A12 eZ sU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAy, MARCH 19 , 2020
the coronavirus outbreak
the l oans.”
Trump s aid Wednesday that the
exact sums were in flux as negotia-
tions progressed on C apitol Hill.
“We’re coming up with num-
bers. Haven’t gotten there yet, but
certainly the hotel industry, c ruise
ship industry, the airlines — those
are all prime candidates,” said
Trump. It’s unclear if the presi-
dent’s own hotels could stand to
benefit from any s uch bailout.
republicans were on Wednes-
day trying to resolve internal divi-
sions over the direct checks pro-
posal and other parts of the ad-
ministration’s request. Sen. Lind-
sey o. G raham ( r-S.C.), a skeptic o f
the payments, was working with
Sen. mitt romney (r-Utah) on a
potential compromise in which
the funding for the second direct
cash payment would instead be
used to increase unemployment
benefits, romney told reporters.
Sens. Josh Hawley (r-mo.) and
rick Scott (r-fla.) have also criti-
cized the push for industry bail-
outs, with Hawley echoing Demo-
cratic demands that they must
incorporate workers’ demands.
“If you’re coming t o me and j ust
saying, we just want a bunch of
taxpayer money, just give it to us,
I’m not going to do that,” Hawley
told reporters.
republican senators are also
working out the d etails of the c ash
payment plan and whether the
checks should be for more than
$1,000, according to two people
familiar with internal conversa-
tions. Administration officials
have suggested $1,000 is a mini-
mum for the proposed benefit
payment.
Some republicans said they
were p repared to do what they h ad
to, l ike it or not.
“The amount of spending, does
it give everybody pause? A little
bit. But you know what? It needs
to be done,” said Sen. Joni Ernst
(r-Iowa).
The approach being taken by
mcConnell and the administra-
tion of negotiating among them-urged his members to prepare to
act.
“I want to repeat, again, the
Senate’s going to stay in session
until we finish phase three, the
next bill, and send it over to the
House. r epublicans hope, shortly,
to have a consolidated position
along with the a dministration a nd
we intend to sit down with our
Democratic colleagues, see what
we can agree to,” mcConnell said
on the Senate floor. “I would rec-
ommend senators stay around,
close. Just how long it will take to
get through these steps is unclear,
but as everyone knows we are
moving rapidly because the situa-
tion demands it.”
The new $1 trillion Trump plan
would seek to spend $500 billion
on the cash payments to individu-
al Americans, though s ome people
wouldn’t qualify if their income is
over a certain level. The Treasury
Department outline says the
funds would be paid out in two
equal amounts, first on April 6
and then again on may 18. White
House officials have eyed making
each check $1,000, but those talks
remain ongoing and the amount
could g row.
The White House discussions
with republicans would aim to
spend another $50 billion to help
rescue the airline industry and
$150 billion to prop up other sec-
tors, which could include hotels,
among others. Some Democrats
have raised concerns about how
these funds might be used and
have called for putting restric-
tions on firms that receive emer-
gency assistance to assure that
employees aren’t laid off while
executives pocket large bonuses.
The Treasury proposal suggests
an “A irline Industry Secured
Lending facility” that would al-
low i t to make direct loans to “U.S.
passenger and cargo air carriers.”
Treasury would determine the
interest rates and other terms of
any loans, but those would include
limits “on increases in executive
compensation until repayment ofplants. A growing n umber of busi-
ness groups are petitioning the
White House and Congress for
economic relief as the total num-
ber o f confirmed cases in the U nit-
ed States approached 8,000.
“The concentration of this drag
at its most intense is far bigger
than during the 2008 financial
crisis,” said Bruce Kasman, man-
aging director and head of eco-
nomic research at JPmorgan
Chase.
The Senate on Wednesday also
voted to approve a House-passed
bill that would spend some
$100 billion on paid leave, unem-
ployment insurance and free test-
ing to people affected by the coro-
navirus fallout. That vote sent the
legislation to Trump, who signed
it into law Wednesday night. It
followed the passage this month
of an $8.3 billion emergency
spending package for the public
health s ystem.
