THE NET NEWS- GLOBAL

with Tonya Riley

Coronavirus data is the new front in the Washington privacy battles.  

Democratic lawmakers from both chambers yesterday introduced legislation to place limits on how tech companies and public health agencies use smartphones and other digital tools to track the spread of the coronavirus. The bill would apply to a recent flood of Silicon Valley technologies coming to market amid the pandemic, including a recent partnership between Google and Apple to build tools alerting people if they’ve come into contact with someone who tested positive for covid-19. 

The bill would require Americans to consent to participate in these efforts, and it would prohibit any data collected to address the health crisis from being used for other purposes such as advertising. Republican lawmakers introduced legislation with some similar safeguards earlier this month. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) dons a mask after leaving a hearing at the Capitol on Wednesday. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

Unlike the Republican proposal, the Democrats’ bill aims to prevent government — not just companies – from misusing any data collected related to the pandemic. The Democrats’ proposal also prohibits governments from requiring people to use the new technology to participate in an election, and it calls for regular reports to assess whether the technology is discriminating against any groups or otherwise impacting their civil rights.

The lawmakers say that more people might participate in digital contact tracing — which some think could play a key role in reopening the economy — if they know there are specific safeguards. 

“This measure sets strict and straightforward privacy protections and promises: Your information will be used to stop the spread of this disease, and no more,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), who co-sponsored the legislation with Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) and Reps. Anna G. Eshoo (Calif.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) and Suzan DelBene (Wash.). 

The pandemic is bringing fresh urgency to a years-long debate about a federal privacy law in Washington. 

The swift expansion of technologies leveraging Bluetooth and location data in the pandemic’s wake is raising new security and privacy concerns — and highlighting the absence of federal laws dictating how tech companies can collect and use data about Americans. 

The United States has been much slower than other countries to embrace digital contact tracing and other surveillance technologies to enforce social distancing. But public officials across the country are using aggregated data from smartphones and tech companies to measure the effectiveness of stay-at-home orders. 

As local officials ease some of those restrictions, urgency is growing to ensure robust contact tracing is in place. And lawmakers say the tech industry has a role to play. 

“It’s our shared belief that swift passage of this legislation would go a long way towards establishing the trust American consumers need — and which Big Tech has squandered, time and again —  for digital contact tracing to be a worthwhile auxiliary to widespread testing and manual contact tracing,” Schakowsky said. 

Privacy advocates who have observed the surge of coronavirus-related surveillance in countries such as China, South Korea and Israel have warned that lawmakers need to implement safeguards to protect privacy during the crisis. 

The same disputes that have prevented federal privacy legislation from passing for years could derail this effort. 

There’s bipartisan sentiment that people should have a choice about whether to use digital tools that collect their data in an effort to slow the virsus’s spread. But despite bipartisan desire to create federal privacy standards after repeated tech company scandals, such rules have never materialized.

The Democrats’ coronavirus bill could inflame some partisan tensions. The bill would create a private right of action, which would allow individuals to bring a lawsuit against companies that violate their rights. Republicans and tech companies have previously resisted privacy legislation that includes such a provision. 

The Democrats’ proposal would also allow states to enforce their own privacy rules. Republicans and tech companies have previously pushed for legislation that would preempt state laws to avoid a patchwork of different privacy rules across the country.

It’s unclear whether Americans will get on board even if Congress does act. 

A recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found that most are either unwilling or unable to participate in the Google-Apple effort because they don’t have a smartphone. 

There are also major questions about the efficacy of digital contact tracing. About 60 percent of the population in a given area would need to participate for these tools to be effective, according to a study by epidemiologists at Oxford University.

Privacy advocates have come out in support of the Democrats’ proposal. 

“As contact tracing apps and other types of COVID-19 surveillance become commonplace in the United States, this legislation will protect the privacy of Americans regardless of the type of technology used or who created it,”  said Sara Collins, policy counsel at Public Knowledge in a statement. “It is critical that Congress continue to work to prevent this type of corporate or government surveillance from becoming ubiquitous and compulsory.”

Several privacy advocates criticized the Republican bill for falling short on enforcement mechanisms.

Our top tabs

Amazon has been quietly lobbying against a Portland, Ore., law that would hurt its commercial interests in facial recognition technology.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

The company spent $12,000 last year lobbying against legislation that would ban use of the technology by government and businesses in the city, Kate Kaye at One Zero reports. 

Banning business use goes a step further than proposed legislation in other areas, including Amazon’s home state of Washington, where the company largely stayed out of a recent legislative fight over facial recognition.  But Amazon’s Rekognition facial recognition software has signed on clients including the NFL and CBS. Oregon’s Washington County Sheriff’s Office also uses the system. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post).

“To be very blunt, they’re concerned about their bottom line,” said Portland City Council Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who supports the proposal and has met with Amazon. “They’re going to lose sales if they are not able to sell equipment that allows them to collect data.”

Hardesty says Amazon got involved to weaken the legislation, which privacy advocates have accused Microsoft of doing in Washington state.

Amazon was drafting its own federal facial recognition legislation to pitch to lawmakers, though the coronavirus pandemic has derailed the federal debate. 

Taiwan’s largest chip maker will announce plans to build a factory in Arizona.

Memory modules. (SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg News)

The plant, which could open as soon as 2023, could accelerate efforts by the U.S. government to reduce the reliance of American companies on Asian suppliers, Bob Davis, Kate O’Keeffe and Asa Fitch at the Wall Street Journal report. Both the State and Commerce departments, which played a key role in efforts to secure American technologies from spying, are involved in the plans for the new plant. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of silicon chips. That makes its entrance into the U.S. market a boon for President Trump. Trump has prioritized cutting China and other national security threats out of American supply chains. 

“We shouldn’t have supply chains. We should have them all in the U.S.,” the president said on Fox Business on Thursday.

But it could also cause conflict with Intel, which also manufacturers in Arizona and has lobbied the Pentagon for a partnership, the Journal reports.

Airbnb is helping laid-off employees find new jobs.

Airbnb’s logo. (Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images)

It’s a novel turn for the traditionally cutthroat talent market of noncompetes and signing bonuses in Silicon Valley, Nitasha Tiku reports. 

Shortly after laying off employees earlier this month, chief executive Brian Chesky said the company would launch an opt-in “alumni talent directory” as well as use its recruiters to help the 1,900 employees find new jobs.

Three ex-Airbnb employees said they had already received messages about job openings through the board.

