House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urged her members to insist on enactment of a next coronavirus bill along the lines of the HEROES Act to "open our economy with testing and put money in the pockets of America's working families," saying while Republican senators want a pause in relief, "the virus doesn't pause, unemployment doesn't pause, hunger doesn't pause — and neither should we."

The Speaker has been making that case for weeks, but was more emphatic in the "Dear Colleague" letter, perhaps reflecting the virus's persistence in parts of the nation. "We pray for a vaccine and a cure but are months away from such relief from COVID-19. We do have testing, tracing, treatment and isolation to curb the spread of the virus and have a moral responsibility to engage in such practices," she said.

At noon today (June 16), President Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks and sign an Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. Speaker Pelosi suggested on CNN last night that one measure of whether a police reform measure is sufficient is a ban on chokeholds.

Today's Wall Street Journal reported increasing support for Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and James Lankford's (R-OK) proposal to increase the CARES Act $300 charitable deduction, regardless of whether taxpayers itemize their deductions, to 1/3 of the standard deduction: to up to $4,000 for an individual's and $8,000 for married couples for the remainder of 2020.

In the 'brighter horizons' category, the BBC reported this morning "The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say."

Less bright: a front-page Washington Post story saying, "infections continued to rise in many parts of a divided nation on Monday, with public health recommendations under attack from communities tired of staying home and officials eager to restart local economies."

Infrastructure

Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration "is preparing a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure proposal as part of its push to spur the world's largest economy back to life," addressing traditional infrastructure work, like roads and bridges, but also 5G wireless infrastructure and rural broadband, and President Trump is scheduled to discuss rural broadband access at a White House event on Thursday. On Wednesday, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee will mark up a nearly $500 billion/five years surface transportation bill; the current authorization expires September 30.

Tax regulations in and out of OIRA

Newly listed as under review by the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) are Final Rules Regarding Business Interest Limitation Under Section 163(j) [TCJA] and Proposed Rules on the Limitation on Deduction for Business Interest Expense [TCJA].

OIRA has completed its review of final regulations under IRC Section 250, relating to the foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) provision and the global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) provision. OIRA reported the review process as concluded June 12 and designated "consistent with change," which Tax Notes noted is for "regulations that are generally approved but subject to some substantive changes during the review process."

Biden tax plans

There has been renewed attention on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's tax proposals in light of the proximity of the presidential election, Biden's poll numbers in battleground states and associated new fundraising totals (the campaign reported an $81 million take in May after lagging far behind President Trump in campaign contributions). Most of Biden's tax proposals were rolled out in scattershot fashion late in 2019. The American Enterprise Institute said yesterday that Biden's pro­posals would raise federal revenue by $3.8 trillion over the next decade (2021-30).

House Coronavirus Select Committee seeks PPP documents

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis sent letters yesterday to Treasury, the Small Business Administration and eight national banks seeking documents and information on how funds have been spent under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Chairman Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and the Subcommittee's Democratic members also urged steps to ensure that remaining PPP funds are allocated to businesses "truly in need" and to increase the program's transparency. The panel requested documents be submitted by June 29. The Subcommittee cited reports that "large banks created two-tier systems for processing PPP loan applications that benefit wealthy existing clients at the expense of truly struggling small businesses in underserved communities, and that the Trump Administration's guidance on PPP 'did not fully align with' the law passed by Congress." The members said the CARES Act "specifically encouraged SBA to issue guidance 'to ensure that the processing and disbursement of covered loans prioritizes small business concerns and entities in underserved and rural markets,'" but the guidance doesn't mention prioritizing such loans.

The panel also called for the administration to release the names of all PPP borrowers, saying disclosure was already the SBA's policy for similar loan programs, and said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had no basis to claim recently that borrowers' names are proprietary or confidential. On Friday (June 12), Speaker Pelosi said, "The administration's decision to hide basic PPP loan data is a disturbing sign of its lack of concern for who gets this funding, how much they receive or why. The administration must immediately reverse this decision and uphold its obligation to release this data." Bloomberg reported that as of Friday, PPP loans had been approved for almost 4.6 million small businesses totaling $512.3 billion, with about $130 billion in funding remaining before the SBA stops accepting new applications on June 30, according to the agency.

Separately Monday, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) and Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) also wrote a letter to Treasury and SBA calling for more transparency in the PPP. "Given our shared responsibility to safeguard taxpayer dollars, we disagree with the decision to not release the names of businesses that received PPP loans. At a minimum, we owe the American people that information," they wrote. A spokesman for Senate Small Business Committee Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Monday, "Chairman Rubio plans to work closely with SBA and Treasury to ensure enough data is disclosed about the program to determine its effectiveness and ensure there is adequate transparency without compromising borrowers' proprietary information." On Monday morning, Secretary Mnuchin said he will engage with talks with Rubio's committee on how to address the PPP transparency issue. Mnuchin tweeted, "I will be having discussions with the Senate @SmallBizCmte and others on a bipartisan basis to strike the appropriate balance for proper oversight of #ppploans and appropriate protection of small business information."

EY COVID-19 Alerts and other resources are here.

The global EY Tax COVID-19 Response Tracker has been updated through June 12.

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