But attention on Capitol Hill
was focused on the next step, as
lawmakers faced the need for ur-
gent action to pass a major stimu-
lus bill to stabilize the economy
before they, too, are forced to
abandon work. Hanging over the
Capitol was the t hreat of coronavi-
rus infections that have already
reached into C ongress, with sever-
al congressional aides infected
and a number of lawmakers an-
nouncing voluntary self-quaran-
tine after coming into contact
with infected individuals.
Wednesday evening brought
news of the f irst two lawmakers to
contract the disease: reps. mario
Diaz-Balart (r-fla.) and Ben mc-
Adams (D-Utah) said they began
developing symptoms on Satur-
day evening, less than 24 hours
after they had stood o n the crowd-
ed House floor and voted for the
coronavirus relief package.
Senate majority Leader mitch
mcConnell (r-Ky.) announced a
new process for voting Wednes-
day aimed at l engthening the time
for v otes so s enators don’t c ongre-
gate in the well of the Senate. Hegram enacted during President
George W. Bush’s administration.
All told, between several legisla-
tive packages advanced on Capitol
Hill and other actions the govern-
ment has taken, the White House
is pushing an economic plan that
is “over $2 trillion and counting”
to try to arrest the coronavirus’s
economic wrecking ball, a senior
administration officials said. The
official spoke on the condition of
anonymity to reveal details of the
planning.
The Dow Jones industrial aver-
age fell 1,338 points on Wednes-
day, or 6.3 percent, virtually wip-
ing out all of the stock market’s
remaining gains during Trump’s
entire presidency. Trump told re-
porters Wednesday that under a
“worst-case scenario,” the unem-
ployment rate could jump to
20 percent, t wice i ts peak from the
financial crisis. A JPmorgan
Chase research note predicted t he
economy would shrink by 14 per-
cent between April and June, the
worst contraction in post-World
War II history.
“People want to go big,” Trump
said at a news conference when
asked about the size of the direct
payments to Americans. “Every-
body seems to want to go big and
they want to get to the recovery.”
The global impact of the virus
continued to skyrocket. Italy’s c or-
onavirus death toll increased by
475 on Wednesday, t he l argest dai-
ly increase recorded in any coun-
try. New York state, meanwhile,
has roughly 2,500 confirmed cas-
es, more than all but 10 countries
in the world.
As the U.S. government contin-
ued to scramble and escalate its
response, Trump ordered Navy
hospital ships to states on the
coasts. T he United S tates and C an-
ada agreed to close their entire
border to “nonessential travel,”
and ford a nd Gm announced they
would temporarily cease produc-
tion at their North American
stImulus from A
Plan calls for c hecks to many, small-business loans
shortages as the number of tests
expands.
“The government is designed to
do certain things in certain ways,
but this is not a usual circum-
stance,” Kushner said. “I’m just
trying to establish a faster deci-
sion cadence so we can empower
them to isolate the problems,
agree on the proposed solutions
and then empower the proper
government department to move
quickly.”
The team includes Kushner al-
lies such as Smith and Adam Boe-
hler, chief executive of the U.S.
International Development fi-
nance Corporation, as well as a
host of private industry represen-
tatives who Kushner believes can
more quickly solve the testing is-
sue than the government officials
who have been overseeing it for
the past two months.
Nat Turner, chief executive of
flatiron Health, a health-care
technology company focused on
cancer research, as well as some of
his employees are key members of
Kushner’s team and are working
out of HHS, officials said. flatiron
Health confirmed it was working
on an HHS project. Kushner also
brought in employees from the
federal Emergency management
Agency to embed with his team at
HHS, and he has called UPS and
fedEx to help work on logistics
issues, while still working with
retail executives who are key to
the testing initiative, two admin-
istration officials said.
Walmart is one of the retailers
that plan to participate in provid-
ing coronavirus testing, a repre-
sentative s aid Wednesday, “work-
ing with the federal, state and
local officials to finalize opera-
tional details of our first pilot
sites.”
There have been growing pains
within the West Wing and agen-
cies as Kushner largely oversees
testing and Pence’s team runs
broader aspects of the response,
including public relations, public-
health guidelines to mitigate the
spread of the virus and emergency
preparedness to ensure states
have the resources they n eed.
