Archives for the month of: April, 2020

The Trump administration is the most anti-science federal government in modern history. In every department and agency, Trump minions have pushed out scientists and replaced them with religious fanatics, Trump loyalists, or incompetents, is some combination thereof.

Vicki Cobb, author of science books for children, explains here why science matters.

She begins like this:

This quote from the Washington Post is very frightening, “In recent days, a growing contingent of Trump supporters have pushed the narrative that health experts are part of a deep-state plot to hurt Trump’s reelection efforts by damaging the economy and keeping the United States shut down as long as possible. Trump himself pushed this idea in the early days of the outbreak, calling warnings on corona virus a kind of “hoax” meant to undermine him.”

For these ignorant people let me try to explain the most important aspect of science as far as life and death is concerned. Our understanding of weather and violent storms has been growing incrementally and exponentially over the years. First, we used science to understand the properties and behavior of water and air– the physical components of weather. We had to understand the effect of temperature on the volume and pressure of gases, the effect of heat energy on the evaporation of water and wind speed. There were many variables to measure.

Jesse Drucker of the New York Times writes that the federal stimulus bill will bestow a bonanza on the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations. While millions of Americans are jobless, and countless small businesses are facing bankruptcy, the 1% are scooping up unearned benefits, thanks to the unscrupulous strategies of Senate Republicans.

Drucker writes:


As the federal government dispenses trillions of dollars to save the economy, small businesses and out-of-work individuals are jostling to grab small slices of aid before the funds run out.

But another group is in no danger of missing out: wealthy individuals and big companies that are poised for tax windfalls.

As part of the economic rescue package that became law last month, the federal government is giving away $174 billion in temporary tax breaks overwhelmingly to rich individuals and large companies, according to interviews and government estimates.

Some of the breaks apply to taxes have long been in the cross hairs of corporate lobbyists. They undo limitations that were imposed to rein in the giveaways embedded in a $1.5 trillion tax-cut package enacted in 2017. None specifically target businesses or individuals harmed by the coronavirus.

One provision tucked into the federal economic-rescue law increases the amount of deductions companies are permitted to take on the interest they pay on large quantities of debt. Only companies with at least $25 million in annual receipts can qualify for that break.

Another change lets people deduct even more of their businesses’ losses from any winnings they reaped in the stock market, sharply reducing what they owe in capital gains taxes. Only households earning at least $500,000 a year — the top 1 percent of American taxpayers — are eligible.

And yet another provision in last month’s rescue package allows companies to deduct losses in one year against profits that they earned years earlier. The tax break most likely won’t put any extra cash directly into the hands of companies hit by the current crisis for at least a year.

The bottom line is that, barely two years after congressional Republicans and President Trump lavished America’s wealthiest families and companies with a series of lucrative tax cuts, those same beneficiaries are now receiving a second helping.

Many of the tax benefits in the stimulus are “just shoveling money to rich people,” said Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of California, Irvine. While the 2017 tax-cut package was a bonanza for big companies and wealthy individuals, in order to keep the law’s overall costs down it imposed a number of restrictions on who could take advantage of certain tax breaks and how much those taxpayers could reap.

Now, with the 2020 stimulus package, Congress has temporarily repealed a number of those limitations.

“Under the cover of the pandemic, they are undoing the perfectly sensible limitations” that moderated the size of the 2017 tax cuts, said H. David Rosenbloom, a corporate tax lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale and head of the international tax program at New York University’s law school. “And taking into account the giveaways in that act, it’s a joke.”

The new law temporarily undoes a restriction on companies using losses in one year to obtain refunds for previous profitable years. Big companies, including Morgan Stanley, have lobbied on related issues as recently as this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Senator Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, defended the changes. The stimulus law “threw a much-needed financial lifeline to businesses of all sizes, types and industries to give them the best chance to survive,” he said. He added, “The attempt to paint these bipartisan tax provisions as a boon for particular industries or investors completely misses the mark.”

One of the breaks temporarily rolls back the 2017 restriction on how much debt some companies can deduct from their taxes. That restriction was the subject of lobbying for the last two years by big companies, including Coca-Cola and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, according to federal lobbying records. The National Association of Manufacturers, whose board includes executives from Exxon Mobil, Raytheon, and Caterpillar, has pushed lawmakers for similar changes.

Earlier this month, the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan congressional body, found that the two other breaks — those that allow people to deduct only-on-paper losses from their tax bills — would go largely to people making at least $1 million a year.

