In Washington

• White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Tuesday morning with top Senate appropriators to discuss the yet-to-be-released GOP bill. Senate Republicans aren’t on the same page with the White House, which is complicating efforts. As expected, there are internal GOP divisions over everything from whether to include a payroll tax cut, how much money to include for testing, and whether to link school money to reopening. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) suggested that there could be multiple drafts of the GOP bill, including an initial proposal to appease the President.
• Senate and House Democrats each held conference calls Tuesday and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) hosted a bipartisan meeting in her office with Meadows and Mnuchin. On the conference call with House Democrats, Pelosi said she hopes the parties “can resolve our differences and have a bill by the end of next week,” according to a source on the call. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told CNBC. “I envision that this bill doesn’t get done by the end of July.” He said he expects Congress to approve legislation “probably in the first week of August.” If lawmakers cannot pass a plan by the end of the month, a US$600 per week federal unemployment insurance benefit buoying millions of Americans will at least temporarily expire. The GOP wants to change the policy or reduce the sum, while Democrats hope to extend the assistance as the unemployment rate stands above 11 percent.
• Executives from five major drugmakers--AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna,and Pfizer--testified Tuesday before a House Energy and Commerce panel on their efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The witnesses faced critical questions from lawmakers, including how they'll price and distribute the shots. Several of the drugmakers confirmed that their government contracts include no guarantees that the vaccine will be supplied or affordably priced, despite being underwritten with billions in public dollars. Johnson & Johnson committed to at least temporarily bring an affordable vaccine to the public on a not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use, but Moderna, Merck, and Pfizer replied that they will not provide the vaccine without making a profit. AstraZeneca says that the U.S. has already committed to purchasing 300 million doses of the company’s vaccine candidate as part of its US$1.2 billion contract. The panel also faced questions about whether the developed vaccine would be safe and widely accepted enough to stop transmission across the population as several members show concern with how quickly the administration is trying to develop a vaccine. "We believe that we can both accelerate vaccine development and ensure safety," said Dr. Macaya Douoguih, head of clinical development and medical affairs at J&J's vaccine unit.
• “Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) had sharp words for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar in a letter on Monday. “[Y]ou have spent the last six months promoting politics over science in our nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response,” the two Democrats wrote to Azar, sharing their frustrations about the administration’s public criticism of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and scientists like infectious-disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci. “It is time for you to either stand up to protect public health or step aside as the nation’s top health official.”
• The White House is set to resume regular coronavirus briefings starting today but at this time, there have been no health experts or other task force members scheduled to appear with the President. President Trump announced Monday that he would resume regular public briefings after discontinuing them in April.
• NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci called himself a “realist” and an ”optimist” following President Donald Trump's recent criticism calling the nation”s top infectious disease expert “a little bit of an alarmist.” Fauci made the comments Monday during an Instagram Live with journalist Maria Shriver.
• The Justice Department is accusing hackers working with the Chinese government of attempting to steal research from firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus. The agency said that the hackers were researching various firm’s network vulnerabilities. The indictment includes charges of trade secret theft and wire fraud conspiracy against the hackers.

In the News

• There are at least 3,858,686 cases of coronavirus in the U.S., and at least 141,426 people have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
• Walmart said Tuesday that it will give another round of bonuses to hourly employees. The company said in a news release that it will spend about US$428 million on the bonuses to thank employees for working during the coronavirus pandemic. The company will pay the bonuses on 20 August.
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) added ten more states to their travel restrictions list Tuesday, now requiring people from 31 states to self-quarantine for 14 days if they visit the area. The newly added states are: Alaska, Indiana, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Virginia and Washington.
• Tailored Brands, the owner of menswear chains including Men's Wearhouse and JoS A. Bank, announced Tuesday that it will eliminate about 20 percent of its corporate workforce and close up to 500 stores as it deals with a "challenging retail environment."
• A possible coronavirus vaccine may not become widely available before 2021, the head of the UK Vaccine Taskforce told CNN Tuesday. “I would not assume there are any vaccines before next year. There will be some vaccines, if everything goes right, potentially at the end of this year, but that is not something I’d be going to the bank on in terms of everyone can get vaccinated by Christmas,” said Kate Bingham, chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.
• Working from home during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a significant increase in the number of Americans experiencing burnout symptoms, according to a new poll by Monster. To date, 69 percent of employees say they are burned out as a result of working from home since the pandemic started, according to the data. This represents a near-20 percent increase since early May. The jobs recovery has slowed and, in some cases, reversed as coronavirus cases have surged in sunbelt states where case numbers are climbing and governors have reinstated economic restrictions. Data from Homebase, a scheduling firm, shows that some states had fewer employees reporting to work last week than in early June.

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