Some officials involved in the
coronavirus efforts said they do
not know who is in charge and
whether Pence’s team has been
sidelined. Three senior officials
involved in the response said
Kushner was generally letting the
task force know what he was do-
ing, but that they did not know
precisely what he was working on.
Kushner regularly briefs the pres-
ident separately from the rest of
the task force, one official said.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Trump announced that Google
was developing a website where
Americans could provide their
symptoms, find out whether they
needed to be tested and then be
directed to a testing site near their
homes that retailers including
Ta rget, CVS and Walgreens w ould
help set up. But several of the
companies quickly distanced
themselves from the claims, and
little has come of the efforts so far.
Two officials said Kushner was
the one who called the various
company executives and persuad-
ed them to come to Washington to
meet and discuss the initiative.
While the announcement was
premature, they said getting the
president to hold the news confer-
ence helped focus attention on the
issue.
K ushner’s team is primarily fo-
cused on getting the testing proj-
ect launched by the end of this
week in “hot spot” areas with
large outbreaks, such as Seattle,
the San francisco Bay area and
New York City, officials said. The
team is also focused on procure-
ment issues, particularly related
to the nasal swabs needed to con-
duct the diagnostic tests, which
officials have warned could facecall the president late at night,
allowing him a final private word
after the routine meetings have
ended.
T he president has grown frus-
trated with him at t imes — i nclud-
ing over his widely criticized oval
office address last week, which
Kushner helped write — but he
remains family and so far has
outlasted and outmaneuvered in-
ternal rivals.
Kushner — who already has an
overly large portfolio, which had
become the subject of mockery by
his critics — did not become in-
volved in the virus response until
last week, at t he request o f Pence’s
chief of staff. Kushner had previ-
ously counseled the president
th at the media and some in the
administration were overreacting
to the threat of the virus.
Kushner helped write Trump’s
widely panned prime-time oval
office address last week that sent
markets into a free fall, pushed
Trump to ban travel from Europe
and orchestrated a rose Garden
news conference last friday
where Trump announced a
ramped-up testing effort that
turned out to be i n only the early
stages of development.for Vice President Pence, who is
heading the official task force,
dismissed concerns over Kush-
ner’s g rowing role.
“for those who are involved in
the effort, they aren’t confused,”
miller said. “for those who deal
with this day-to-day, t he structure
is quite clear.”
Kushner said he is “closely col-
laborating” with Pence, with
whom he talks “ 10 times a day.”
Deborah Birx, the White House
coronavirus response coordina-
tor, also praised Kushner’s ability
to enlist companies and individu-
als outside government to help in
the response.
“The White House recognizes
many solutions we will need to-
day and tomorrow to combat this
virus reside in the private sector
and Jared has been essential in
bringing those insights to critical
discussions,” she wrote in an
email.
But Kushner operates from a
nearly untouchable perch within
the White House hierarchy, w hich
has worried some officials. Some
aides say that regardless of the
official organization chart, they
know that Kushner can walk into
the oval office when he wants orlegitimate security concerns
about whether these advisers are
following proper government
protocols.
“We don’t k now who these peo-
ple are,” one senior official said.
“Who is this? We’re all getting
these emails.”
Kushner defended his role in
an interview, saying his team’s
goal was to bring “an entrepre-
neurial approach” t o the crisis.
“ We’re getting things done in
record speeds and are doing ev-
erything possible to avoid damage
and mitigate the negative im-
pa cts,” K ushner said. “In America,
some of our best resources are in
our private sector. The federal
government is not designed to
solve all our problems; a lot of
the muscle is in the private sector
and there’s also a lot of smart
people.”
This account of Kushner’s in-
volvement in the administration’s
coronavirus response effort is
based on interviews with 10 se-
nior administration officials and
people familiar with the effort,
most of whom spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity to discuss inter-
nal dynamics and speak candidly.
