The federal government threatens shutdown as Congress passes coronavirus stimulation legislation

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, walks to his office from the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on December 18, 2020.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Congress dangerously neared the government shutdown as lawmakers failed to put the finishing touches on Friday on a massive spending and coronavirus bailout package.

Before midnight Friday to pass a spending bill, the House put in place a two-day emergency bill to keep the government going. Legislators gave themselves roughly seven and a half hours to get it through both houses of Congress, including a Senate where a member’s objection can block its swift passage.

Heads of state and government on Capitol Hill have said for days that they are on the verge of reaching an agreement on a $ 900 billion aid proposal that would cost $ 1.4 trillion in spending. However, some new disputes have prevented Washington from sending new aid to warring Americans for the first time in nearly nine months.

On Friday afternoon, it seemed like a challenge to reach an agreement on a huge spending and pandemic relief plan, let alone keep government spending from deteriorating. While bipartisan House representatives, including minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Endorse the temporary funding bill, the Senate will pose bigger problems.

Passing a temporary spending measure known as a rolling resolution “could prove quite difficult,” Senate Republican No. 2 Republican John Thune of South Dakota told reporters Friday. To quickly approve the move, the Senate would need the support of every Senator. A handful of lawmakers have proposed halting the passage of a short-term spending bill.

Thune also signaled it could take days to iron out a definitive coronavirus relief package as millions of Americans await help.

“It comes together, it just takes time, but it’s slower,” he said. “And you know, I think we have to assume that even if a deal is announced, we will work through the weekend if it is written and edited.”

Just after 2 p.m. ET on Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Said the Chamber would be on hiatus until 5 p.m. while congressional leaders try to get a “clearer picture” of how to move forward . He urged representatives to keep Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday free.

If the legislature can approve an expenditure calculation before Monday, the damage would be limited by a failure of federal funding.

The leaders of Congress have pledged to work through the weekend and pass a bill before heading home for the vacation. The health and livelihood of millions of Americans depend on Congress sending more aid before the end of the year.

Just hours earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. described an agreement as imminent.

“The talks remain productive,” said McConnell on Friday morning. “In fact, I am now even more optimistic than last night that a non-partisan two-chamber framework for a major rescue package is very close.”

With healthcare workers receiving Covid-19 vaccinations during a crushing wave of infections across the country, federal funding is required for further distribution of the shots. The outbreak has killed more than 310,000 people nationwide as the US struggles to contain its spread.

Meanwhile, 12 million people will lose unemployment insurance the day after Christmas if Congress doesn’t extend the pandemic provisions that expanded benefits. If a federal eviction moratorium expires at the end of the month, millions are at risk of losing their homes.

While the developing $ 900 billion relief plan is designed to expand these unemployment benefits, it is currently unclear how it will address evacuation protection and any assistance to those who owe rent.

The proposal is expected to reintroduce a federal unemployment insurance surcharge of $ 300 per week. A federal payment of $ 600 a week introduced in March expired in the summer, dropping revenues by millions.

The package would include direct payments of $ 600, although it’s unclear who is eligible to receive them. Families are expected to receive $ 600 for children as well. Progressives in Congress and some Republicans have labeled the sum too low for people to come by during the pandemic, finding that lawmakers easily approved a direct payment of $ 1,200 in March.

White House advisors have stopped President Donald Trump from sending last-minute checks for up to $ 2,000 to Americans, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Attempted to approve a measure that would allow another direct payment of $ 1,200 on Friday. He called the injection of cash “the least we can do for working families”.

Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., Then objected to passing the measure on public debt concerns, arguing that tax cuts and deregulation would better serve Americans who are out of work during the pandemic. It is unclear how these measures would help people find it difficult to afford food and housing now.

The exchange highlighted the challenges that Congress will face in the coming days in both preventing a shutdown and passing a bailout package. Johnson even called the $ 900 billion package, which contains only $ 600 checks, “way too big”.

Hawley said he would block a short-term government funding bill unless he saw a final aid proposal that included direct payments.

Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Attempted to pass a proposal that would send $ 1,200 in direct payments later Friday afternoon. The Senator, backed by Senate Minority Chairman Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said, “In this time of crisis, it’s funny that our Republican friends are finding again that we are in deficit.”

Johnson disagreed again.

The Congressional relief plan would include at least $ 300 billion in small business support. It would also provide funding for the distribution and testing of Covid-19 vaccines and provide relief to hospitals.

The proposal would put money in schools and the transport sector.