And other companies are following Airbnb’s lead:

Uber introduced a similar network “to give our former colleagues the attention from recruiters they deserve,” said Uber representative Lois Van Der Laan. Eventbrite and Bird, which also recently had layoffs, have also helped connect laid-off employees with other companies, including Facebook. Both Uber and Lyft have also redirected struggling delivery drivers to Amazon’s Flex service. 

But Airbnb’s efforts also highlight inequalities in tech’s workforce. Contractors were not included in Airbnb’s initial job outreach efforts, though the company says it’s working on adding them to the board.

Trump tracker

The Postal Service is seeking ways to charge Amazon more.

A Postal Service mail carrier. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Agency employees tell Jacob Bogage and Josh Dawsey that it’s part of a bigger push from the president to radically reshape the agency.

President Trump has accused for years without evidence that the Postal Service undercharged Amazon, UPS and FedEx for “last-mile” deliveries. The Postal Service has traditionally rebuffed his criticism.

But the tide has shifted in the president’s favor after a Trump loyalist was recently appointed postmaster general. Every member of the agency’s bipartisan governing board is now a Trump appointee.

Analysts say that the price changes would hurt Amazon — but it would hurt small businesses without their own distribution networks even more. Amazon and other delivery companies would sooner build out their own last-mile networks than pay USPS more, analysts say, possibly further hurting the agency.

Hill happenings

Advocates urged House lawmakers to protect Internet and browser histories before reauthorizing vast spying powers.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) talks to an aide as she arrives for a vote at the Capitol on Thursday. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Senate passed its own version of a bill renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act yesterday, 80 to 16. But an amendment that would have curbed the ability to spy on Internet and browser history without a warrant wasn’t included.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who helped write the Senate amendment that was short one vote of passing, now wants the House to take it up:

The American Civil Liberties Union also urged the House to pass an amendment. 

Five senators want Amazon subsidiary Whole Foods to stop worker surveillance.

People wait in line outside a Whole Foods store in New York.(Michael Nagle/Bloomberg News)

“The fact that Whole Foods has decided to heavily invest in systems to avoid unionization rather than improve the wages, hours, and working conditions of their employees demonstrates a reckless disregard for the welfare of your workforce,” Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to CEO John Mackey.

The letter follows a report last month that Whole Foods uses surveillance technology to map the risks of unionizing at a specific location. Senators also grilled Amazon earlier this month on whether it used the same technology to monitor warehouse employees trying to unionize. 

More from the Hill:

Inside the industry

Twitch announced the formation of a new group that brings together creators and policy experts to help make decisions on content policies.

The Amazon-owned streaming platform announced the eight-person council as it deals with rapid growth during the coronavirus pandemic, Sarah Perez at TechCrunch reports.

More from the industry:

Amazon to the Rescue of the Fashion World!

With some help from Vogue and the CFDA, the e-commerce giant is opening a new store to showcase independent designers. Does this mark the moment the two worlds finally get hitched?

The New York Times

Rant and rave

Fashion might want to take a look at what Amazon’s involvement did to publishing, author Maris Kreizman notes:

Trending

The coronavirus pandemic is sparking baseless theories about the dangers of 5G. But the fear that wireless technology is slowly killing us isn’t new—and it doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

The Atlantic

Daybook

• The Aspen Digital Institute will host an event with Facebook’s Oversight Board Monday at 3pm

Before you log off

A fun and cheesy video to slide into the weekend with:

President Trump’s optimistic assessment that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by the end of the year just got doused in cold water by a former top vaccine official. 

Rick Bright, who directed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority until his removal last month, urged against rushing the process to develop a vaccine during his testimony before House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.

“A lot of optimism is swirling around a 12- to 18-month time frame, if everything goes perfectly,” Bright told lawmakers. “We’ve never seen everything go perfectly. My concern is that if we rush too quickly, and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine.”

Bright’s caution stood in stark contrast with a rosy prediction from Trump the same morning.

Shortly before Bright’s testimony yesterday, Trump said, “I think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of the year.” 

“We’re doing very well with the vaccine,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo in an interview on Fox Business. He suggested the military is being mobilized to help distribute a vaccine once it’s available. 

“We’re of the assumption that by the end of the year we’re going to have a vaccine and then we have to be able to give it, to use it on most of our population,” he said.

Numerous experts, including Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have said it could take between 12 and 18 months – at a minimum – to develop a vaccine.

Bright told lawmakers it normally takes up to a decade to make a vaccine. “We have done it faster in emergency situations … but for a novel virus, this has not been done yet that quickly.” 

He added: “I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule, and I think it’s going to take longer than that.” 

Back in March, Fauci laid out a detailed timeline for vaccine development during testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Fauci described a multistep process including clinical trials, trials that prove the vaccine candidates work and that they are safe for people to receive, saying the “entire process will take at least a year to a year and a half.”

During his latest testimony before lawmakers this week, Fauci referenced “at least eight candidate covid-19 vaccines in clinical development.” 

Even as he said there was “no guarantee” about the effectiveness of a vaccine, he said he is “cautiously optimistic that we will, with one of the candidates, get an efficacy signal.”

Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, prepares to depart a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing in Washington. (Greg Nash/Hill/Bloomberg News)

The Trump administration is racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine that could be distributed nationwide by January.

That’s what our colleagues Anne Gearan, Felicia Sonmez and Erica Werner reported late last month.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar referenced the project, dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” as he jabbed at Bright and sought to undermine his Thursday testimony. 

“While we’re launching Operation Warp Speed,” Azar said while standing next to Trump on the White House lawn, “he’s not showing up for work to be part of that.” In a statement, HHS questioned why Bright, who said he has been on medical leave with hypertension since his removal, hadn’t yet “shown up for work.” 

Trump also dismissed Bright as an “angry, disgruntled employee.”

Bright alleged in a whistleblower complaint filed earlier this month that he was pushed out of his role at BARDA in April and reassigned to a less prestigious role at the National Institutes of Health because he tried to “prioritize science and safety over political expediency” and raised concerns about a drug Trump touted as a possible coronavirus cure.

During his nearly four-hour-long testimony, Bright warned that the “window is closing to address this pandemic,” calling on the administration to develop a national testing strategy as well as a national plan for vaccine distribution. He cautioned against the government downplaying the possibility that it could take years to ready a vaccine for mass distribution. 

Even if a vaccine is ready soon, Bright said the government has no plan in place for mass production. 

