| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | Presented by |  | | | NEW ... THE SENATE is scheduled to meet in a pro forma session this afternoon, and we anticipate the GOP leadership to try to take procedural action to set up a pro forma session for TUESDAY AFTERNOON. THIS IS NEW, and it gives THE SENATE the leeway to have a vote on the Paycheck Protection Program package Tuesday if the deal is wrapped up. -- STATE AND LOCAL FUNDING remains an open issue, sources said. REPUBLICANS have been firmly against that. -- NYT'S @jessemckinley: "NEW: @NYGovCuomo says cuts of 20% to schools, hospitals, local governments are coming if federal government doesn't provide help." THE STICKING POINTS ... BURGESS EVERETT, HEATHER CAYGLE and MARIANNE LEVINE: "Negotiators still fighting behind the scenes on latest relief package": "Democrats have not relented on demanding more money for state and local governments, despite Republicans insisting that is a red line in the current talks. [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told GOP senators on a call with Trump Sunday that Democrats will get none of the $150 billion for local governments they requested. "And there are still outstanding issues related to funding for hospitals and testing. Democrats are pushing for the federal government to spearhead a national testing strategy and want the administration to determine the number of tests each state receives. But Republicans want the states to make that decision on their own." POLITICO THE WILD WEST OF OBTAINING PPE ... THE OKLAHOMAN: "Coronavirus in Oklahoma: PPE hunt goes off beaten path," by Nolan Clay: "The Oklahoma Health Department has ordered more than $9 million in masks from a company in Tulsa that didn't exist a month ago, records show. "A partner in the new company also is the owner of a Tulsa dueling pianos bar. The Health Department has ordered another $9 million from a Utah company that helps the hemp industry make CBD oil, those records show. Oklahoma and other states have gone to unusual -- and some say too risky -- lengths to find personal protective equipment to deal with the coronavirus crisis. Sometimes, in the intense competition for supplies, things backfire. "Illinois, for instance, reportedly spent nearly $17 million on masks from China that turned out to be below performance standards. Health officials there last week advised recipients not to use them. Cotton-tip swabs purchased in April by the Oklahoma Health Department as backups for the lab could not be used to test for COVID-19, according to internal emails obtained by The Oklahoman. Officials Friday were considering placing them in the 'Pharmacy' instead." -- NYT: "When Mr. Trump told governors that they needed to step up their efforts to secure medical supplies, Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, took the entreaty seriously and negotiated with suppliers in South Korea to obtain coronavirus test kits. ... "In recent days, his wife, Yumi Hogan, a Korean immigrant who speaks fluent Korean, had been on the phone in the middle of the night helping to secure the final deal with two labs to sell Maryland the tests. "On Saturday, the first Korean Air flight to touch down at Baltimore-Washington International Airport arrived carrying 5,000 tests kits — for which the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies gave their seal of approval as the plane was landing. 'I was frosted because my team was saying that the F.D.A. approval was going to hold it up,' Mr. Hogan said in a telephone interview. 'I didn't care and was going to get the tests anyway.'" NYT coronavirus blog | | | | A message from PhRMA: In these unprecedented times, America's biopharmaceutical companies are coming together to achieve one shared goal: beating COVID-19. We are rapidly screening our vast global libraries to identify potential treatments and have 284 clinical trials underway. Explore our efforts. | | | VP MIKE PENCE will travel to Madison, Wis., on Tuesday to visit a GE Healthcare facility. THE HIGH COURT ... AP'S MARK SHERMAN: "Supreme Court: Criminal juries must be unanimous to convict": "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that juries in state criminal trials must be unanimous to convict a defendant, settling a quirk of constitutional law that had allowed divided votes to result in convictions in Louisiana and Oregon. "The justices' vote overturned the conviction of Evangelisto Ramos. He is serving a life sentence in Louisiana for killing a woman after a jury voted 10-2 to convict him in 2016. Oregon is the only other state that allows for non-unanimous convictions for some crimes. Louisiana voters changed the law for crimes committed beginning in 2019. Now the same rules will apply in