A handful of problems sparked the final phase of negotiations. This includes a Federal Emergency Management Agency relief fund for states and restrictions. Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Wants to strengthen the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers during the pandemic, according to NBC News.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Said Republicans who support the provision “sabotage” President-elect Joe Biden’s ability to lead an economic recovery after taking office on Jan. 20.

“Proposals to sabotage President Biden and our nation’s economy are ruthless, false and have no place in this legislation,” she said in a statement.

In a later statement, the Chairs of House Financial Services and the Ways and Means Committee said an agreement was “in sight” before the GOP pushed for an “unacceptable provision”.

“The extreme Senate Republican call threatens to derail this much-needed move and it must be abandoned immediately so we can move forward,” said MPs Maxine Waters, D-Calif., And Richard Neal, D-Mass Statement.

A Toomey spokesperson did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on Democratic criticism.

Congress passed the $ 2 trillion CARES bill in late March, which provides solid economic support in the early stages of the pandemic. But lawmakers did not offer any new help in the months that followed, despite the ravages of the virus, financial lifelines falling by the wayside, and cracks in the economic recovery.

Democrats have pushed for significantly more relief. Calling the $ 900 billion plan a “down payment,” Biden has signaled that he will attempt to approve further aid after he takes office on Jan. 20.

McConnell pushed for new spending of only about $ 500 billion for months. Many in his party resisted putting so much money into a relief plan.

Next year, Democrats are likely to push for new aid to state and local governments who may have to lay off first responders when faced with budget crises. The GOP did not agree to send the relief without corporate liability coverage.

The leaders of Congress agreed to set both issues aside in negotiating the year-end package.

– CNBC’s Kayla Tausche contributed to this report

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You’ll be able to’t sue Pfizer or Moderna for negative effects

If you’ve had serious side effects after taking a Covid vaccine, attorneys tell CNBC that there is basically no one to blame in a U.S. court.

The federal government has granted companies like Pfizer and Moderna liability immunity if something goes wrong with their vaccines.

“It is very rare for a blanket immunity bill to be passed,” said Rogge Dunn, a Dallas work and employment attorney. “Pharmaceutical companies are typically not afforded much liability protection by law.”

You also can’t sue the Food and Drug Administration for approving an emergency vaccine, and you can’t hold your employer accountable for making vaccination a condition of employment.

Congress created a fund specifically to cover lost wages and medical expenses for people who have been irreparably harmed by a “covered countermeasure” such as a vaccine. But it’s hard to use and rarely pays off. Lawyers say it has compensated less than 6% of claims filed over the past decade.

Immune to lawsuits

In February, the Secretary for Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, invoked the Public Preparedness and Emergency Preparedness Act. The 2005 Act empowers the HHS Secretary to provide legal protection to companies that manufacture or sell critical medical supplies such as vaccines and treatments unless the company has “willful misconduct”. The protection lasts until 2024.

This means that for the next four years these companies “cannot be sued in court for monetary damages” for violations related to the administration or use of products for treatment or protection against Covid.

HHS declined CNBC’s request for an interview.

Dunn believes a big reason for the unprecedented protection has to do with the accelerated timeline.

“When the government said, ‘We want you to develop this four or five times faster than normal,’ the manufacturers most likely said to the government, ‘We want you, the government, to protect us from multi-million dollar lawsuits. “” said Dunn.

It is very rare for a blanket immunity law to be passed. … Pharmaceutical companies are usually not afforded much liability protection by law.

Rogge Dunn

Dallas labor and employment attorney

The fastest vaccine ever developed was for mumps. It took four years and was approved in 1967. Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine was developed and approved for emergency use within eight months – a fact that has fueled public suspicion of coronavirus vaccination in the United States

About 4 in 10 Americans say they would “definitely” or “probably” not get the vaccine, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center. While this is lower than two months ago, it still indicates a large trust gap.

But drug manufacturers like Pfizer continue to reassure the public that no shortcuts have been taken. “This is a vaccine that has been developed without compromising,” said CEO Dr. Albert Bourla in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday. “This is a vaccine that is approved by all authorities in the world. That should say something.”

The immunity granted to pharmaceutical companies not only protects them from lawsuits. Dunn said it helps lower the cost of vaccinations.

“The government doesn’t want people to sue the companies that make the Covid vaccine, because then the manufacturers would likely charge the government a higher price per person per dose,” said Dunn.

Pfizer and Moderna have not returned CNBC’s request for comment on their legal protection.