“If you can imagine the scenario this fall or winter, maybe even early next spring, when a vaccine becomes available, there’s no one company that can produce enough for our country or for the world; it will be limited supplies,” Bright told lawmakers. “We need to have a strategy and plan in place now to make sure that we can not only fill that vaccine, make it, distribute it, but administer it in a fair and equitable plan.”

And supplies are not where they need to be, per Bright. He was asked about a BARDA estimate included in an addendum to his complaint that 650 million to 850 million needles and syringes would be needed to administer a vaccine nationwide, as well as an estimate from his BARDA team that it would take up to two years to manufacture these vaccine delivery supplies. 

“It’s important to remember it’s not just the United States … when I said it would take two to two and a half years to make those, that was assuming there wouldn’t be global competition for those limited supplies,” he testified.

Dr. Rick Bright testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on May 14, 2019, in Washington, DC. (Photo by GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The global grab over vaccines — let alone the necessary supplies to distribute them — could also be fierce.

If the coronavirus persists and becomes an endemic virus, our colleagues Christopher Rowland, Carolyn Y. Johnson and William Wan reported this week, public health experts worry the volume of available vaccine will fall short of demand. They fear a scenario where “manufacturers sell only to the highest bidders, rich countries try to buy up the supplies, and nations where manufacturers are located hoard vaccines for their own citizens.”

To that point, a French government official said yesterday it would be “unacceptable” to give the United States first access to a potential vaccine. 

France’s secretary for economy and finance said it would be “unacceptable if there were privileged access from this or that country under a pretext that would be a monetary pretext,” pushing back on comments from Paul Hudson, the CEO of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, who said the “U.S. government has the right to the largest preorder because it’s invested in taking the risk.”

“There are more than 100 covid-19 vaccine research efforts in progress around the world, in laboratories in the United States, Britain, Germany, France and elsewhere,” our colleague James McAuley writes. “The question of national preference in these trials has been present from the beginning.”

Congress on coronavirus

Bright also testified that supply shortages and early inaction by the U.S. government cost lives.

He said he pushed for months to get increases in production of medical equipment, including masks — requests he said were ignored after he was told officials didn’t believe there was a “critical shortage.” 

“I pushed that forward to the highest levels I could in HHS and got no response,” Bright said. “From that moment, I knew that we were going to have a crisis for our health-care workers because we were not taking action. We were already behind the ball. That was our last window of opportunity to turn on that production to save the lives of those health-care workers, and we didn’t act.”

In one exchange with Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Bright described what he called an “absurd” response from HHS officials over his concerns about N95 shortages for front-line health workers. 

“They indicated if we notice there is a shortage, that we will simply change the CDC guidelines to better inform people who should not be wearing those masks, so that would save those masks for our health-care workers,” Bright said. “My response was, ‘I cannot believe you can sit and say that with a straight face.’ That was absurd.”

President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Officials within HHS reportedly were angered by Democratic lawmakers’ reliance on Bright’s testimony. 

“For instance, Democrats on Thursday widely criticized HHS for declining to act on Bright’s urging to purchase masks from Mike Bowen, an executive at Texas-based Prestige Ameritech,” Politico’s Sarah Owermohle and Dan Diamond report. “But one current and one former official said that the administration eventually determined that the opportunity was not appropriate, adding that there was context missing from Bright’s testimony about why the U.S. government passed on the offer.”

They add: “Trump defenders were nowhere to be found in the House hearing room because they declined to send someone, giving Bright hours of air time and a news cycle’s worth of headlines.”

Ahh, oof and ouch

AHH: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering a brief set of guidelines to business, schools, day cares and others looking to begin reopening.

The documents are meant to help these facilities, which include restaurants, mass transit and camps, determine if they’re ready to open, and if so, the way to do so, a CDC spokesman told The Washington Post. 

Checklists released by the CDC to guide schools, businesses and other organizations on reopening. (Jon Elswick/AP)

“The six checklists…come days, and in some cases weeks, after many states have begun to lift restrictions on their own. The advice is less detailed than draft recommendations the agency sent to the White House for review last month,” Lenny Bernstein, William Wan, Josh Dawsey and Holly Bailey report. “The nation is still awaiting that detailed technical guidance, which the White House has held up and not shared publicly. The delay has left the responsibility for decision-making about reopening to states and localities. It has also left many health experts clamoring for greater transparency.”

The White House had initially shelved the CDC guidelines, calling them “overly specific.”

The CDC said these six sets of recommendations were ready to go, so it released them while the other guidelines are pending review. 

“In many ways, this advice is the only medicine we have,” Matthew Seeger, who has researched crisis communication for 35 years at Wayne State University, told The Post. “We don’t have a vaccine yet. We don’t have treatment. All we have is human behavior and that behavior is based on the information people get and whether they will listen to that information.”

OOF: White House officials have privately hinted they are open to providing tens of billions of dollars in relief to states. 

The funding boost would be part of a bipartisan deal with Democrats that would come even as Trump has been reluctant to such funding, and as conservative groups remain strongly opposed, Robert Costa, Jeff Stein and Seung Min Kim report.

President Trump. (Alex Brandon/AP)

States have called for a massive influx of cash. This week, the National Governors Association repeated a call for $500 billion in aid.

“Although that position is likely to anger some Republicans who have warned that Democrats want ‘blue state bailouts,’ many White House officials now believe that providing new funding to states to deal with challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic will be necessary if they want to secure their own priorities, such as tax breaks and liability protections for businesses, the people said,” they write. 

A pair of White House officials tell The Post they have told conservative allies and business leaders that the president isn’t “willing to provide a blank check” to states but is “open” to negotiating funding for states in exchange for concessions from Democrats on taxes. 

OUCH: Small medical practices are particularly struggling. 

Many are trying to stay afloat as their usual patients stay at home and postpone consultations, and as these practices fail to acquire federal loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, Rachel Weiner reports.

James Gill, president of Family Medicine at Greenhill, walks the halls of his practice in Wilmington, Del. (Rachel Wisniewski for The Washington Post)

“A survey done by a Richmond-based advocacy group for primary care doctors, called the Larry A. Green Center, found that half the doctors who sought such loans were unsuccessful,” she writes. “Of 2,774 doctors who responded to the survey, 19 percent said they had to temporarily close their practices because of financial problems; 42 percent had to lay off or furlough staff. About 10 percent say they will have to close in the next month because of financial shortfalls.” 

