Your guide to the latest Hill developments, news narratives, and media headlines provided by the Hogan Lovells Government Relations and Public Affairs team.

In Washington:

• Administration officials said that they plan to wind down the coronavirus task force at the end of May and shift management of the public health response back to the federal agencies. The White House plans to focus its efforts on restarting the economy, and Vice President Pence said this “really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country. Health experts are saying that the outbreak is not over, new estimates suggest that infection rates may rise sharply as businesses reopen. Over 70,000 people have died in the U.S. due to COVID-19, with nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases. Administration officials continue to note ongoing shortages of hospital gowns, and personal protective equipment.
• President Trump has backed down on yesterday’s comments that the administration would be wrapping up and closing down the White House Task Force. Trump said he didn’t realize how “popular” that the group was and until receiving a lot of unexpected feedback from many “well respected” people. In an afternoon briefing, he reiterated his tweet from this morning, saying the task force will remain open indefinitely until it is no longer needed it but also didn’t clearly define the members or what it will be doing. The President mentioned it would shift its focus on safety and the economy, as well as vaccines and therapeutics.
• Little progress has been made to reach a bipartisan agreement on the next stimulus package. Senate Republicans continue to call for protections for employers and employees from virus-related lawsuits. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has said that Democrats will not support the business liability protections. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said CARES 2 will include funding for state and local governments and are considering hazard pay and rent and mortgage relief. GOP senators are still divided over giving more money to state and local governments. As far as President Trump’s priority to include a payroll tax cut, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said, “the tax cut could drain retirement funds. I’m going to give it due consideration if I can see a strong group of people who think it’s the right thing to do.”
• Today the House and Senate are holding their first coronavirus-related hearings and discussed federal spending, airlines, and general health policies. Dr. Anthony Fauci will testify in the Senate next Tuesday and Dr. Rick Bright, former vaccine director will testify before the House next Wednesday.
• Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi should accept the White House’s offer for rapid test kits for members of Congress.
• Last week, the Federal Reserve updated its terms for an emergency program that could lend as much as $600 billion to medium-sized companies, including those with relatively high levels of debt. According to the New York Times, despite lobbying for a loosening of restrictions, most private equity firms will still be shut out because of the affiliation rule, which considers companies owned by a single private equity firm to be part of a conglomerate rather than individual businesses, disqualifying them from the program by size and revenues.
• California, New York, Illinois, Texas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Ohio, and West Virginia intend to borrow $36 billion in federal advances to cover the cost of unemployment payouts amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• In a letter sent to governors, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is directing all closed meat processing plants to submit plans to reopen as soon as possible within health official guidelines. The move comes after President Trump’s April 28 executive order to keep meat processing plants open, deeming them critical infrastructure. At least seven meat processing plants have shut down due to COVID-19 since the President’s order was announced last week.
• The Air Line Pilots Association (APLA) is pushing for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to mandate that airlines comply with CDC public health guidelines on cleaning and sanitation to protect both pilots and passengers. The organization testified today before the Senate Commerce Committee, as nearly 300 pilots have now tested positive for COVID-19. The APLA published a new report showing the number of complaints and failures pilots have reported.
• Some Democrats are going to review previously passed provisions in the stimulus bills where unprofitable companies were given tax breaks letting companies offset their losses against already taxed profits and get quick refunds. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett(D-TX) say the Republican-backed plan gave tax breaks for losses incurred before the outbreak and disproportionately benefit high-income investors and business owners.

In the News:

• Industries across various sectors are turning from temporary to permanent layoffs. Airbnb said it was cutting 25 percent of its workforce, about 1,900 employees. Uber will lay off 3,700 employees, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cuts to its customer support and recruiting teams represent about 14 percent of its 26,900 employees.
• A new Mt. Sinai study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology is showing hope that blood thinners may help the survival of those hospitalized with the coronavirus. The study showed an improvement among intensive care patients and on a ventilator after receiving them with significant drops in mortality rates and leading to more studies.
• A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that states enduring the large health and economic burden of the coronavirus crisis are receiving a smaller proportion of small-business loans. The economists hypothesize that the percentage of state businesses receiving PPP loans may be related to the proportion of a state’s businesses serviced by community banks.
• Private payrolls dropped more than 20 million in April, according to a report by ADP Research Institute. The biggest losses came in services and hospitality along with trade, transportation, and utilities as well as construction.
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been hospitalized after suffering from inflammation of her gallbladder. At 87, she is the oldest member of the Supreme Court and the longest-serving Democratic appointee.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that as social distancing restrictions are eased, the risk of returning to lockdowns “remains very real.”
• During Wednesday’s earnings call, General Motors (GM) said it plans to restart most of its U.S. assembly plants with one production shift as coronavirus restrictions rollback, with May 18 as the target date.
• Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley says all available evidence indicates COVID-19 was natural and not man-made or intentionally released from a Chinese lab. Milley told reporters at the Pentagon that “The weight of evidence – nothing’s conclusive – the weight of evidence is that it was natural and not man-made.”
• In recent weeks, the S&P 500 has hovered around where it was last fall, possibly signaling a positive overall trend for the stock market.