Is anyone liable?

Remember, vaccine manufacturers are not the ones who approve their product for mass distribution. That is the job of the FDA.

Which begs the question, if you react extremely poorly to a vaccine, can you sue the US government?

Again the answer is no.

“You can’t sue the FDA for approving or rejecting a drug,” said Dorit Reiss, professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law. “It’s part of his sovereign immunity.”

Sovereign immunity came from the king, explains Dunn, referring to British law before the American Revolution. “You couldn’t sue the king. So America has sovereign immunity, and even every state has sovereign immunity.”

There are limited exceptions, but Dunn said he doesn’t think they are a viable legal avenue to hold the federal government responsible for a Covid vaccination violation.

Bringing workers back into a post-Covid world also brings with it an increased fear of employer liability. Lawyers across the country say their corporate clients are reaching out to them to ask if they can request employees to be vaccinated.

India Medley, Chief Nurse Officer at Howard University Hospital, receives the Covid-19 vaccine at Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC on December 15, 2020.

Nicholas Comb | AFP | Getty Images

Dunn’s customers who run businesses that serve customers in person or on-site are most interested in getting a Covid vaccine for employees.

“They see it as a selling point,” said Dunn. “It is especially important for restaurants, bars, gyms and salons. My customers in this segment of the service industry are very keen to make this a binding selling point for their customers.”

While this is in part a public relations tactic, it is legally the right of an employer to impose such a requirement.

“Requiring a vaccine is a health and safety work rule, and employers can do it,” Reiss said.

There are a few notable exceptions. If a workforce is unionized, the collective agreement may need to require negotiations with the union before a vaccine is made mandatory.

Anti-discrimination laws also offer protection. The American With Disabilities Act allows workers who do not wish to be vaccinated for medical reasons to apply for an exemption. If ingestion of the vaccine is a violation of a “righteous” religious belief, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would possibly provide a route sign out.

If none of these exceptions apply, employees can appeal if they suffer from debilitating side effects after a work-related Covid vaccination.

Lawyers say claims would most likely be channeled through employee compensation programs and treated as workplace injury.

“However, there are significant limits or caps on the damage an employee can claim,” Dunn said. He added that it would likely be difficult to prove.

However, mandatory vaccination protocols may not be created until the FDA officially approves the vaccines and licenses Pfizer and BioNTech or Moderna for sale. This will take several months for data to show their safety and effectiveness.

“An emergency permit is not a license,” said Reiss. “There is a legal issue as to whether you can mandate an emergency observation. The language, in fact, is a bit unclear on this.”

$ 50,000 per year

The government created a way to compensate people in case something goes wrong after vaccination.

In addition to Due to legal immunity, the PREP Act introduced the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which provides benefits to eligible individuals seriously injured by any of the protected companies.

The little-known government program has been around for a decade and is managed by an agency under HHS. This fund usually only deals with vaccines that you would probably never get, like the H1N1 and Anthrax vaccines.

If a case is successful for compensation from the CICP, the program allows up to $ 50,000 per year in non-reimbursed lost wages and medical expenses. There are no legal fees or other costs to compensate for pain and suffering.

It is also limited to the $ 370,376 death benefit total. This is the maximum amount a surviving family member will receive if a Covid vaccine turns out to be fatal.

However, experts who specialize in vaccination law say that it is difficult to navigate. “This state compensation program is very difficult to apply,” said Reiss. “The bar for compensation is very high.”

Also of concern to some vaccination injury attorneys is the fact that the CICP has turned down a large portion of the claims for compensation it has made since the program began 10 years ago. Of the 499 claims filed, The CICP has settled only 29 claims totaling more than $ 6 million.

People harmed by a Covid vaccine deserve to be compensated quickly and generously. The PREP law doesn’t do that.

Dorit Reiss

Professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law

David Carney, vice president of the Vaccine Bar Association, said the CICP could deny a claim for a variety of reasons. “One reason could be that the medical records do not support an allegation,” said Carney, who regularly deals with vaccination injury cases. “We have to process a lot of really complex questions … and provide a medical basis for why the injury occurred.”

Proof of injury as a direct result of the Covid vaccine could be difficult, Carney said. “It’s not that easy to say, ‘Hey, I got Covid treatment and now I have an injury.’ There is a lot of evidence there. “

There is also a strict one year law, which means that all claims must be made within 12 months of receiving the vaccine.

