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

In Washington:

• A group of 10 GOP senators unveiled an estimated $618 billion coronavirus relief proposal on Monday ahead of a meeting with President Biden to discuss relief legislation. The group will meet with Biden and Vice President Harris at 5 p.m., according to the White House's schedule. The proposal is roughly a third of the $1.9 trillion plan proposed by Biden and backed by congressional Democrats.
  • The group includes:
    • GOP Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Bill Cassidy (LA), Mitt Romney (UT), Rob Portman (OH), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Todd Young (IN), Jerry Moran (KS), Mike Rounds (SD), and Thom Tillis (NC).
  • The proposal includes:
    • $160 billion in pandemic response funding, including protective equipment and more money for vaccine distribution;
    • An extension of the $300 per week federal unemployment benefit through June 30;
    • $1,000 direct payments, compared to the $1,400 direct payment in Biden's plans, with $500 for adult dependents and children. The proposal also lowers the income cap for qualifying for the direct assistance. Under the GOP proposal individuals who make up to $40,000 would get a $1,000 check, with the amount of the check phasing out altogether at $50,000;
    • $20 billion in additional funding for schools, $20 billion in child care funding, an additional $50 billion in small business aid, $12 billion for nutrition assistance, and $4 billion for behavioral health resources.

• Monday evening, Senator Susan Collins and the Republican Senators emerged from the longer-than-expected meeting, saying there was a "good exchange of views" as they discussed the differences between the packages. Collins said they didn't come together on a single package but did agree to follow up at the staff-level as they work further among themselves and with President Biden and Vice President Harris on a COVID relief package. Collins assured that both sides are concerned with families, the economy, and the public health crisis. She said they were very appreciative that the President chose to spend so much time with them on his first official oval office meeting in a "very frank" and "very useful" discussion. Collins noted that Republicans and Democrats have come together five times on bipartisan packages to address the pandemic with hopes of coming together again for a sixth package.

• Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), speaking to reporters in New York on Sunday, vowed to move forward on a bigger plan if Democrats couldn't get GOP support. The House is scheduled to vote on a budget resolution this week that will include reconciliation instructions that will allow Congress to draft and ultimately pass a coronavirus bill with only a simple majority in the House and Senate.

• West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, argued for a large coronavirus relief bill on Monday, potentially putting pressure on centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to support a bigger proposal. “[W]e need to go big. We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows and count the cows and just move,” he told MSNBC. Sen. Manchin expressed frustration that he had not been given any heads up last week when Vice President Kamala Harris was interviewed on a local WV television station where she pressed for a larger package saying that West Virginia would benefit from Biden’s plan. Manchin saw the move as an attempt to pressure him. The Senator says he has been negotiating with a group of Senate Republicans trying to find areas where they can support the President’s proposal, but Manchin also has raised concerns about the fiscal impact of the Democrat’s proposal to send out $1,400 checks to individuals. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the White House has “been in touch” with the Senator.

• The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the U.S. economy will return to its pre-pandemic size by mid-2021. The CBO reports that several large sectors of the economy are adapting better and more rapidly to the pandemic than initially expected. They also reflect increased growth from a $900 billion economic aid package that Congress passed in December. The CBO projects the unemployment rate to fall to 5.3% in 2021 and to 4% between 2024 and 2025.

• The Biden administration is funding the mass production of a rapid, over-the-counter COVID-19 test, White House officials said Monday. Andy Slavitt, a White House COVID-19 adviser, said the administration will provide $230 million to a company called Ellume, which received authorization for the test in December. "[T]hey'll be able to scale their production to manufacture more than 19 million test kits per month by the end of this year," Slavitt told reporters. The move may prove to be a significant step in expanding rapid, at-home coronavirus testing; something experts have been advocating for months.

In the News:

• Vaccine rollout hit another delay on Monday in the Northeast, where multiple states closed down vaccination sites due to a large snowstorm.

• AstraZeneca will deliver nine million additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union in the first quarter of this year, bringing the total number of doses to 40 million, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Sunday. The new delivery is half of the agreed-upon 80 million doses originally expected for the first quarter. The EU and AstraZeneca sparred in recent days over the pharmaceutical company's sudden announcement that it couldn't fulfill the order for 80 million doses due to manufacturing problems.

• Seven unions representing airline workers sent a letter to Congress calling for continued relief to avoid further furloughs. The organizations are asking for an additional $15 billion in funding and the extension of the Payroll Support Program through the end of the fiscal year. The groups also said they would like to see PSP provisions like a cap on executive pay and a prohibition in pay rate reductions continued. Meanwhile, United Airlines is warning that they might have to furlough nearly 14,000 employees once the stimulus funding from December expires on March 31.

• Even if the U.S. and several countries will be able to eventually vaccinate their populations and achieve herd immunity, there will still be a hit to their economies as they wait for other countries to reach the same status. Many countries will have to rely on domestic demand as borders will have to remain shut and possible outbreaks of new strains that outpace inoculations.

• The Metropolitan Civic Leadership Alliance is requesting the Biden administration and Congress to prioritize several key transportation policies including COVID relief, infrastructure resiliency, low-interest financing for airports, and transit expansion.

• Retail pharmacy chains such as CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Kroger are preparing to take a central role in administering Covid-19 shots, hoping to avoid logjams.

• One of the unexpected obstacles officials are having in distributing vaccines is some health-care workers declining Covid-19 vaccines, concerning public-health officials who expected front-line workers to serve as a model for others.

• On Friday, Canada announced new travelers restrictions to those arriving by plane and the U.S. land border. Soon air passengers arriving in Canada will be required to undergo PCR testing and wait for results at hotels approved by Health Canada. Travelers going into Canada through land ports will also be required to provide negative tests.

• Portugal recorded nearly half of all of its coronavirus deaths in the month of January, prompting other European nations to offer help. In January 5,576 people died, nearly 45 percent of the 12,482 who have died in the country due to the virus so far. Portuguese officials are blaming the more infectious U.K. variant and the loosening of coronavirus restrictions over the holidays for the worsening pandemic in their country.

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