Some doctors hope the ongoing pandemic could highlight a problem small practices have faced for years: high overhead and stagnant insurance reimbursement. Still, some fear they may not last long enough to see any changes in how they’re valued. 

“Many physicians say their latest financial problems linked to the pandemic are only the most recent stress on a fast-vanishing model of health care in the United States as hospitals and large practices buy out independent doctors — often bringing higher costs,” Rachel writes.

Coronavirus latest

A few more stories to catch up on before the weekend: 

The economic fallout:

• American small businesses and households, many with little in savings even before the pandemic, are quickly running out of money and struggling to pay their bills, Andrew Van Dam and Heather Long report.
• The prospects of a second round of stimulus checks for Americans are uncertain, even as the president has left the door open to the possibility, Erica Werner reports.
• About 3 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week, contributing to an eight-week total of 36.5 million workers who have sought to receive the benefits, Tony Romm reports.

The Trump administration’s response: 

• Trump announced a plan to “replenish and modernize” the government’s undersupplied national stockpile of masks, ventilators and other essential medical equipment, Amy Goldstein reports.

In the states:

• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said he will lift the state’s travel ban next week. The order, which has been in place since March 30, prohibited travel out of the state and required people to self-quarantine for 14 days when entering the state, Steven Goff writes.
• Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) announced restaurants, bars and other businesses can begin reopening in 28 of the state’s 36 counties. “She rejected efforts by two counties that have experienced an increase in cases in the past two weeks, and three others continue to await approval,” Steven and Michael Brice-Saddler report. “Of the state’s 36 counties, the remaining three, which are around Portland — Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington — did not apply because of concerns about further outbreaks in the state’s most populous area.”

Sugar rush

with Tonya Riley

The lawmakers behind an ominous report about America’s lack of preparedness for a major cyberattack are hoping the coronavirus pandemic will boost their calls to overhaul the nation’s digital defenses. 

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission on March 11 released its 182-page report calling for a far more muscular stance against U.S. digital adversaries such as Russia and China and new cybersecurity executives with broad powers to cut through red tape at the White House and State Department. 

But the commission’s bold recommendations were largely lost in the shuffle two days later when President Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency and official Washington rushed to deal with the pandemic. A planned media tour by the commission’s congressional co-chairs, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), was also put on ice. 

But now that lawmakers are returning to Washington, King and Gallagher hope the pandemic is hammering home the report’s main message: The U.S. needs to prepare for a major cyberattack before it hits, not scramble after the fact. 

“I think covid has taken public attention away [from cybersecurity], but for policymakers it’s underlined the importance of having a comprehensive strategy in place and really strengthened the case for the actions we recommended,” King told me. “We’re in the middle of a crisis that has shaken people to say we can’t go back to business as usual.”

Other commission members include Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, former Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity chief Suzanne Spaulding and Tom Fanning, CEO of the Southern Company gas and electric utility. 

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). (Greg Nash/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Commissioners’ pitch before the pandemic was that they wanted to make changes on the scale of the 9/11 Commission — but before a 9/11-level cybersecurity tragedy struck. 

That argument has taken on added gravity now when Washington is hotly debating what the government was and wasn’t prepared for before the pandemic and what it should do differently next time. 

One Solarium Commission recommendation that was deemed controversial before the pandemic, for example, was to create a Senate-confirmed national cyber director in the White House controlling a large budget and dozens of staff members. Now, Republican and Democratic leaders on the Senate Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees are expressing interest in that role and may help shepherd it into law, King said. 

“You look back on the 9/11 Commission and you realize how much good work was being done [before the attack] but it was all siloed at different agencies,” Gallagher told me. “We want someone who’s in charge and coordinating efforts across the government, forcing discussions across agencies about different scenarios and how we can prepare for an attack.”

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), left. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

That’s one of several proposals King and Gallagher are pushing to include in an annual defense policy bill now being crafted on the Hill. 

The recommendation was one of several that won praise from Senate Homeland Security Committee members during a videoconference hearing about the report Wednesday. 

They also praised a recommendation that the U.S. government should state more clearly the consequences adversaries will face if they hack vital U.S. infrastructure, such as airports and the electrical grid, and that those consequences should ratchet up in times of crisis. 

That would be particularly useful during the pandemic when the FBI and DHS are warning about Chinese government-linked hackers targeting U.S. research labs working on coronavirus vaccines. 

Portions of the report also focus on making the United States less dependent on China for technology and other vital resources. 

“I think if nothing else when the dust settles on coronavirus, it will harden the hawkish consensus on China and add energy to this effort to wean ourselves off our dependency on certain things produced in China,” Gallagher said. 

More from King:

The commissioners are also preparing an addition to the report they hope to release by Memorial Day focused on lessons from the pandemic related to the report’s recommendations. 

That new material will point out ways in which the pandemic has made the United States more vulnerable to a cyberattack. Most notably, with huge numbers of Americans teleworking now, a cyberattack that compromised electricity or Internet connectivity would be especially devastating. 

“If the electric grid or our internet infrastructure was compromised, it would substantially increase the negative impact of what we’re going through,” King said. “The confluence of the virus and a potential cyberattack is truly frightening.”

The keys

The Trump administration is ratcheting up its efforts to punish Huawei by cutting it off from global computer chips. 

Workers wearing face masks fix the logo of Chinese electronics manufacturer Huawei at a mobile phone store. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

The move, announced today by the Commerce Department, expands an existing ban on some U.S. supplies going to the Chinese telecom, Reuters’s David Shepardson reports. Under the expanded rule, foreign companies that use U.S. chipmaking equipment must obtain a U.S. license before sending chips to Huawei or its affiliates. 

The new restrictions are sure to ratchet up tension with China, which Trump has sparred with during the pandemic. U.S. officials have long argued Huawei is too closely tied to the Chinese Communist Party and could be enlisted to spy for the government. They’ve lobbied allies to block the company from their next-generation 5G telecom networks. 

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) stepped down as chairman of the chamber’s Intelligence Committee, creating a major shakeup on a key cybersecurity panel.

 Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The move by Burr, who is being investigated for questionable financial transactions, creates a leadership gap while the committee is still releasing portions of its investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference. The Senate investigation, led by Burr, was widely seen as far less partisan than its House counterpart and backed up the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s interference was aimed at helping Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton. Burr subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. as a part of the investigation — a move that sparked ire from Trump loyalists.

The committee is also in the process of considering Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) to be the next director of national intelligence to replace acting director Ric Grenell, an outspoken Trump defender who has clashed with committee Democrats. 

