Trump threatens unprecedented move to adjourn both houses of Congress
Citing the coronavirus crisis, President Trump has threatened to adjourn both houses of Congress in a bid to entice the Senate to approve more of his nominees. No U.S. president has ever forced both houses of the U.S. Congress to stop their work in this way.d
In recent years, Congress has refused to fully adjourn during most breaks precisely to prevent the president from making recess appointments. Little or no business is conducted in such “pro-forma sessions,” but they give members of both chambers of Congress the chance to go back home without going into recess. Lawmakers used the same process to thwart former President Obama’s nominees.
But Mr. Trump says he’s had enough, and warns he’ll seek to adjourn both the House and Senate if lawmakers don’t formally declare a proper recess, which would enable him to appoint some nominees without the Senate’s approval.
“Perhaps it’s never been done before, nobody’s even sure if it has, but we’re going to do it,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday.
The Constitution doesn’t spell out a unilateral power for the president to adjourn Congress. It states only that he can decide on adjournment if there’s a dispute over it between the House and Senate. Such a disagreement doesn’t now exist, nor is it likely to arise.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley tweeted that the Constitution gives a president authority in “extraordinary occasions” to convene or adjourn Congress. However, he said: “This power has never been used and should not be used now.”
Turley, the only one of four legal experts to testify on behalf of Republicans in a House impeachment hearing in early December, wrote that “a pandemic should not be an invitation for pandemonium. Indeed, we need regular order now more than ever.”
–CBS/AP
.
Rams’ Brian Allen first NFL player known to test positive
The first active NFL player known to have tested positive for COVID-19 has been revealed.
On Wednesday night, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported on “Fox Football Now” that center Brian Allen of the Los Angeles Rams tested positive for coronavirus three weeks ago. Rams coach Sean McVay confirmed the news on the program.
The team then said in a tweet that Allen was “feeling good, he’s healthy and he’s on the road to recovery.”
– Jordan Dajani, CBSSports.com
Big banks could see $71 billion in loans sour after coronavirus shock
The novel coronavirus has already caused unemployment around the U.S. to surge and the stock market to tumble. Now the pain is spreading to the banking industry, with lenders this week reporting that they expect tens of billion in loans to sour.
The nation’s four largest banks – Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo – say the financial stress caused by the pandemic could cause borrowers to default on upwards of $71 billion in debt. The disclosures came as part of the biggest banks’ quarterly earnings announcements. Profits plunged at all four banks, another sign of the nation’s financial troubles.
The banks said the projected loan losses were as of March 31 and that their estimates factor in the impact of the government’s various economic relief plans. That means the current loan-loss estimates only reflect the economic damage of the first few weeks of the coronavirus shutdown, and have probably grown in the ensuing two weeks. New York, the worst-hit state, didn’t officially shutter businesses until March 22.
16 federal inmates have died of COVID-19, BOP says
The Bureau of Prisons announced Wednesday that two more federal inmates have died of coronavirus, bringing the total to 16. One of the inmates was incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Elkton in Ohio; the other was housed at FCI Terminal Island in San Pedro, California.
CBS News has learned from a union official that another inmate died at a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, but that individual was not included in Wednesday’s BOP report.
More than 450 inmates and 280 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 nationwide, the BOP said.
The government’s penitentiary in Lompoc, California, has the most open COVID-19 cases among inmates and staff, with 91. North Carolina’s FCI Butner Medium I has 76, and FCI Elkton has 73.
United Airlines says it faced a 97% drop in demand in the first two weeks of April, compared to the same time frame in 2019
United Airlines’ president and CEO said in a joint letter to employees Wednesday that the company saw a 97% drop in demand in the first two weeks of April compared to the same time frame last year.
“Travel demand is essentially zero and shows no sign of improving in the near-term,” the pair wrote. “To help you understand how few people are flying in this environment, less than 200,000 people flew with us during the first two weeks of April this year, compared to more than 6 million during the same time in 2019, a 97 percent drop. And we expect to fly fewer people during the entire month of May than we did on a single day in May 2019.”
The company also said that while it will protect U.S. employees from involuntary furloughs and pay rate cuts through the end of September 2020, there will likely be job cuts in the months that follow.
“The challenging economic outlook means we have some tough decisions ahead as we plan for our airline, and our overall workforce, to be smaller than it is today, starting as early as October 1,” the executives wrote.
