the antibody treatment with vaccine-induced immune responses.”

“From a scientific point of view, I will remind people that the president has had COVID within the last 90 days. He received the monoclonal antibodies. And that is actually one scenario where we tell people maybe you should hold off on getting the vaccine, talk to your health provider to find out the right time,” Adams said.

But others, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, have recommended that Trump be vaccinated without delay.

“Even though the president himself was infected, and he has, likely, antibodies that likely would be protective, we’re not sure how long that protection lasts. So, to be doubly sure, I would recommend that he get vaccinated,” he told.

Texas to prioritize 65 and older for next round of vaccines

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The State of Texas announced that the next phase of vaccinations will go to those who are older than 65, and those who are 16 and older and have a serious health condition or are pregnant.

“The state of Texas will prioritize people who are at the greatest risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19 for the next phase of vaccination. More than 70 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Texas have occurred in people 65 and older, and scientific evidence shows that adults of any age with certain medical conditions have an increased risk of hospitalization and death if they get sick with COVID-19,” said the Texas Department of State Health Services, in a statement.

The state is currently in Phase 1A of vaccine distribution, which includes residents of long-term care facilities and front-line health care workers. With an estimated 1.9 million Texans in those groups, it will likely be at least a few weeks before a transition to Phase 1B occurs. The timing will depend on the amount of vaccine provided to Texas and the uptake of the vaccine among the priority populations.

Phase 1B priorities are below:

People 65 years of age and older.

People 16 years of age and older with at least one chronic medical condition that puts them at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19, such as but not limited to:
Cancer
Chronic kidney disease
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)

Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
Solid-organ transplantation
Obesity and severe obesity (body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher)
Pregnancy
Sickle cell disease
Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Gov. Abbott to Get COVID-19 Vaccine Tuesday As Texas Hospitalizations Climb

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Gov. Greg Abbott is getting the COVID-19 vaccine as the number of patients hospitalized with the virus in Texas has again climbed past the troubling mark of 10,000 for the first time since this summer’s deadly peak.

Abbott’s aides say he will receive the shot on live television Tuesday at Austin hospital to help reassure the public that inoculations are safe. The announcement comes on the same day that President-elect Joe Biden took a dose of Pfizer vaccine at a hospital not far from his Delaware home, which was also broadcast on live television.

“Increasingly, Texas residents and even some medical personnel have expressed apprehension about taking the vaccine, and the Governor will receive it on live TV to instill confidence in it,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said. “The Governor would not ask any Texan to do something he would not do himself.”

Eze said federal and state health officials had pressed Abbott to take the vaccine, including Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other governors have said they will wait to get the vaccine, although Abbott will not be the first. Last week, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was among the first top elected officials in the nation to receive the vaccine.

Abbott has emphasized that hundreds of thousands of doses are coming to Texas at a time when newly confirmed cases and hospitalizations continue soaring. Texas has not had this many hospitalized COVID-19 patients since July when there were more than 10,800 patients across the state.

Last Thursday smashed a single-day record for new cases with more than 16,000, which state officials partly attributed to holiday gatherings.

But Abbott has said he will not order a new round of lockdown measures, and on Monday, even announced a new reopening: the Texas Capitol will, which has been closed since March.

The Capitol will reopen on Jan. 4, which is roughly a week before the Texas Legislature reconvenes for the first time since 2019.

Around the Capitol, health officials say the spread of the virus is worsening. On Monday, public health officials in Austin said that new cases were up 86% since the beginning of December. Officials recommended that Austin residents avoid travel and avoid gatherings, and also warned that a curfew could be installed if hospitalizations continue to rise.

“The best gift we can give this Christmas is masking and distancing and staying home if we can,” said Dr. Mark Escott, the city’s interim health authority.

Abbott said health and safety protocols will be put in place for the Capitol’s reopening. More than 26,000 frontline and other essential workers in Texas as of Monday had received the first vaccinations that began arriving this month, according to state health officials. Abbott has said more than 1 million doses of the vaccine will have been distributed in Texas by the end of the month.