Welcome to Monday, August 10th, upper and lower chambers...

President Donald Trump has bypassed a deadlocked Congress and asserted executive powers by signing four actions aimed at extending coronavirus relief benefits that expired recently.

The executive actions include:

• Authorizing the Other Needs Assistance Program for Major Disaster Declarations Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019
• Deferring Payroll Tax Obligations in Light of the Ongoing COVID-19 Disaster 
• Fighting the Spread of COVID-19 by Providing Assistance to Renters and Homeowners 
• Continued Student Loan Payment Relief During the COVID-19 Pandemic

At a signing ceremony Saturday, the president said:

“In the current negotiations, we have repeatedly stated our willingness to immediately sign legislation providing expanded unemployment benefits, protecting Americans from eviction, and providing additional relief payments to families. Democrats have refused these offers; they want to negotiate. What they really want is bailout money for states that are run by Democrat governors and mayors, and that have been run very badly for many, many years—and many decades, in fact.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she agreed with Sen. Ben Sasse’s (R-NE) comments that President Trump’s actions are “unconstitutional slop” that are also weak:

“While it has the illusion of saying we’re going to have a moratorium on evictions, it says I’m gonna ask the folks in charge to study if that’s feasible. While he says he’s going to do the payroll tax, what he’s doing is undermining Social Security and medicare, so these are illusions.”

Do you support or oppose President Trump’s executive actions to extend coronavirus relief?

For a politics-free guide to how to protect you and your loved ones from corona, click on over to our Coronavirus Info Center.

On the Radar

Foreign Interference in 2020 Elections

National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) Director William Evanina on Friday released a statement updating the American public about foreign efforts to interfere in the 2020 election and the intentions and activities of those adversaries.

Evanina’s statement explained that the intelligence community (IC) will continue to provide updates with information about foreign threats to the election in addition to its other ongoing efforts to ensure the security of the election: 

“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the elections, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran.”

Are you concerned about foreign interference in the 2020 elections?

Under the Radar

Economy Gained 1.8 Million Jobs in July

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday released its jobs report for July 2020, which found that the U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs in July and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2%, a 0.9 percentage point decline. The number of jobs added in July beat a Dow Jones forecast of 1.48 million jobs. 

July’s jobs report is the third consecutive month of larger than expected gains and builds on the 2.7 million jobs added in May and the 4.8 million jobs added in June―both of which broke the previous historical record for monthly jobs added (1.1 million in September 1983). 

The economy lost 22.2 million jobs in March and April due to lockdown measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), so the three month run of 9.3 million job gains represent about 42% of those that were lost.

How do you feel about the July jobs report?

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And, in the End...

It's Smithsonian Day.

On this date in 1846, Congress chartered The Smithsonian Institution. The "Nation's Attic" can be credited to British scientist Joseph Smithson.

In 1826, Smithson wrote in his will that should his nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.”

May you women and men increase and diffuse your knowledge today,

—Josh Herman

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