Burr is being investigated for selling stocks before the coronavirus crashed markets. He stepped down from the chairmanship after FBI agents seized his phone as part of the investigation, Devlin Barrett, Seung Min Kim, Spencer S. Hsu and Katie Shepherd report. 

“The work the Intelligence Committee and its members do is too important to risk hindering in any way,” Burr said in a statement. “I believe this step is necessary to allow the Committee to continue its essential work free of external distractions.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has not named Burr’s successor yet but said he “agreed that [Burr’s]decision would be in the best interests of the committee.”

Democrats introduced legislation aimed at reining in how much data coronavirus contact tracing apps can collect. 

A U.K. National Health Service employee looks at a new NHS app to trace contacts with people potentially infected with the coronavirus. (Isla Binnie/Reuters)

The legislation is similar to a bill Republicans introduced last month but it puts greater emphasis on the role of states in privacy legislation. 

The lawmakers say the protections will encourage people to use the contact-tracing apps, which more than half of Americans say they won’t do now, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. An Oxford University study suggests 60 percent of a country’s population would have to use such apps for them to be effective at stopping the virus’s spread. 

The  Public Health Emergency Privacy Act would also:

• State that government agencies that don’t have a public health mandate can’t use the data
• Ensure consumers opt in before their data is collected and require companies to delete the data after the pandemic is over
• Mandate the data not be used for commercial purposes or to infringe on Americans’ civil and voting rights

The bill is sponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Reps. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) in the House. 

The Senate renewed vast government spying powers, but privacy advocates are pushing for major changes in the House.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) talks to an aide as she arrives for a vote at the Capitol. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Advocates want the House to include an amendment that would excluded warantless spying on internet and browser history from the renewed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which lapsed about two months ago and has been inactive during the pandemic. An amendment doing that failed the Senate by one vote before the bill passed 80 to 16.  

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who helped write the failed Senate amendment:

The American Civil Liberties Union Senior Legislative Counsel Neema Singh Guliani also called on the House to add the provision, saying the closeness of the Senate vote “demonstrated there is overwhelming support for protecting our internet search and browsing histories from warrantless searches.”

Securing the ballot

Expanding voting by mail and recruiting younger poll workers should be top tasks for election officials during the pandemic, a new report says.

A box of printed ballots. (Nati Harnik/AP)

States should also launch aggressive campaigns to combat voter disinformation, update election contingency plans and steer clear of online voting options, the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security recommends. The institute is also calling for increased federal funding for elections.

“Delaying the general election is untenable. Federal, state, and local leaders must begin planning today for a free, fair and safe election,” said Pitt Cyber Executive Director Beth Schwanke.

A roundup of election and coronavirus news from the states:

• Florida will accept $20 million in federal election funds to secure voting during the pandemic – the final state to formally accept the money.
• A group of senior voters is suing the Minnesota secretary of state to end a rule that would require them to have a witness for signatures on their ballots.
• A federal judge dismissed a suit that would have delayed Georgia’s July 8 primary.
• Missouri House lawmakers adopted a proposal that would allow voters to request an absentee ballot without needing a reason. The proposal still needs Senate approval.

Industry report

Taiwan’s largest chip maker will announce plans to build a factory in Arizona, helping the United States better secure technology production.

Memory modules. (SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg News)

The plant, which could open as soon 2023, could accelerate efforts by the U.S. government to reduce the reliance of American companies on Asian suppliers, Bob Davis, Kate O’Keeffe and Asa Fitch at the Wall Street Journal report. The State and Commerce departments are both involved in plans for the new plant. 

Trump has prioritized reducing U.S. reliance on Chinese goods “We shouldn’t have supply chains. We should have them all in the U.S.,” the president said on Fox Business yesterday.

But the new plant could also cause conflict with U.S. chip maker Intel, which also manufacturers in Arizona and has lobbied the Pentagon for a partnership, the Journal reports.

More cybersecurity industry news:

Global cyberspace

A cyberattack hit Britain’s energy system. 

Power lines. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News)

Key systems that govern the electricity market don’t appear to have been affected and the system administrator Exelon reported no power outages, Jillian Ambrose at the Guardian reports.

Elexon said it had “identified the root cause” of the attack and was still investigating. It didn’t name a potential culprit, but the attack comes just days after the United Kingdom’s top cybersecurity agency warned about increased hacking attempts.

More global cybersecurity news:

Chat room

Here’s some math to put the $400 million Congress granted to state and local election officials in the recent coronavirus stimulus bill in perspective: The OSET Institute’s Eddie Perez:

Daybook

• The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host an online event “Who Makes Cyberspace Safe for Democracy?” on Tuesday at 12:30 pm.
• The Senate Commerce Committee will mark up the CYBER LEAP Act on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Secure log off

One last scandal before the weekend:

with Paulina Firozi

The Environmental Protection Agency has decided against placing limits on a chemical known to cause potential brain damage in fetuses and newborns and thyroid problems in adults.

The agency won’t set limits on perchlorate, a chemical long detected in Americans drinking water.

“The move, which comes despite the fact that the EPA faces a court order to establish a national standard for the chemical compound by the end of June, marks the latest shift in a long-running fight over whether to curb the chemical used in rocket fuel,” write my colleagues Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin.

The chemical is also used in fireworks and other munitions, and planned restrictions on it announced by the Obama administration in 2011 were fought by the Defense Department and other military manufacturers.

“The decision by Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the E.P.A., appears to defy a court order that required the agency to establish a safe drinking-water standard for the chemical by the end of June,” reports the New York Times’s Lisa Friedman, who first broke the story. 

“The policy, which acknowledges that exposure to high levels of perchlorate can cause I.Q. damage but opts nevertheless not to limit it, could also set a precedent for the regulation of other chemicals, people familiar with the matter said. ”

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler. (Photo by MICHAEL REYNOLDS/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Wheeler released a statement Thursday pointing to fact that perchlorate exposures have been declining, which is largely because some states have already been regulating the chemical, according to Brady and Juliet.

“Because of steps that EPA, states and public water systems have taken to identify, monitor and mitigate perchlorate, the levels have decreased in drinking water,” Wheeler said. “This success demonstrates that EPA and states are working together to lead the world in providing safe drinking water to all Americans.”

Some activists and medical professionals have long sounded the alarm about regulating perchlorate.

Kyle Yasuda wrote to the EPA in August as then-president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the agency should crack down on the chemical.