That analysis came in response to requests by the Democratic lawmakers Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. On Tuesday, Mr. Doggett introduced legislation that would roll back major chunks of the tax breaks. Among other things, it would no longer let people who earn more than $500,000 to immediately deduct all of that year’s business losses from their capital gains.

“Tax giveaways for a wealthy few shouldn’t have come near a coronavirus relief bill,” said Senator Whitehouse, who plans to introduce a Senate version.

The biggest tax break permits wealthy investors in, say, the real estate or energy businesses to use only-on-paper financial losses — such as from writing down, or depreciating, the value of assets — to reduce the taxes they owe on profits from stock market investments.

The New York Stock Exchange. One element of the economic rescue package lets people deduct their businesses’ losses from any winnings they reaped in the stock market, sharply reducing what they owe in capital gains taxes.

The New York Stock Exchange. One element of the economic rescue package lets people deduct their businesses’ losses from any winnings they reaped in the stock market, sharply reducing what they owe in capital gains taxes.

The provision does not single out real estate. But the industry is well known for generating tax losses from depreciation even in profitable years.

The 2017 tax-cut law limited the ability to use those losses. A married couple could shelter only the first $500,000 of their nonbusiness income — such as capital gains from investments — in the year that the loss was generated. Any leftover losses would be rolled over into future years.

The stimulus undoes those restrictions for this year and, retroactively, for 2018 and 2019 — meaning that wealthy households will be able to shield far more of their capital gains from taxation.

The 2017 law also restricted the ability of companies to use so-called net operating losses — which are losses that companies report on their tax returns, even if they are otherwise profitable — to reduce their tax bills. (Net operating losses can include expenses that are only for tax purposes and that don’t reduce profits reported to shareholders.) No longer could such losses from one year be used to retroactively cancel out profits accumulated in previous years, thus generating tax refunds.

The new law temporarily undoes that restriction, enabling companies to use losses in one year to get refunds for previous profitable years.

Big companies, including Morgan Stanley, have lobbied on issues relating to such tax losses as recently as the first few months of this year, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Among the problems with this tax break, critics say, is that it isn’t aimed at the companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Under the new law, companies that will suffer big losses in 2020 won’t be able to use those losses to obtain refunds until they file their tax returns at least a year from now.

The provision will quickly put cash into a company’s pockets if it had tax losses from 2019 or earlier — well before the pandemic — that can be applied against profits from preceding years.

“There’s no reason to send money in a blanket form to all the companies that have net operating losses,” said Mr. Fleischer. “We have some amazingly successful companies that don’t pay tax and have net operating losses, and there’s no reason to be subsidizing these companies or expect that money will find its way down to the employees.”

The tax breaks for companies that report losses are likely to be especially lucrative because the 2017 tax law created new deductions that could generate large paper losses — for tax purposes only — for otherwise profitable companies in 2018 and 2019. For example, the 2017 law permitted companies to fully write off certain types of investments in the first year, instead of stretching those deductions over several years. That, in turn, meant companies could report profits to their shareholders but losses on their tax returns.

A third break, worth more than $13 billion over a decade, temporarily loosens 2017 restrictions on how much interest big companies can deduct on their tax returns. Private equity firms, which rely on borrowed money to generate big profits, have been urging the Treasury Department to write favorable rules governing the restrictions on how much interest on their debt companies can deduct from taxes.

The private equity industry is poised to benefit from the rescue package. Companies with at least $25 million in annual revenue are now eligible to deduct more interest from their tax bills — a change that will make the private-equity business model even more lucrative. Private equity firms amplify their profits by using borrowed money to finance their investments. Deducting even more of the interest on that debt from their taxes would further boost their profits.

The tax break “allows private equity to swoop in and scoop up struggling businesses,” said Matthew Rappaport, a tax lawyer who specializes in private equity at Falcon Rappaport & Berkman in New York.

Jesse Drucker is an investigative reporter for the Business desk. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News where he won a pair of awards in 2011 for investigative and explanatory reporting from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for a series on how U.S. multinationals shift profits into tax havens. @JesseDrucker

What happens now to students in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic?

Here is an open letter to Mayor DeBlasio and Chancellor Carranza from the city’s leading advocates for children:

April 24, 2020

Dear Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza,

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the ugliest inequities in our society into the glaring light for all to see. We must not continue the same system that resulted in these inequities, but must instead fundamentally change the way we think about our education, our society, and the world. In addition to the enormous number of lives lost and many more having fallen ill, New York City’s most vulnerable families and communities are suffering the ripple effect of harm caused by decades of segregation and systemic disinvestment in historically marginalized communities. Schools, which have increasingly carried the burden of serving the basic needs of families, have seen perhaps the most intense upheaval in day to day practices. This upheaval has been particularly hard on our most marginalized communities: multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and those living with housing instability.

