In Washington

• Senate Republicans will delay the release of their coronavirus relief plan until early next week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Thursday, assuring Congress will miss a deadline to extend a key unemployment insurance boost. “The [Trump] administration has requested additional time to review the fine details, but we will be laying down the proposal early next week,” McConnell said. “We have an agreement in principle on the shape of the package.” The GOP had hoped to unveil legislation as soon as Thursday, which would have kickstarted talks with Democrats. But Senate Republicans have not been able to nail down final details with the White House. A preliminary leaked draft of the deal does not include the payroll tax cut that President Trump pushed to include. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed this morning that the payroll tax cut was eliminated. The White House and GOP agreed to include US$16 billion for new testing. The draft says that there will be stimulus payments, but the eligibility criteria are to be announced. The plan would cut the current US$600 a week unemployment benefit and instead have the benefit based on 70 percent of their old wages.
• Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signaled they will continue to push for the US$600 per week unemployment benefits despite news that Republicans will be making significant cuts to the benefit. Pelosi explained that the financial aid not only pays families rent, utilities and other essentials, but it is vital in supporting and keeping the economy going. Pelosi told Jim Cramer on “Mad Money,” that the reason you want to “put money in the pockets” of the American people is so that they can spend, inject demand into our consumer economy and create jobs. Pelosi said she fears that cuts to aid will result in less consumer spending.
• The Center for Public Integrity obtained audio of White House Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx privately telling local city and state officials that eleven cities are having a high increase in the percentage of positive tests returned. She advised that now is the time for the officials to take “aggressive” steps to mitigate the outbreaks. The cities include: Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, San Jose, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Baltimore. Birx said they are working with state officials. The White House has not shared this information publicly or during its daily White House Task Force briefings that resumed this week.
• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) unveiled a bill this week to sanction foreign hackers trying to steal U.S. coronavirus vaccine research. The Defend COVID Research from Hackers Act comes after the U.S. charged China, Iran and Russia with deploying military and intelligence hackers to steal information about other countries' vaccine research and development.
• President Trump announced Wednesday that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be sending US$5 billion authorized in the CARES Act to long-term care and nursing home facilities. The funding will help to build nursing home skills and enhance nursing homes’ response to COVID-19, including enhanced infection control.
• Education Secretary Betsy Devos claimed that “more and more studies” show that kids are actually "stoppers" of the disease, and they don't get it and transmit it themselves; therefore, "the default should be" getting kids back to school in person. President Trump echoed DeVos's claims saying in Wednesday’s task force briefing that children don't transmit the disease. The Washington Post’s The Fact Checker notes that the German study cited by DeVos has not been peer-reviewed. The study’s German researchers told The Fact Checker that the results do not apply to a country such as the U.S. where infections are soaring.
• President Trump is likely to hold a ceremony Friday where he will sign executive orders aimed at lowering drug prices according to an invitation obtained by The Hill. The exact details of the orders remain unclear, but sources say one order is likely to include a version of a proposal to reduce some U.S. drug prices by tying them to the lower prices paid in other countries.

In the News

• Jobless claims rose last week for the first time in 15 weeks as the coronavirus continues to spike across the U.S., with 1.416 million Americans filing for unemployment insurance, according to the Labor Department.
• U.S. sales of existing homes jumped 20.7 percent in June, though purchases are well below pre-pandemic levels.
• Microsoft reported 13 reported revenue growth last quarter. However, sales in its Azure cloud unit grew less than 50 percent for the first time ever.
• The U.S. reported 71,695 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, again topping 70,000 in a single day after four days of slightly lower numbers. The country’s total case count has now reached 4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Daily new COVID-19 deaths, on a seven-day average, continued to rise Wednesday, setting fresh records in Florida, Texas, Idaho and elsewhere,
• In its second-quarter earnings report, Twitter said it saw “moderate recovery” to its ad business compared with March, but ad revenue was still down 23 percent year over year.
• Southwest Airlines said Thursday it lost US$915 million in the second quarter compared with US$741 million in net income a year earlier and warned that travel demand will likely remain depressed until there’s a vaccine or treatment for the coronavirus.
• Ford Motor, Fiat Chrysler, and General Motors are hiring temp workers and cutting shifts as the auto industry works to keep factories running amid high absenteeism rates. So many employees are missing work that it’s slowing production in states like Michigan, Missouri, and Kentucky where COVID-19 is surging.

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