Coronavirus has hit Capitol Hill, as the first members of Congress have tested positive for the virus.
Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Ben McAdams (D-Utah) announced diagnoses late Wednesday. Diaz-Balart’s office said he had developed symptoms Saturday evening and was notified Wednesday of a positive test. Both had voted on the House floor as recently as Saturday morning, to pass the coronavirus relief bill.
Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah (Left), Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. (Right)
At least five other members of Congress are quarantining because they had contact with the lawmakers, including Rep. Steve Scalise, the second-highest ranking Republican in the House.
Some lawmakers had been pushing for ways to vote remotely, particularly since congressional members are disproportionately in higher-risk categories for coronavirus complications. Forty-eight senators are over the age of 65, the age at which some states have recommended individuals to stay inside their homes.
Senator Dick Durban (D-Ill.) has said “it’s time for the Senate to wake up to the 21st century and make sure we’re using technology that allows us to communicate with each other without any danger or risk to public health.”
The coronavirus outbreak has triggered a stunning collapse in the U.S. workforce, with 10 million people losing their jobs in the past two weeks. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed infections worldwide has hit 1 million, with more than 50,000 deaths, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
As President Trump prepared to meet on Friday with seven U.S. oil and gas executives at the White House, he announced today that Saudi Arabia and Russia had agreed to enormous cutbacks in their countries' crude production.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a plea to manufacturers in the state to step up and produce supplies desperately needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
The Payroll Protection Program, the centerpiece of the three small business lending programs outlined in the CARES Act, is designed to help businesses keep their employees at a time when income is mostly on pause but expenses are not.
The Democratic National Committee is delaying its convention until the week of Aug. 17. The move comes after prospective nominee Joe Biden said he didn't think it was possible to hold a normal convention in July because of the coronavirus.
The automaker revealed that it will be able to produce 50,000 ventilators in the next 100 days. The ventilators' design has been simplified by the private medical company Airon for easy set-up and quick usage in emergency settings.
It’s April 1, and if you rent your home, chances are good that your rent is due today. But with millions of Americans out of work due to coronavirus, those regular bills are even harder to manage.
President Donald Trump is resisting calls to issue a national stay-at-home order to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. This is despite his administration's projections that tens of thousands of Americans are likely to be killed by the disease.
In a letter to CEOs of DoorDash, Grubhub, Instacart, and Uber, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on the employers to provide gig workers with "basic rights and protections" as they perform "essential delivery work."