“People who are harmed by a Covid vaccine deserve to be compensated quickly and generously,” said Reiss. “The PREP Act doesn’t do that.”

Lawyers tell CNBC that it would make more sense to channel Covid vaccination violations through another program under the HHS called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program that handles applications for 16 routine vaccines instead. The program known colloquially as the “vaccination court” paid for about 70% of the petitions decided by the court from 2006 to 2018.

And since reviewing claims in 1988, the VICP has paid total compensation of approximately $ 4.4 billion. This dwarfs the approximately $ 6 million in paid services of the CICP during the life of the program.

The VICP also gives you more time to file your claim. You have three years from the date of the first symptom to claim compensation.

“The VICP provides recovery from pain and suffering, legal fees, and any medical expenses and lost wages,” said Michael Maxwell, a lawyer specialing in litigation and personal injury. “Under the CICP, it’s just lost wages and medical expenses. That’s it, unless there’s a death.”

However, the Covid-19 vaccines are not on the list of eligible vaccines.

Reiss said the best solution would be to change VICP’s rulebook to include Covid vaccines in the vaccination coverage list. “That requires a change in the law. I hope that there will be a change in the law.”

Watch Gwen Stefani’s efficiency on the World Citizen Prize Awards

Gwen Stefani wants the world to know she’s still “just a girl” from Orange County.

The Voice mentor performed at the NBC Global Citizen Prize Awards 2020 on December 19, where she debuted her new single “Let Me Reintroduce Myself”. The song, which was released on December 7th and featured artwork featuring Gwen in her music video attire “Just a Girl,” is an ode to her nearly three-decade music career and a reminder to fans that she still does is same person.

“The easy recipe to get the most out of me / homemade ingredients that made you confuse me in the first place / because you know I’m like organic / and it tastes great / I’ve already given you bananas, “The 51-year-old sang. “Go on and help yourself, I’m in your ear again / Binge on my music for days because I’ve been here for years.”

For the special occasion the former No doubt Front woman in a sparkling silver and black houndstooth outfit.

The pent-up demand will maintain the Covid growth in RV gross sales

Michael Happe, Winnebago CEO, told CNBC on Friday that he expected the coronavirus pandemic-inspired surge in recreational vehicle sales to continue into next year.

The comments came after the Forest City, Iowa-based company reported strong quarterly results that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. Investors enjoyed the quarter on Friday as Winnebago shares rose more than 5%.

Winnebago reported adjusted earnings per share of $ 1.69, beating estimates of $ 1.01, according to FactSet. This corresponds to an increase of 131.5% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Revenue for the quarter ended November 28th was $ 793.1 million, up 34.8% year over year and beating analysts’ guidance of $ 753 million.

“We were obviously very pleased with the way consumers flocked to the outdoors in 2020 as they tried to manage the impact of the pandemic on their lives and we believe you will see a similar behavioral trend in 2021,” said Happen on “close bell.”

“We believe that consumers who might have been interested in the space and category earlier this year and may not have pulled the trigger but are still very excited to find a way are in great demand for RVing and boating in the Year 2021, “added the executive.

Winnebago Industries RVs on display at Winnebago Motor Homes in Rockford, Illinois.

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As the coronavirus pandemic required social distancing, many outdoor recreational activities such as boating, biking, and RV travel have grown in popularity. Happe is not alone in his optimism that America’s newfound interest in nature will carry over into the next year.

David Foulkes, CEO of Brunswick, told CNBC earlier this month: “We have incredible momentum in the [boating] Industry now. We have attracted a new population. … I think that gives us great momentum, not only in the next year but also in the years to come. “

Winnebago, which sells RVs and boats, has seen a similar shift in buyers, according to Happe. “Our consumers are getting younger. They are becoming more diverse in background and profile, and they are using the products in many different ways,” he said. “The trend to work from anywhere is pretty strong right now, and many of our new consumers see these products as an opportunity to work from the street or from a nice campsite here in America.”

Winnebago’s shares are up 18% so far this year and more than 260% since the March 19 low.

How the US Protection Enterprise Makes Billions From Missile Gross sales

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, rocket sales have become the second largest arms export in the US. And a handful of US companies dominate production.

As with aircraft, missile sales are based on international alliances and treaties. And those sales can become hot button issues, like a recent proposal to sell Boeing’s Harpoon missiles to Taiwan or a failed offer to sell the Raytheon-made Patriot missile system to Turkey.

As defense technology advances, cheaper alternatives such as smaller guided missiles and loitering ammunition could change the dynamics of the battlefield.