The transition to “remote learning” has exposed and exacerbated existing gaps in access and opportunity for students across New York City. The Department Of Education launched an extensive effort to get devices and wifi access to every student, yet the remaining technical disparities alone warrant complete restructuring of the way students are evaluated towards a more humane grading system. To adhere to traditional grading at this moment would only serve to perpetuate the real impacts of pandemic-related stress, racial and economic disparities, and the fact that most teachers were not and still are not adequately prepared to provide high-quality instruction remotely.

Clearly, we are at a moment of global and local transformation. We need to respond and transform as well—by embracing responsive teaching and grading that honors and embodies the principles of equity and excellence as espoused by the DOE. A system-wide policy on grading and promotion grounded in equity and humanity is critical.

To that end, we propose the following for all NYC district schools in the 2019-20 school year and students who are alternately assessed in the 2020-21 school year:

Instruction during the school shutdown should be built around social cohesion, critical consciousness, social-emotional support, belonging, inclusion, and wellness.
Schools provide a responsive curriculum with space for students to reflect on their current reality. Teachers will co-develop learning targets/goals with students and families and pathways to achieve those goals through individualized learning plans. These plans will be prioritized for vulnerable students for next school year, based on core competencies and the four principles outlined in NYSED CRSE framework. All students on alternate assessment must be re-evaluated when schools reopen next year.

2. All seniors graduate.

Provide post-graduation and college transition support and planning for graduating seniors. Provide summer instruction to seniors who need to complete work from prior terms so they can graduate in August. Allow 21-year-old students who have not met graduation requirements to return to high school for the 2020-21 school year.

3. All students are promoted to the next grade.

Teachers identify essential skills and knowledge from their 2019-20 courses to be spiraled into the next level course/grade. DOE provides resources and a platform for summer learning courses that is accessible to all students to ensure continuity of learning. Schools conduct diagnostic assessments in person and when it is safe to do so to determine students’ progress, and plan curriculum and supports accordingly. Diagnostic test results should not be used as a tracking function in which vulnerable students are subjugated and inequalities are further exacerbated. This policy will not supersede individual parent choices to hold students back.

4. All elementary school students receive narrative reports only for the marking period (no grades).

Narrative reports communicate important information to students, families and next year’s teachers while maintaining a focus on learning.

5. All middle and high school students receive full credit for the marking period.

Assessment of assignments during remote learning is based on mastery of core competencies, rather than on compliance/completion factors. Students receive intensive supports over the summer and next school year to progress academically.

We believe quickly resolving the promotion and grading policies can help educators and the DOE focus on responding to the immediate needs of students and investing in long term strategies to support students in the coming school year. Moving forward, we hope we can deepen the conversation on what the purpose of schooling and education should be, what we should value and elevate, what we can eliminate, and how to create a school system that is authentically rooted in social justice values. This pandemic is an opportunity to dismantle systems of oppression and build a society that honors our collective humanity. We look forward to creating this school system with you.

cc: L. Chen, Chief Academic Officer

J. Williams, Public Advocate

C. Johnson, Speaker, City Council

Signed by: (organizational affiliation for identification purposes only):

Mark Treyger, Chair, City Council Education Committee

Advocates for Children New York City

Alliance for Quality Education (AQE)

Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)

Class Size Matters

Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)

D30 Equity Now

El Puente

Good Shepherd Services

Immigrant Social Services (ISS)

INCLUDEnyc

IntegrateNYC

Literacy Trust

Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative (EJ-ROC) at NYU Metro Center

Masa

Mekong NYC

MinKwon Center for Community Action

New Settlement Parent Action Committee (PAC)

New York Immigration Coalition

NYC Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ)

Parents Supporting Parents

Peer Health Exchange New York City

Read Alliance

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA)