“AAP is particularly concerned that EPA is considering withdrawing its 2011 determination to regulate perchlorate, relinquishing national oversight over a chemical with well-established health risks in drinking water,” Yasuda wrote, according to my colleagues. “This would set a precedent inconsistent with EPA’s stated mission to protect public health.”

The EPA has limited more than 90 chemicals allowed in drinking water, but there is concern about a broader class of unregulated “emerging contaminants.”

There haven’t been any new restrictions on drinking water contaminants in decades, per Brady and Juliet. “Perchlorate is the only chemical to come close to regulation since the 1990s. Time and again, regulators have backed away,” they write.

Dino Grandoni will be back on Monday. Have a safe and restful weekend.

Coronavirus fallout

National parks continue to reopen. 

Grand Canyon National Park will temporarily reopen some areas for the weekend.

A view from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park in Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

“Under the first phase, park officials said the South Rim entrance will reopen [Friday] through Monday from 6 to 10 a.m., and visitors will have limited day use access to viewpoints, picnic areas and some restroom facilities,” E&E News writes. “The east entrance to the South Rim will remain closed, along with the North Rim, which closes every winter. Officials said they are planning to increase access to the park for Memorial Day weekend.”

“This initial reopening phase will increase access to our public lands in a responsible way by offering the main feature of the park for the public, the view of the canyon, while reducing the potential exposure of covid-19 to our nearly 2,500 residents,” Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Ed Keable said in a statement.

Oil check

Oil extraction and mining small businesses reported the most success in acquiring federal loans from the Paycheck Protection Program. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Business Pulse Survey, more than half of businesses surveyed in that sector said they got PPP support, the Associated Press reports. The survey found just under half of small businesses in manufacturing said they received PPP loans. 

Storage tanks at a refinery along the Houston Ship Channel are seen with downtown Houston in the background. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Global warming watch

Understanding the psychology behind our views on the climate. 

In an interview with The Post’s Chris Mooney, Shahzeen Attari, an associate professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, talked about the psychology behind how people view the climate crisis. 

A molten salt solar thermal tower situated in the Atacama Desert in Chile. (Tamara Merino Bloch for The Washington Post)
 

She said that while individuals and their actions may not be enough, they are “required” in terms of climate change and energy use. “And I’m not just saying individuals decreasing their energy use, but individuals going from the personal, which is changing their energy use, to the societal,” she said. 

She also talked about changes that can be made – from individuals to organizations – as the world emerges from the coronavirus pandemic that can address climate change. “We have made unprecedented changes to our behavior in the past few months. This tells us that when we face a problem, we can indeed activate, even while suffering large losses,” Attari said.

A sudden pulse of warmth has hit the North Pole, a reversal from its remarkably cold winter.  

Research has pointed to more frequent warm winter events fueling sea and land ice loss in the Arctic in recent years, The Post’s Andrew Freedman reports, a result of the rapidly changing climate.

Large Icebergs float away as the sun rises near Kulusuk, Greenland. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

“Above freezing temperatures are showing up in the Central Arctic about one month earlier than average this week, according to Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at CIRES, an atmospheric research institute operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Colorado at Boulder,” he writes. 

The warmth could fire up the melt season for Arctic ice. “Scambos says the weather this week could cause the snowpack on top of the sea ice to ‘ripen’ early in the season, which would cause the snow to get some liquid meltwater in it, lowering its reflectivity, or albedo, and absorbing more incoming solar energy,” Freedman adds. 

Wildfires are burning in the Sunshine State. 

At least 5,000 acres have been burned by a pair of wildfires in Southwest Florida, forcing hundreds to evacuate. The fires also merged overnight into Thursday and as of the morning, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the combined blaze was 10 percent contained.

“Wildfires are no stranger to Florida, and they typically occur around this time of year. However, recent weather has been a major contributor to the active fire season,” The Post’s Matthew Cappucci reports. “The Sunshine State had its driest March on record, with parts of the Everglades not seeing a drop of rain all month… Much of Southwest Florida has seen temperatures running 3 to 4 degrees above average this year, sapping already thirsty vegetation of any remnant water they store. The warm temperatures stem in part from a record-warm Gulf of Mexico, which has also contributed to an active severe weather season across the South.”

A subtropical storm is likely to form off the Southeast coast this weekend. 

The European model signifies growing odds of a subtropical storm developing off the Southeast coast. (WeatherBell)

The system– which will be named Arthur if it forms – could develop east of the Carolinas this weekend. It would be the sixth straight year that a tropical or subtropical cyclone formed before the formal start of the Atlantic hurricane season. 

“There’s an outside chance the system — likely Arthur by that point — draws closer to the coastline and grazes the Outer Banks with rain squalls and gustier winds Sunday night into Monday,” Cappucci adds. “The system will not produce much in the way of significant effects farther inland.”

with Brent D. Griffiths

Customers drink at the Somewhere bar in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin yesterday. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reportedly ended Governor Tony Evers stay at home order in a four to three ruling. A number of local bars immediately opened and patrons took advantage of the ruling. (TANNEN MAURY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) 

At The White House

LITTLE AND LATE: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released some long-delayed guidelines meant to facilitate the reopening of businesses, bars, restaurants, child care centers, camps, schools and mass transit systems. But they’re coming days — even weeks in some cases — after most states began lifting restrictions. 

Surprise: The just-released “advice is less detailed than draft recommendations the agency sent to the White House for review last month,” according to our colleagues Lenny Bernstein, William Wan, Josh Dawsey, and Holly Bailey. 

The now-public checklists total only six pages — a dramatically scaled-down version from the original 63-page document initially drafted by the CDC. “The nation is still awaiting that detailed technical guidance, which the White House has held up and not shared publicly,” our colleagues report. “The delay has left the responsibility for decision-making about reopening to states and localities. It has also left many health experts clamoring for greater transparency.” 

• “We need to unleash the voices of the scientists in our public health system in the United States so they can be heard, and their guidances need to be listened to,” Rick Bright, the ousted top U.S. vaccine official, said during a House hearing yesterday.
• “And we need to be able to convey that information to the American public so they have the truth about the real risk and dire consequences of this virus.”

Guidance for churches is notably missing: “The CDC originally also authored a document for churches and other religious facilities, but that wasn’t posted Thursday. The agency declined to say why,” report the Associated Press’s Mike Stobbe and Jason Dearen, who first reported this month that the decision to shelve the more detailed guidance drafted in April came from the highest levels of the White House. 