all 50 states and in the federal system: Juries must vote unanimously for conviction." Good Monday afternoon. NEW ... BARAK RAVID of Israel's Channel 13: "In a statement [Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Benny] Gantz announced they are forming a 'national emergency government'. Netanyahu will serve as Prime Minister for 18 months and then Gantz will replace [him] as Prime Minister for another 18 months." AS BILLS PILE UP -- "White House still scrambling to cover virus treatment for the uninsured," by Susannah Luthi and Rachel Roubein: "The White House pledged over two weeks ago to cover coronavirus treatment for uninsured Americans — but the administration still doesn't have a plan for how to do it. Trump officials are still grappling with key questions about how exactly to implement the treatment fund, including how to determine if a patient qualifies for the new federal dollars, an administration source said. "Adding to the challenge, they're still figuring out how to divvy up funding that hospitals and physicians say is desperately needed. The delay in setting up the fund indicates the difficulty building a massive entitlement on the fly amid an unprecedented crisis. And there was little time to fully vet the plan before President Donald Trump announced it earlier this month." POLITICO MICHAEL STRATFORD: "Less than 1 percent of federal emergency cash for college students doled out": "The Education Department says just $6 million of $6.28 billion in emergency aid for college students has reached campuses so far, and officials are trading accusations with college leaders over the slow pace of a rollout that's left students waiting for help. "The money is intended to directly assist students for help with needs like housing or food, under the $2 trillion economic rescue package signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. Weeks later, there's still incomplete guidance from the department for colleges on how they will specifically be allowed to distribute the money to students, even as billions from other programs in the rescue legislation like small business loans and rebate checks are in recipients' hands." POLITICO | | | | BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: A DIFFERENT KIND OF NEWSLETTER: "The Long Game" explores the convergence of private sector leaders, political actors, and NGO/Academic experts on the key sustainability issues of our time. Subscribe for a nuanced look at sustainability news, trends, solutions and the leaders focused on building a sustainable future. Launching soon. Subscribe today. | | | | | KNOWING BRETT GIROIR -- "Brett Giroir, Trump's testing czar, was forced out of a job developing vaccine projects. Now he's on the hot seat," by WaPo's Michael Kranish: "Brett Giroir, the federal official overseeing coronavirus testing efforts, says that his experience working on vaccine development projects at Texas A&M University helped prepare him for this historic moment. He once said that his vaccine effort was so vital that 'the fate of 50 million people will rely on us getting this done.' "But after eight years of work on several vaccine projects, Giroir was told in 2015 he had 30 minutes to resign or he would be fired. His annual performance evaluation at Texas A&M, the local newspaper reported, said he was 'more interested in promoting yourself' than the health science center where he worked. He got low marks on being a 'team player.' "His years as director of the Texas vaccine project illustrate his operating style, which includes sweeping statements about the impact of his work, not all of which turned out as some had hoped. ... Giroir blamed his ouster on internal politics at the university, not on any problems with the project. ... [F]ormer associates interviewed for this report said that [they have] confidence in Giroir and praised Trump's decision to pick Giroir for the job." WaPo THE BUCK STOPS THERE -- "Trump revs up for a state-by-state fight over coronavirus shutdowns," by Nancy Cook: "Over the next two weeks at the urging of the Trump administration, the map of the U.S. will start to resemble a patchwork quilt, with some states open for business while others remain locked down because of the spread of the virus. ... "Senior administration officials and Trump advisers say the level of hostility between the president and governors will probably only increase in the coming days, in part because Trump sees so much political opportunity in stoking those divisions during his reelection campaign. Governors have become his latest political foil, along with China and the World Health Organization, and he's trying to bully and scapegoat them amid his administration's response to the pandemic." POLITICO -- NYT'S