The Child Center of NY

YVote/Next Generation Politics

Shannon R. Waite, PEP Mayoral Appointee

Shino Tanikawa, CEC 2

Ushma Neill, CEC 2

Robin Broshi, CEC 2

Emily Hellstrom, CEC 2, Chair Students with Disabilities Committee

Kaliris Y. Salas-Ramirez, CEC 4

Pamela Stewart, President CEC 5

Ayishah Irvin, CEC 5

Tanesha Grant, CEC 5

Aide Zainos, President, CEC 9

Thomas Sheppard, CEC 11

Ayanna Behin, President CEC 13

Tajh Sutton, President CEC 14

Yuli Hsu CEC 14 Vice President

Camille Casaretti, President CEC 15

Antonia Ferraro Co-Vice President CEC15

Nequan McLean, President, CEC 16

Erika Nicole Kendall, President CEC 17

Jessica Byrne, President CEC 22

Tazin Azad, CEC 22, Diversity and Cultural Inclusion Committee Co-Chair

Jonathan Greenberg, CEC 30

Martha Bayona, CEC 32

Amy Ming Tsai, CCD75

Grisel Cardona, CCD75

Sonal Patel, D2 parent, SLT member at PS 11

Mar Fitzgerald, D2 Parent Leader

Patricia Laraia, D2 Parent Leader

Nina Miller, D2 Parent Leader

Akeela Azcuy, D2 Parent Leader

Nina Miller, D2 Parent Leader

Cheryl Wu, D2 Parent Leader

Jeannine Kiely, D2 Parent Leader

Atina Bazin, D28 Parent Leader

Rashida Harris, D4 Parent Leader

Amy Hsin, Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College, CUNY

_._,_._,_

This letter was written by Rev./Dr. Anika Whitfield of Grassroots Arkansas:


The LRSD should not and must not force employees to report to work against the wisdom of the CDC, national standards and criteria during this pandemic. LRSD paraprofessionals should not have to ignore their own health concerns for themselves, their families, and their communities to prevent job or compensation loss. The work the LRSD is requiring employees to report to is not urgently life saving, nor urgently life preserving. In fact, it could be a death sentence not just for the employees who report to work, but for their families and community.

The LRSD and the state of Arkansas should and must provide safer, more responsible supportive measures of assistance for front line workers and their families to provide working hours care for their under aged, unattended children.

Sincerely,

Rev./Dr. Anika T. Whitfield
Grassroots Arkansas, co-chair
Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call to Moral Revival, co-chair

Mitch McConnell is a national menace. He wants states to declare bankruptcy and break all their pension contracts. He brags about being “the Grim Reaper,” the man who kills any legislation that might help regular people.

If states are forced to go bankrupt, it will destroy the retirement security of teachers, police, firefighters, and all public sector workers.

He takes care of his fat cat donors and Wall Street and hurts the men and women that protect us and teach our children. They give their lives for us, and we must stop McConnell from hurting them.

He has stacked the federal courts with unqualified judges who are incompetents and bigots.

Amy McGrath is running against him in Kentucky in November.

She needs our help.

Mitch’s donors are giving him millions to keep their tax cuts coming.

Amy needs millions of donors to combat the influence Of the 1%.

Won’t you send her whatever you can afford?

Kentucky elected a Democratic Governor in 2018.

Now Kentucky needs to get rid of Mitch McConnell.

This is not just a Kentucky issue. Defeating McConnell is a national issue.

Please help Amy McGrath.

Blogger “Like a Renegade” observes that Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson is indifferent to the presence of COVID 19 in the prison population.

The blogger reminds the governor that prisoners interact with a large number of staff who then go out into the general population and may spread the disease.

She also points out that most inmates are in jail for a term, or for a death sentence.

The virus is no respecter of boundaries. It can be carried by cafeteria workers, guards, medical staff, police, or inmates on work release. She suggests that the indifferent, inhumane Governor Hutchinson pay attention.

Governor Hutchinson is one of those conservatives who is pro-life so long as it’s unborn.

Unless you are a policy wonk or live inside the Beltway, you probably never heard of Achieve.

Achieve is an organization that was founded in 1996 by governors and business leaders to raise academic standards and to advocate for college and career readiness. Achieve is closing its doors this summer. Is the job done or did the money run out or did people just get tired of the same old same old? Years ago, when I was on the other side, believing that standards and tests would solve all our education problems (note bene: I was wrong), I went to Massachusetts on behalf of Achieve to review the Massachusetts standards and tests, then considered the gold standard. Years later, the Common Core came along, and the state ditched its gold standard in order to get some federal Race to the Top gold.

Anyway, Achieve is closing its doors and passing the baton.

You can read about it here.

Let’s hope this means that in the midst of a global pandemic, the thought has dawned that American students are not in need of more standards, testing, and accountability.

What they need is a fresh vision of what education can be and should be.

And it won’t be found by testing kids more often.

A few months ago, William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg published their book about the importance of play, called Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive.

