They knew but did it anyway

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/14/congress-urged-take-immediate-action-stop-debt-collectors-snatching-relief-checks

Direct payments from the newly approved coronavirus relief package began landing in people's bank accounts with striking quickness this weekend, but a glaring shortcoming of the American Rescue Plan caused by the arcane procedural tool that Democrats used to pass the bill could prevent checks from reaching many vulnerable households.

Unlike the Covid relief bill that Congress passed through regular order in December, the new $1.9 trillion legislation does not include protections barring debt collectors from hoovering up the checks and using them to pay off people's private debts—which, as The American Prospect's David Dayen put it, makes the American Rescue Plan "also a cash cow for debt collectors."

Lawmakers were well aware of the looming issue as the aid package made its way through Congress; days after the Senate passed its version of the bill earlier this month, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) put out a statement vowing to introduce standalone legislation to protect the payments from debt collectors.