- U.S.-Mexico border will be temporarily closed
- Federal tax deadline delayed until July 15
- Standardized testing requirements won’t be enforced for students in grades K-12
President Trump announced Friday that he’s temporarily closing the U.S.-Mexico border to non-essential traffic, as the U.S. and Mexico both look to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. CBS News had previously reported the restrictions, which exclude traffic for work and other essential needs.
The restrictions go into effect at midnight, but Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Border Patrol will “immediately” return all migrants attempting to cross both the Mexican and Canadian borders “without delay.”
Mr. Trump, making the announcement in a Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the White House, also announced that last night he put the Defense Production Act “into gear” to boost the production of ventilators and masks. Mr. Trump had said as recently as Thursday he would only do so if necessary, but Democrats and governors had urged him to implement the DPA, which he invoked earlier this week. Moments before the scheduled briefing, a spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Mr. Trump to implement the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of ventilators and other equipment, and the president directed someone in the room to do so immediately. Health care workers are sounding the alarm that they need more ventilators, more masks and more respirators now, not weeks or months from now.
“We have millions of masks that we’ve ordered. They will be here soon, we’re having them shipped directly to states,” the president said.
The president also announced standardized testing requirements won’t be enforced for students in grades K-12, as schools across the nation shutter due to the coronavirus pandemic. The administration is also pushing back Tax Day, to July 15.
“We’ll be stronger than ever before, and we’ve learned a lot,” the president told reporters Friday.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are meeting to discuss provisions in a bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would provide rebates of up to $1,200 for most Americans. Several Republican committee chairs are set to meet with their Democratic counterparts today, while Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow will be visiting the Capitol to discuss the legislation.
“There’s tremendous spirit to get something done, so we’ll see what happens,” Mr. Trump said Friday.
How to watch the Coronavirus Task Force briefing
While McConnell has said he wants to move at “warp speed” to negotiate and pass the bill, he is facing some opposition from members of his own party, as well as Democrats. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an ally of the president, voiced opposition to the idea of direct cash payments to Americans on Thursday.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also raised concerns in a joint statement yesterday that the proposal “is not at all pro-worker and instead puts corporations way ahead of workers.”
Dr. Deborah Birx, a point person on the Coronavirus Task Force, told reporters Friday that one “concerning trend” they’re seeing is that the mortality death rate for males seems to be twice that of females, across age groups.
The president said he doesn’t foresee a national lock down, as New York and California are doing. “I don’t think so,” Mr. Trump responded when asked about such a possibility.
Asked what his message is to Americans who are scared, the president responded that the incidence of death is low.