Checker Finn Jr. criticized their book in the conservative journal Education Next, maintaining that middle-class and affluent kids need to play, but poor kids need to keep their noses to the academic grindstone.

Doyle and Sahlberg respond to Finn in Education Next in this article.

They write in answer:

Chester E. Finn Jr.’s review in the Winter 2020 Education Next of our book Let the Children Play reveals a startling lack of knowledge of medical guidelines for children in school, including children in poverty.

Finn contends that our policy message, the need for more intellectual and physical play in school, “portends damage to children and society at least as severe as the practices the authors rightly deplore.” The reason, Finn asserts without evidence, is that playful teaching and learning “does little harm to middle-class kids,” but “for children from troubled circumstances it’s a recipe for failure.”

In fact, the exact opposite is true, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, representing the nation’s 67,000 children’s doctors, which declares in its 2012 clinical report on play and children in poverty that “the lifelong success of children is based on their ability to be creative and to apply the lessons learned from playing.”

In the report, the AAP says that “play should be an integral component of school engagement,” and “for children who are underresourced to reach their highest potential, it is essential that parents, educators, and pediatricians recognize the importance of lifelong benefits that children gain from play.” The doctors added: “It could be argued that active play is so central to child development that it should be included in the very definition of childhood. Play offers more than cherished memories of growing up, it allows children to develop creativity and imagination while developing physical, cognitive, and emotional strengths…”

Play is the learning language of children, and a critical foundation of life success. Teachers and pediatricians know that in school it can take many forms, including recess, free play and guided learning through play, playful teaching and learning and experimentation without fear of failure, and creative physical and intellectual expression through the arts and high-quality physical education. All children need it in regular doses, including and especially children in troubled circumstances.

An argument against play in school for any group of children is a reckless violation of the clinical position of America’s pediatricians and an insult to our teachers and students, and should be dismissed as such.

Game, set, match to Doyle and Sahlberg!

Trump, who is not a medical doctor, suggested at his daily campaign rally yesterday, that his experts should study the effects of ingesting disinfectants, since they are known to kill coronavirus. Or inserting ultraviolet light inside the body or staying in bright sunshine.

The manufacturer of Lysol, a leading disinfectant, released a warning to the public: Do not ingest Lysol.

Anderson Cooper asked two doctors on CNN, including Dr. Sanjay Gupta, about Trump’s recommendations, and they said no responsible doctor would consider Trump’s recommendations. COVID affects people in hot and sunny climates. Disinfectants should not be ingested.

Perhaps his cabinet or Mitch McConnell should offer themselves as subjects for a trial recommended by the man they adore.

The New York Times reported that Alex Azar, the head of Health and Human Services, had chosen a former labradoodle breeder to lead the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. No, this is not a story from the Onion.

This one takes the cake. Lincoln, said historian Doris Kearns, was surrounded by a “team of rivals.” Trump has surrounded himself with a team of incompetents.

WASHINGTON — On January 21, the day the first U.S. case of coronavirus was reported, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services appeared on Fox News to report the latest on the disease as it ravaged China. Alex Azar, a 52-year-old lawyer and former drug industry executive, assured Americans the U.S. government was prepared.

“We developed a diagnostic test at the CDC, so we can confirm if somebody has this,” Azar said. “We will be spreading that diagnostic around the country so that we are able to do rapid testing on site.”

While coronavirus in Wuhan, China, was “potentially serious,” Azar assured viewers in America, it “was one for which we have a playbook.”
Azar’s initial comments misfired on two fronts. Like many U.S. officials, from President Donald Trump on down, he underestimated the pandemic’s severity. He also overestimated his agency’s preparedness.

As is now widely known, two agencies Azar oversaw as HHS secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, wouldn’t come up with viable tests for five and half weeks, even as other countries and the World Health Organization had already prepared their own.

Shortly after his televised comments, Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. Five sources say some officials in the White House derisively called him “the dog breeder.”

Azar’s optimistic public pronouncement and choice of an inexperienced manager are emblematic of his agency’s oft-troubled response to the crisis. His HHS is a behemoth department, overseeing almost every federal public health agency in the country, with a $1.3 trillion budget that exceeds the gross national product of most countries.

Azar and his top deputies oversaw health agencies that were slow to alert the public to the magnitude of the crisis, to produce a test to tell patients if they were sick, and to provide protective masks to hospitals even as physicians pleaded for them.