“Early versions of the documents included detailed information for churches wanting to restart in-person services, with suggestions including maintaining distance between parishioners and limiting the size of gatherings. The faith-related guidance was taken out after the White House raised concerns about the recommended restrictions, according to government emails obtained by the AP and a person inside the agency,” per Stobbe and Dearen. “On Thursday, a Trump administration official also speaking on condition of anonymity said there were concerns about the propriety of the government making specific dictates to places of worship.”

• Guidance for faith communities has been a hotly-debated topic within the Trump administration: “Among the most contentious issues are the guidelines for faith communities and restaurants. While sharing menus, passing the offering plate and crowding members of a choir together raise the risk for transmission, some officials said the guidelines are likely to be controversial,” our colleagues Lena H. Sun and Josh Dawsey reported at the end of April.
• “Churches don’t like being told how to operate,” an administration official with knowledge of the debate told Lena and Josh at the time. “There was a decision to say ‘consider’ so we aren’t infringing. Churches aren’t going to want to give up hymnals or choirs or normal services.” And President Trump himself has been eager for churches to resume in-person worship.
• Yet places of worship could be ripe for the spread of coronavirus. Take this outbreak among a choir in Mount Vernon, Washington: “Public health officials studying the Covid-19 outbreak among members of a Washington choir found numerous ways the virus could have spread, according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” CNN’s David Williams reports. “The act of singing, itself, might have contributed to transmission through emission of aerosols, which is affected by loudness of vocalization.” 

The White House has said the initial guidelines were “overly specific” and still being revised: “A CDC spokesman said additional recommendations may still come from the agency,” our Post colleagues report. “The six decision trees were ready for release, so the administration decided to put them out while other guidelines make their way through the review process.”

More roadblocks on push to release: Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)’s resolution calling for the CDC to immediately release all of the guidance documents for public consumption was blocked by Republicans on Wednesday. 

• “The country needs the guidance of the nation’s best medical and scientific experts. These literally are matters of life and death,” Schumer said. “And that’s exactly why the CDC prepared this guidance. America needs and must have the candid guidance of our best scientists — unfiltered, unedited and uncensored by President Trump or his political minions.”
• What went down: “Any individual senator can block a measure seeking to advance by unanimous consent, and Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican from Indiana, objected to the resolution Wednesday,” CNN’s Ali Zaslav reports. “He argued Schumer is just trying to add ‘bureaucratic hurdles’ to ‘shutter the economy’ using the CDC’s ‘over prescriptive guidelines.’”

And there are other edits to what was released publicly: “The decision tools have been undergoing review by different federal officials, and they’ve been edited from earlier versions,” the AP reports. “For example, an earlier draft of the one-page document on camps obtained by the AP asked organizers if their program would limit attendance to people who live nearby. If the answer was no, the camp was advised not to reopen. That local attendance limitation was dropped and was not in the version posted Thursday.”

• More: “And in that document and others, language has been dropped that asked if the organization is in a community that is still requiring significant disease mitigation. If the answer was yes, the organization was advised not to reopen.”
• “Many of the changes provide more wiggle room than what was in the initial versions: For example, in the document for people who run child care centers, the older version obtained by the AP stated that CDC recommended ‘checking for signs and symptoms of children and staff.’ The new guidelines add ‘as feasible’ to the end. Similar new language about feasibility appears in sections about promoting healthy hygiene such as hand washing and employees wearing cloth masks.”

States have been forced to make tough decisions. While the White House issued safety benchmarks in mid-April that states should meet to initiate a gradual reopening, the president’s calls for the country to reopen quickly and the lack of detailed guidelines has caused confusion. The situation is especially dramatic in states in which Republican legislators have been resistant to coronavirus restrictions implemented by Democratic governors. 

• In Wisconsin, for example: “Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers warned Thursday of ‘massive confusion’ after the state Supreme Court tossed out the Democrat’s stay-at-home order and Republicans said they may leave it up to local governments to enact their own rules for combating the coronavirus pandemic,” the AP’s Scott Bauer and Todd Richmond report.
• “The court’s order threw communities into chaos, with some bars opening immediately while local leaders in other areas moved to keep strict restrictions in place to prevent further spread of the virus,” they write. “If Wisconsin is to have a statewide plan, Evers will have to work with the same Republicans whose lawsuit resulted in Wednesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. After a Thursday meeting with Evers, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the two sides may not be able to reach agreement and that a statewide policy might not be needed.”

Stylist of the ‘Top Star Hair Salon’ work at their re-opened hair salon in Downtown West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 11 May 2020. (CRISTOBAL HERRERA/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) 

And most states are broadly not meeting the government’s initial benchmarks for reopening, as our colleague Paige Winfield Cunningham has reported, which specify that states should see a “sustained reduction” of confirmed infections for 14 days before “proceeding to a phased comeback” or a reduction in positive tests as a percentage of total daily tests. 

• Only North Dakota and Kentucky have met the federal criteria for starting to end shutdowns, per former health wonks from the Obama and Trump administrations who are color-coding all 50 states to indicate how well they’re fighting coronavirus, as Paige reported yesterday. (North Dakota began reopening on May 1; Kentucky is starting to reopen next week.)

All this means businesses looking ahead are taking matters into their own hands. McDonald’s has issued a longer reopening guide than the one released by the federal government: The company “asking restaurant owners in the U.S. to make dozens of changes to ease coronavirus concerns before reopening their dining rooms, including commitments to clean bathrooms every half-hour and digital kiosks after each order,” per the The Wall Street Journal’s Heather Haddon. “The world’s largest fast-food company by sales is also asking its hundreds of U.S. franchisees to enforce social distancing in its restaurants, and either close their public soda fountains or deploy a staff member to monitor them, according to a 59-page dine-in reopening guide.” 

• “The illustrated guide, written by the company last week, outlines the challenges that McDonald’s expects employees to face as states begin to allow for sit-down restaurant service while upholding social-distancing rules … The guide also shows how complex — and expensive — reopening dining areas will be and raises questions about the cost structure of that business for franchisees while concerns about the pandemic remain.”
• “New purchasing recommendations, including foot-pulls to allow customers to open bathroom doors without using their hands, could lead to new expenses and logistical considerations for McDonald’s hundreds of U.S. restaurant owners, franchisees said. The guide includes a list of products such as a $310 automatic towel dispenser and a $718 touchless sink. All service workers also need to be outfitted with masks and gloves, and restaurants need to make face shields available for customers in jurisdictions requiring them.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

On The Hill

HOUSE SET TO VOTE ON LATEST STIMULUS PACKAGE: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is projecting confidence that the House will pass Democrats’ massive coronavirus relief bill [later today], even as she and her leadership team are still working to secure the votes,” Politico’s Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle report.