MAGGIE HABERMAN: "Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message" THE LATEST NUMBERS -- "India reports biggest one-day virus spike as lockdown eased," by AP's Emily Schmall in New Delhi: "An additional 1,553 cases were reported over 24 hours, raising the national total past 17,000. At least 543 people have died from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, and epidemiologists forecast the peak may not be reached before June." AP RIPPLE EFFECTS -- "The coronavirus could force more doctors to sell — or shutter," by Axios' Bob Herman: "Small and independent groups that are facing the most severe cash crunches eventually may be forced into two less-than-ideal options: sell the practice, which would further consolidate the industry and expose patients to higher costs, or close their doors for good. ... "Loans and bailout money are helping some doctors stay afloat for now. And the federal government and health insurers are paying doctors for telehealth visits, but that isn't making up for lost revenue. Some doctors are reporting that revenue is falling anywhere from 50% to 90%." Axios | | | | OUR NEIGHBORS NEED YOUR HELP: Layoffs, school closures, and health fears. Everyone is struggling, and our neighbors need our help now more than ever. From grab-and-go dinners for kids to boxes of groceries for seniors, you can help provide critical support for people in the greater D.C. community who need it most. No one should go hungry during this pandemic. Together, we can make sure no one has to. Please support the Capital Area Food Bank's COVID-19 response today. | | | | | VALLEY TALK -- "Facebook shuts down anti-quarantine protests at states' request," by Steven Overly: "The world's largest social network has already removed protest messages in California, New Jersey and Nebraska from its site at the urging of state governments who say those events are prohibited by stay-at-home orders." POLITICO MORE ZOOM WOES -- "Zoom's Security Woes Were No Secret to Business Partners Like Dropbox," by NYT's Natasha Singer and Nicole Perlroth: "[F]ormer Dropbox engineers ... say Zoom's current woes can be traced back two years or more, and they argue that the company's failure to overhaul its security practices back then put its business clients at risk. Dropbox grew so concerned that vulnerabilities in the videoconferencing system might compromise its own corporate security that the file-hosting giant took on the unusual step of policing Zoom's security practices itself, according to the former engineers." NYT CASH DASH -- "ActBlue sees $533M small-donor bonanza in first quarter," by Scott Bland: "[E]ven taking the presidential candidates out of the equation, Democrats saw a big fundraising jump via ActBlue last quarter — a huge boon to Democratic Senate challengers and House incumbents, after predictions that the presidential campaign would siphon away the online money that powered so many Democratic victors in the 2018 midterm elections." POLITICO BIG AFTERNOON READ -- "America's Abandonment of Syria: Many Syrians thought that the U.S. cared about them. Now they know better," by Luke Mogelson in The New Yorker TOP-ED ... SEN. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) in WAPO: "The national security cost of Trump's politicization of U.S. intelligence": "If presenting objective information about threats to the United States is treated as political disloyalty to the president, our intelligence community simply cannot function as it was intended to. The consequences of this breakdown will undoubtedly be measured in American lives." WaPo MEDIAWATCH -- Heidi Vogt is now deputy technology and cybersecurity editor at POLITICO. She previously was a reporter everywhere from Afghanistan to Senegal to New York for the WSJ and AP. NSC ARRIVAL LOUNGE -- Brandon Holt is now a special assistant in the NSC. He previously was a special assistant at OMB. TRANSITIONS -- Jeremy Nordquist is now government affairs director for Nebraska Medicine. He previously was chief of staff to Rep. Tom O'Halleran (D-Ariz.). Sally Adams, O'Halleran's former deputy chief of staff and legislative director, is now chief of staff. WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Brian Harrison, chief of staff for HHS, and Tara Harrison, head of corporate affairs at BP America, welcomed Violet Nicole Harrison on Sunday. She joins big brothers Hudson, Tucker and Hayes. Pic BONUS BIRTHDAY: Michael Galfetti, a senior account executive at ROKK Solutions (h/t Lindsay Singleton) | | | | A message from PhRMA:   In these unprecedented times, America's biopharmaceutical companies are coming together to achieve one shared goal: beating COVID-19. Explore our efforts. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
