By Keeping Conversations Informal With Economic Panel, Trump Can Circumvent Transparency Laws

The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires outside advisory committees to hold open meetings and issue public reports, but since the conversations with members of the economic panel are being characterized as casual, they don't have to be recorded. Notably, the White House also avoided the term “committee” in its announcement. In other news on the Trump administration's to the crisis: the president's WHO decision draws backlash, Trump's former personal attorney released from prison early amid virus fears, Dr. Anthony Fauci's popularity soars, and more.

Politico: How Trump Can Skirt Transparency Rules As He Talks To Business Leaders

The White House is skirting a key transparency law in its rushed effort to tap industry leaders for advice on reopening the country — and it’s not the first time. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the initiative with much fanfare, rattling off the names of more than 200 business leaders that he said would be part of the “Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups.” He then dove into the outreach campaign Wednesday, holding four conference calls with different segments of the massive group and compiling thoughts on how to restart the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Gerstein, 4/17)

Politico: White House Taps Members Of Congress To Advise On Reopening Economy

President Donald Trump is tapping yet another group to advise him on when to re-open the economy: members of Congress. The Trump administration is inviting a bipartisan crew of lawmakers to participate in a task force to address the central question of when the country should return to normal amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (Levine, Ferris and Zonona, 4/16)

The New York Times: Tracking Trump’s Promises On Responding To The Virus

Coronavirus testing will be available in commercial parking lots and can be found through a few clicks on a website. Millions of masks and “more ventilators than we need” will be delivered imminently. Monitoring capabilities for the next phase of the pandemic are on the way. President Trump has made many promises about responding to the coronavirus crisis. But in the month since he declared a national emergency and as he encourages steps toward reopening the economy, many of them remain unfulfilled or works in progress. (Qiu, 4/16)

Politico: Bill Gates Hikes Coronavirus Contribution After Bashing Trump For Defunding WHO

The private foundation belonging to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife announced a contribution of an additional $150 million to fight the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday — hours after the billionaire philanthropist was briefly drawn into partisan sniping over President Donald Trump’s actions during the public health crisis. (Forgey, 4/16)

The Hill: Top Republicans Call On Trump To Fund WHO Pending Director-General's Resignation

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee applauded President Trump’s decision Thursday to suspend funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), calling on the administration to make the United States’s voluntary contributions to the health body contingent on the resignation of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In a letter sent to Trump on Thursday, Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Mike McCaul (R-Texas) and 16 members of the panel raised concerns over the WHO and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) initial response to the coronavirus outbreak. (Brufke, 4/16)

The Hill: Michael Cohen To Be Released Early From Prison Amid Coronavirus Pandemic: Report

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, is being released from prison early amid fears of coronavirus, according to Cohen's lawyer and others familiar with the matter, CNN reported Thursday evening. Cohen, once a staunch ally and surrogate for the president leading up to the 2016 presidential election, is serving three years in a New York federal prison after he was convicted last year of alleged financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. (Moreno, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Top Infectious Disease Doctor Inspires 'Fauci Fever'

A new condition related to the coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the United States: Fauci fever. After decades of renown in American medicine, Dr. Anthony Fauci has become an unlikely celebrity in his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he has led the medical response to COVID-19 and tried to inform an anxious nation. (Reeves, 4/16)

The Hill: Fauci: Diseases Like Coronavirus 'Don't Just Disappear'

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Thursday evening that diseases like the novel coronavirus “don’t just disappear.” Fauci was asked during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham if COVID-19 could "disappear" like SARS did in 2004. (Moreno, 4/16)

The New York Times: Nancy Pelosi, Live From Her Kitchen, Works To Counter Trump's Coronavirus Show

Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t bother watching President Trump’s lengthy daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t watch his shows,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t have time to watch him contradict himself from one day to the next.” Still Ms. Pelosi, who is now deprived of the official trappings of the Capitol with Congress in an extended virus-instigated recess, is trying to counter the president’s White House sessions with her own media blitz from her kitchen in San Francisco. (Stolberg, 4/16)

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