• Senate Republicans have deemed the legislation DOA: “Both liberals and centrists in the caucus are grumbling about the roughly $3 trillion measure. House Republicans have overwhelmingly said they oppose the bill, and some Democrats are unable to travel to the Capitol to vote amid the pandemic, leaving Pelosi and her whip operation with tight margins to clear the bill,” Politico reports.

The White House might be changing its tune on state aid: “White House officials have privately signaled that they are willing to provide tens of billions of dollars in relief to states as part of a bipartisan deal with Democrats in the coming weeks, despite President Trump’s reluctance and strong opposition from conservative group,” Robert Costa, Jeff Stein and Seung Min Kim report.

• The thinking is this is the only way the GOP will get what it wants: “Many White House officials now believe that providing new funding to states to deal with challenges related to the pandemic will be necessary if they want to secure their own priorities, such as tax breaks and liability protections for businesses.”

The People

OUSTED VACCINE OFFICIAL TORCHES ADMINISTRATION’S RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC: “[Rick Bright] and an executive of a medical mask maker in Texas each told Congress they believe lives were lost because of missteps by the Trump administration in its early handling of the coronavirus pandemic,” Aaron C. Davis, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Felicia Sonmez and John Wagner report.

• What else Rick Bright told Congress: “Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint after he was removed from a senior post at the Department of Health and Human Services last month, said his superiors dismissed urgent warnings in January and early February about an impending shortage of N95 respirator masks,” our colleagues write.

For a few hours, the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority captivated Washington: “[His] testimony represented a critical moment in the virus crisis: He’s the first federal health official to publicly criticize the Trump administration so harshly, and in such detail, given his prominent position in the biomedical world,” Politico’s Sarah Owermohle and Dan Diamond report.

Other key takeaways from Bright’s testimony, per our colleague Aaron Blake:

• Early inaction cost lives and led to reliance on substandard gear: “And not only that: We were forced to procure these supplies from other countries without the right quality standards,” Bright said. “Some of those masks are only 30 percent effective. Therefore, nurses are rushing in the hospitals thinking they’re protected, and they’re not.”
• The administration pushed unproven drugs: “I believe part of the removal process for me was initiated because of a pushback that I gave when they asked me to put in place an expanded access protocol that would make chloroquine more freely available to Americans that were not under the close supervision of a physician and may not even be confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus.”
• Getting a vaccine quickly will be tough: “I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule, and I think it’s going to take longer than that to do so.”

Trump and other top Republicans teed off on Bright: HHS Secretary Alex Azar lit into Bright outside the White House, telling reporters “everything he talked about was done” and questioned why Bright, who was reassigned to a National Institutes of Health, was not at work. Bright said he had been on sick leave and was using vacation time to testify.

• The president attacked him on Twitter: “I don’t know the so-called Whistleblower Rick Bright,” Trump tweeted, “never met him or even heard of him, but to me he is a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to and who, with his attitude, should no longer be working for our government!”

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) leaves the Capitol on Thursday. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

The Investigations

BURR STEPS DOWN AS INTEL CHAIR: “A burgeoning insider trading investigation scrutinizing members of the U.S. Senate led the chairman of its Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, to step down after FBI agents seized his cellphone, seeking evidence related to stock sales he made before the coronavirus pandemic crashed global markets,” Devlin Barrett, Seung Min Kim, Spencer S. Hsu and Katie Shepherd report.

• Other senators are talking to law enforcement: “Aides to Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) acknowledged that the senators had been in contact with federal law enforcement. Feinstein had been questioned by FBI agents about stock sales, which she has said were done by her husband and without her knowledge, a spokesperson said. Loeffler’s office acknowledged she had turned over documents related to stock sales she says she did not actively participate in.”

FBI agents received approval from the “highest levels” of DOJ before serving the warrant for Burr: The bureau served Burr’s lawyer “and then went to Burr’s Washington-area home to take possession of the device,” our colleagues write. “Investigators also obtained a search warrant to examine data in the senator’s cloud storage for his iPhone.” 

Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn leaves the federal courthouse in Washington in 2018. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/File/AP)

The Campaign

TRUMP TURNS TO FLYNN THEORY TO BASH OBAMA: “The president’s government appointees and allies in Congress are using their powers to generate a political storm aimed at engulfing [Joe] Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and [former president] Obama, who polls show is the nation’s most popular political figure, making him a potent threat to Trump as a Biden surrogate,” Philip Rucker, Matt Zapotosky, Robert Costa and Shane Harris report.

• The focus on unmasking is central to this: Acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell went to the Justice Department’s headquarters last week to personally deliver “a list he had declassified of former Obama administration officials, including [Biden], who had sought to remove the cloak of anonymity from references in intelligence documents that turned out to be of Flynn,” our colleagues write.
• Unmasking is commonplace in government: “But in the case of Flynn, Trump and his allies used the list of names to claim Obama, Biden and their appointees deliberately sought to sabotage the incoming Trump administration as part of a long-running conspiracy they have dubbed ‘Obamagate.’”

The ultimate goal: “Rewrite the history of the Russia investigation as Trump has long sought, by casting Flynn as a martyr wronged by nefarious bureaucratic elites,” our colleagues write.

In the Media

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Trump organization has received at least $970,000 in taxpayer money for room rentals: “The payments create an unprecedented business relationship between the president’s private company and his government — which began in the first month of Trump’s presidency, and continued into this year, records show,” David A. Fahrenthold and Joshua Partlow report.

Developing countries could be devastated by covid-19’s aftermath: “The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic may prove more devastating than the disease itself for the world’s poorest countries as the global economy hurtles into recession, people lose jobs by the hundreds of millions and the risk of hunger grows, U.N. officials and aid experts fear,” Liz Sly reports from Beirut.

Pompeo keeps declining Senate run: “Trump recently encouraged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reconsider running for the U.S. Senate in Kansas but Pompeo rebuffed the request,” Josh Dawsey and John Hudson report. The state’s filing deadline is June 1 and Republicans are afraid that former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach would be so unpopular that the seat might flip and potentially hand Democrats the majority.