Trump declares national emergency; House races to pass relief bill
President Trump declared a national emergency on Friday over the coronavirus pandemic and announced steps he said would speed the availability of testing, and early Saturday, the House passed a bill reflecting a deal with his administration to provide billions of dollars to help sick workers and to prop up a slumping economy.
Markets rallied on Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration, which he said would free up $50 billion for states and localities to cope with the outbreak — separate from the congressional relief measure — and which would allow the Treasury Department to delay tax filing deadlines for some individuals and businesses.
During a news conference in the Rose Garden, the president also said he would indefinitely suspend interest collections on federal student loans, although no bills would go down. And he instructed the Energy Department to buy enough oil to fill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve “to the top.”
The S&P 500 soared during the remarks and closed the day up by more than 9 percent.
At the news conference, Mr. Trump followed none of the safety protocols recommended to combat the spread of the virus, shaking hands with multiple administration officials and chief executives and sharing a microphone with them.
He said his plan would speed the ability of Americans to be tested for the virus. It includes private partnerships to speed tests to the market and a website designed by Google, where Mr. Trump said potential patients could enter their symptoms and be directed to a drive-through testing center. The president said the site would be available starting on Sunday, with the goal of allowing all Americans who needed a test to get one “very safely, quickly and conveniently.”
But later, Google appeared to cast doubt on when or even whether that would be possible. A spokeswoman said that the initiative was in its “early stages” and would first be introduced as a prototype in the Bay Area.
The president, who has claimed that anyone who wanted a test could get one, also deflected any blame for the testing delays that have hampered the government’s response.
“I don’t take responsibility at all,” Mr. Trump said.
He brushed off questions about his own possible exposure to the virus. A Brazilian official who visited him last weekend at his Mar-a-lago resort in Florida has since tested positive, but Mr. Trump said he had no symptoms and did not need to be tested. When repeatedly pressed on the matter, he said he was likely to be screened. “Fairly soon,” he said. “We’re working out a schedule.”
Yet around midnight, his physician, Sean P. Conley, said testing was “not currently indicated.”
The relief deal, whose cost is unclear, would allow for two weeks of paid sick leave and up to three months of family and medical leave for those affected by the crisis.
It provides tax credits to help small- and medium-size businesses finance the new benefit. It does not include the payroll tax suspension that Mr. Trump wants. Any such suspension could cost more than $800 billion and would not provide help to workers who lose their jobs or stop drawing salaries in the outbreak.
“We could have passed our bill yesterday,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “But we thought it would be important to show the American people — to assure the American people — that we are willing and able to work together to get a job done for them.”
The announcements came as the pandemic’s ripple effects further slowed critical sectors of the American economy and interfered with daily life.