The first test created by the CDC, meant to be used by other labs, was plagued by a glitch that rendered it useless and wasn’t fixed for weeks. It wasn’t until March that tests by other labs went into production. The lack of tests “limited hospitals’ ability to monitor the health of patients.

A promised virus surveillance program failed to take root, despite assurances Azar gave to Congress. Rather than share information, three current and three former government officials told Reuters, Azar and top staff sidelined key agencies that could have played a higher-profile role in addressing the pandemic. “It was a mess,” said a White House official who worked with HHS.
Officials across the government, from President Trump on down, have been blasted for America’s halting response to the pandemic. Critics inside and outside the administration say a meaningful share of the responsibility lies with HHS and Trump appointee Azar.
“You have to blame the problem on the virus, but it’s Azar’s operation,” said Lynn Goldman, the dean of the public health school at George Washington University, who has served on advisory boards of the FDA and CDC. “And the buck stops there.”
HHS declined to make Azar available for an interview. Michael Caputo, the new chief HHS spokesman, declined to answer Reuters questions about Azar’s stewardship, saying in a statement: “We are communicating to the American public during a deadly pandemic.”
DALLAS LABRADOODLES

Azar is a Republican lawyer who once clerked for the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and counts current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as a friend. Under George W. Bush, Azar worked for HHS as general counsel and deputy secretary. During the Obama years, he cycled through the private sector as a pharmaceutical company lobbyist and executive for Eli Lilly. After Trump’s first HHS secretary was forced out in a travel corruption scandal, Azar stepped in, in January 2018.

Two years later, at the dawn of the coronavirus crisis, Azar appointed his most trusted aide and chief of staff, Harrison, as HHS’s main coordinator for the government’s response to the virus.

Harrison, 37, was an unusual choice, with no formal education in public health, management, or medicine and with only limited experience in the fields. In 2006, he joined HHS in a one-year stint as a “Confidential Assistant” to Azar, who was then deputy secretary. He also had posts working for Vice President Dick Cheney, the Department of Defense and a Washington public relations company.

Before joining the Trump Administration in January 2018, Harrison’s official HHS biography says, he “ran a small business in Texas.” The biography does not disclose the name or nature of that business, but his personal financial disclosure forms show that from 2012 until 2018 he ran a company called Dallas Labradoodles.

The company sells Australian Labradoodles, a breed that is a cross between a Labrador Retriever and a Poodle. He sold it in April 2018, his financial disclosure form said. HHS emailed Reuters that the sales price was $225,000.

At HHS, Harrison was initially deputy chief of staff before being promoted, in the summer of 2019, to replace Azar’s first chief of staff, Peter Urbanowicz, an experienced hospital executive with decades of experience in public health.

This January, Harrison became a key manager of the HHS virus response. “Everyone had to report up through him,” said one HHS official.
One questionable decision, three sources say, came that month, after the White House announced it was convening a coronavirus task force. The HHS role was to muster resources from key public health agencies: the CDC, FDA, National Institutes of Health, Office of Global Affairs and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

Harrison decided, the sources say, to exclude FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn from the task force. “He said he didn’t need to be included,” said one official with knowledge of the matter.

When task force members were announced January 29, neither Hahn nor the FDA were included. Hahn wasn’t put on the task force until Vice President Mike Pence took over in February. Two of Hahn’s high-profile counterparts were on it from the start: CDC director Robert Redfield and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The HHS denied it was Harrison’s decision to leave out Hahn and the FDA, but declined to say who made the call. The agency lauded Harrison’s work on the task force.

In a statement, Hahn said the FDA was focused on the coronavirus epidemic, “not on when we were added to the task force,” and that the agency was not “excluded.”

Fauci, who has become a public face of the Trump Administration’s COVID-19 effort, said he wasn’t sure including the FDA was necessary at the start. Initially, the Chinese government was saying the virus spread through animals, not human to human, he said. “You would include the FDA when you want to expedite drugs or devices,” Fauci said.

Others said the lack of a strong FDA role early on had direct consequences. Two sources familiar with events say the White House wasn’t getting information from the FDA about the state of the testing effort, a crucial element of the coronavirus response.

Reached by phone, Harrison declined to answer Reuters’ questions. In a later statement, he did not address questions about the task force but said he was proud of his work history. “Americans would be well served by having more government officials who have started and worked in small family businesses and fewer trying to use that experience to attack them and distort the record,” he wrote.

In a statement to Reuters, Azar said Harrison has been an asset. “From day one, Brian has demonstrated remarkable leadership and managerial talents,” Azar wrote.