Katie miller, a spokeswomanBY YASMEEN ABUTALEB,
ASHLEY PARKER
AND JOSH DAWSEYJared Kushner, President
Trump’s son-in-law and a senior
adviser, has created his own team
of government allies and private
industry representatives to work
alongside the administration’s of-
ficial coronavirus task force, add-
ing another layer of confusion and
conflicting signals within the
White House’s disjointed re-
sponse to the crisis.
Kushner, who joined the ad-
ministration’s coronavirus efforts
last week, is primarily focused on
attempting to set up drive-
through testing sites with the help
of technology and retail execu-
tives, as well as experts in health-
care delivery. The goal, officials
familiar with the work said, is to
have limited testing in a handful
of cities running by friday and to
expand the project from there.
But Kushner’s team is causing
confusion among many officials
involved in the response, who say
they are unsure who is in charge
given Kushner’s dual role as se-
nior adviser and Trump family
member. Some have privately
dubbed his team a “shadow task
force” whose requests they inter-
pret as orders they must balance
with regular response efforts.
Some members of Kushner’s
team are working out of offices on
the seventh floor of Health and
Human Services headquarters —
one floor above the office of HHS
Secretary Alex Azar — while oth-
ers are working out of an office in
the West Wing of the White
House, officials said.
They include representatives o f
companies such as UPS, fedEx
and flatiron Health, as well as
Kushner allies inside the govern-
ment such as Brad Smith, director
of the Centers for medicare and
medicaid Innovation.
Two senior officials said some
government officials have become
increasingly confused as they
have received emails from private
industry employees on Kushner’s
team and have been on confer-
ence calls with them, unsure w hat
their exact role is in the govern-
ment response. Several people in-
volved in the response said the
involvement of outside advisers —
who are emailing large groups of
government employees from pri-
vate email a ddresses — a lso raises
Kushner’s virus response team sparks confusion, praise
Trump’s son-in-law h as
set up his own operation
focused on pilot test sitesJABIn Botsford/tHe WAsHIngton Post
J ared Kushner’s coronavirus operation, focused on setting up test sites, is causing confusion among officials unsure of who is in charge.capped at $1,540 per week per
employee. The loans would come
from U.S. f inancial c ompanies but
would have U.S. government
backing. The Treasury Depart-
ment would have the power to
issue regulations about interest
rates and l oan maturities.
The package doesn’t, at this
point, include some of the big tax
cuts that Trump had sought only a
few days ago. White House offi-
cials pivoted away from the tax
cuts after Democrats and r epubli-
cans largely panned the idea, and
Trump expressed concern that it
would take too long for these ben-
efits to filter t hrough to the econo-
my.
The White House also s ent C on-
gress a separate emergency fund-
ing request for $46 billion for
“ongoing preparedness and re-
sponse e fforts” t o the coronavirus.
This would include new funding
for the Defense Department, the
Department of Veterans Affairs,
the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Paul Kane and seung Min Kim
contributed to this report.selves a nd t hen looking f or Demo-
cratic buy-in irritated some Dem-
ocrats. I t stands in c ontrast to how
the l ast coronavirus bill was nego-
tiated, when mcConnell stood on
the sidelines as House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) worked di-
rectly w ith mnuchin.
“It’s a totally partisan ap-
proach.... That, to me, sends
absolutely the wrong signal to the
American public that we’re actual-
ly trying to function and put the
country first,” said Sen. mark r.
Warner (D-Va.). Some bipartisan
talks were already underway,
though, as Sens. marco rubio (r-
fla.) and Susan Collins (r-maine)
worked on small-business provi-
sions with Democratic colleagues.
one of the goals of the White
House’s decision to seek $300 bil-
lion for small businesses in the
plan would be to help firms con-
tinue paying employees, as there
has a lready been a wave of l ayoffs,
particularly at restaurants and
other companies where business
has s uddenly h alted.
These credits, which Treasury is
calling “Small Business Interrup-
tion Loans,” would come with a
100 percent government guaran-
tee. Eligible borrowers would
have 500 or fewer employees, and
the l oan amounts w ould be target-
ed to finance six weeks of payroll,JABIn Botsford/tHe WAsHIngton Post
White House Chief of staff mark meadows and other officials
listen as President trump delivers a news briefing Wednesday.