Coronavirus (COVID-19) Daily Roundup

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Daily Roundup

Client Alert

Our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Task Force is tracking the latest developments related to the outbreak and sending this roundup to subscribers each morning.

News

  • President Trump yesterday signed an emergency spending bill that would provide small businesses with a tax credit for paid sick leave, food assistance for vulnerable populations and financial help for coronavirus testing. The president’s action came the same day as the Senate voted 90 to 8 to approve the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201). (NPR)
  • The United States and Canada are working together on an agreement to suspend non-essential travel between the two countries. Trade would be unaffected. (CNBC)
  • An internal report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that the “pandemic will last 18 months or longer and could include multiple waves of illness.” The report, leaked to the New York Times, warns that “supply chain and transportation impacts due to the outbreak will likely result in significant shortages for government, private sector, and individual U.S. consumers.” (The New York Times) 
  • Andy Slavitt’s latest Twitter thread discusses the results from the British Imperial Report and what the United States should do next. 
  • President Trump on Wednesday put the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency at its highest level of operation. The agency is preparing to deploy 50 teams across the country to support states and local jurisdiction struggling to handle coronavirus shutdowns and disruptions. (Washington Post) 
  • President Trump has suggested he could designate the coronavirus pandemic a “major disaster,” a move that would free up additional federal emergency assistance. Mr. Trump on Friday called the pandemic a more limited “national emergency.” It is unclear if a pandemic qualifies as a major disaster within the text and meaning of “natural catastrophe” in the Stafford Act, and it’s never been tested. (Bloomberg) 
    • Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced Wednesday the state is delaying primary runoff elections that were scheduled for later this month until July 14 because of concerns about coronavirus, delaying the GOP Senate runoff between former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville for more than three months. (Politico) 
    • Bayer will donate to the U.S. government a drug that has shown some potential in helping patients suffering from the coronavirus. Early evidence suggests that an inexpensive anti-malarial drug – chloroquine may work just as well, if not better, than remdesivir, a drug owned by Gilead which is undergoing clinical trials for treatment. (Axios) 
    • The National Park Service will temporarily suspend entrance fees at all parks that remain open. (Axios)
  • President Trump said during a press conference yesterday he will invoke the Defense Production Act to address the coronavirus outbreak, but didn’t say how he would use the authority, and described himself as a “wartime president.” The act gives the government more power to steer production by private companies to try and overcome shortages in masks, ventilators and other supplies. (CNN)
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell six percent on Wednesday under the 20,000 level, nearly erasing the index's previous gains since President Trump took office. Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 dropped so steeply that it triggered a market-wide suspension of trading for 15 minutes. The New York Stock Exchange announced Wednesday that it will temporarily trade without its exchange floors in New York and San Francisco starting Monday. Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the NYSE, said the move to fully electronic trading will begin at the market open and would occur without any interruption in trading or regulatory oversight. (Politico)
    • The U.S. Federal Reserve increased its efforts to shore up financial markets late on Wednesday by setting up a facility that would make loans to banks secured by assets from money market mutual funds. The move comes as the central bank deploys a number of measures to try and limit the fallout to markets and the economy from the coronavirus outbreak, which has brought many parts of the American economy to a standstill and raised fears of a damaging recession. (Financial Times)
  • General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler announced they will temporarily shut down their U.S. plants in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Toyota is also shutting down all North American auto part and vehicle assembly operations for two days from March 23. Hyundai is shuttering its Alabama plant indefinitely after confirming a case of Covid-19 among its workforce. Daimler’s U.S. sport utility vehicle factory in Alabama is at risk of shutting down because of a shortage of parts coming from Europe, according to a notice sent to workers. The closures are in stark contrast to Tesla, which is preparing to reduce staffing by about 75 percent at its lone U.S. assembly plant after initially resisting an order from the local sheriff. (Bloomberg)
  • The United States faces a tsunami of jobless claims as states from Ohio to Pennsylvania see a surge in the number of people who have been laid off in recent days, overwhelming state labor agencies as cities shut down to halt the spread of the coronavirus. In the first three days of this week, just under 78,000 people in Ohio filed unemployment insurance claims, compared with 5,400 people for the entire previous week, according to Ohio’s labor department. The situation was just as stark in Pennsylvania, where 121,000 people filed claims from Monday to Wednesday, more than 10 times the number who had filed in the whole of last week, according to the state’s labor officials. (Financial Times)
  • Oil prices have fallen to their lowest level in 17 years, dropping below $25 a barrel, as demand for fuel has been hit by work and travel lockdowns introduced in some of the world’s biggest economies as part of efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus. Crude has now collapsed by more than half in a little over two weeks, with weak demand exacerbated by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which are raising supplies just as consumption falls dramatically. The two had previously co-operated on crude output but fell out over Riyadh’s calls for greater production cuts to boost the price. (Financial Times)
  • The U.S. Congress and the Trump Administration are negotiating a $1 trillion emergency stimulus package that could send two $1,000 checks to many Americans and designate $300 billion towards helping small businesses. The proposed package would include a $50 billion “airline industry secured lending facility” that would allow it to make direct loans to U.S. passenger and cargo air carriers. The package also includes $150 billion for secured loans or loan guarantees for parts of the economy hardest hit by the virus. Talks are continuing and a Senate vote could come as early as this weekend. A Treasury Department fact sheet outlining the Administration’s priorities in the negotiations is available here. (The Washington Post)
    • The Trump administration is considering the idea of issuing ultra-long bonds to finance the fiscal stimulus plan. (Bloomberg)
    • Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, released her own stimulus proposal, one that would direct the Federal Reserve to fund payments to American households through a “money financed fiscal program.” The fund would include $2,000 for all adults and $1,000 for every child in each month of the coronavirus crisis. The proposal would also suspend consumer and small business debt payments, as well as negative consumer credit reporting and debt collection. The Federal Reserve or Treasury would reimburse creditors for lost revenue. There would also be the creation of a government program, similar to the Terrorism Risk Insurance program that would cap losses the insurance companies face due to pandemics. (Politico) 
    • The Business Roundtable, an organization representing corporate chief executive officers, wrote to congressional leaders asking that direct payments be distributed to households and the payroll taxes for employers for suspended. The letter also asks Congress to create employee retention tax credits to help companies keep workers employed and for a suspension of the employer-side payroll taxes for a few months. The CEOs are also seeking tariff relief, loan guarantees for small and mid-sized businesses and a temporary break in pension funding requirements.
  • The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is suspending all foreclosures and evictions for homeowners and renters. (The Hill)
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a series of waivers following President Trump’s emergency Coronavirus declaration March 13, allowing entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rule to bypass provisions they typically must follow. The president on Tuesday also said Medicare programs will expand the use of remote consultations through telehealth, and the government will not enforce HIPAA privacy policies to speed up appointments. The HHS waivers are aimed at easing the sharing of patient information so healthcare can be more easily provided during the spread of Covid-19. 

Congressional Research Service Reports

(The Congressional Research Service, a component of the Library of Congress, conducts non-partisan research and analysis for the U.S. Congress on a broad range of national policy issues.) 

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