“We have entered a kind of new rocket age,” said Tom Karako, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Check out the video above to find out how the US missile business works, how much money it makes for American defense companies, and what happens to the future of the industry.

Walka Sauce Will get $ 250,000 Diamond Implanted On Face (Video)

Could this be the new wave? Houston rappers Sauce Walka is changing the way rappers rock their ice cream.

Sauce Walka took to Instagram Friday night to show off the quarter-million dollar diamond he had just implanted in his face.

Surrounded by his crew, a shirtless Sauce Walka jumped up from a table to explain that the bled piece under his eye was his “last tear” before going off for his skin piercing.

“I just put all of my tears and all of my years and all of my pain and fear in my muthaf damn eye for the last time and I will never cry again,” yelled Sauce. “… I just threw a quarter of a million dollars in my muthaf damn face! It’s over! The game is ready! Put the PlayStation 5 on the floor and kick that muthaf *** a, it’s over, Rover. I won with a flawless victory. “

The 18-carat rose gold teardrop-shaped diamond has a flawless value of 3.00 carats worth $ 250,000, according to Sauce Walka.

Sauce was so confident in his diamond picks that he invited his haters to discover imperfections and he will return them, along with paying a bag of finder fee.

“$ 250,000 n *** a .. find a cloud or an enclosure, I’ll give you ($ 20,000) n *** a !!! I’m THE #DRIPGOD NIGGA … IM THE #RICHEST #TSFBidnezzzzz #Splattttt @lambojewels, “he wrote in the headline of a close-up video he shared about the diamond.

He went to the famous Houston jeweler Johnny Dang to get the diamond at Houston’s infamous Sharpstown mall. Walka sauce called itself a trendsetter for the expensive move, but only time will tell if other people will follow suit.

We’ll keep you up to date.

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The UK has recognized a brand new pressure of Covid-19 that’s spreading sooner. This is what they know

England’s top medical officer announced Saturday that the UK had identified a new variant of the coronavirus that “can spread faster” than previous strains of the virus, prompting Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose new restrictions on parts of the nation to control its spread.

“We learn from this over time, but we already know enough, more than enough, to be sure that we need to act now,” Johnson said during a press conference on Saturday setting new restrictions on London and other parts of England before the Christmas holidays.

“If the virus changes its method of attack, we’ll have to change our method of defense,” said Johnson.

The UK government announced the new strain of coronavirus on Monday after cases increased in the south and east of England. According to a statement from Public Health England, just over 1,100 Covid-19 cases had been identified with the new variant by Sunday.

Now it is believed the new strain could be up to 70% more communicable than the original strain of the disease, Johnson said on Saturday, adding that it appears to be fueling the rapid spread of infections. Johnson urged residents not to travel and “stay on-site” to keep the new strain from moving around the country and abroad.

The UK reports around 24,061 new Covid-19 cases daily based on a weekly average, an increase of more than 40% from the previous week, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

“This is early data that needs to be verified, but it is the best we have right now and we need to respond to information as we have it because it is now spreading very quickly,” said Johnson.

Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said at the press conference that “viruses are constantly mutating”. Seasonal influenza mutates every year, and other new variants of the coronavirus have already been identified in countries like Spain, according to Public Health England.

What needs to be answered is whether the new strain will transmit more easily, make people sick, and whether it will change the way a person’s immune system responds to the virus if they are already infected or vaccinated, Whitty said.

So far, a body of evidence from genetic studies, frequency studies, and laboratory studies suggests that the new strain “has a significant, substantial increase in transmissibility,” Whitty said. So far, however, there is no evidence that the new strain causes a higher mortality rate.

Health officials believe the new variant first appeared in London or Kent in mid-September, and by mid-November it is believed to have caused about 28% of cases in London and other parts of south-east England, Whitty said.

Now those numbers are much higher, he said. In London last week, data suggests the new variant accounts for more than 60% of new cases, Whitty said.

“So that tells us that this new variant is not only moving fast, it also transmits better, it also becomes the dominant variant. It beats everyone else in terms of transmission,” he said.

However, there is “no evidence” that it causes more severe illness, more hospitalizations, or “more problems than the other virus,” Whitty said. While there are reasons to suspect the new variant might alter a person’s immune response to the disease, nothing suggests that it has so far, he said.

“We are currently assuming by all scientists that the vaccine response for this virus should be appropriate,” he said. “Obviously this has to be checked in the future, and we have to remain vigilant in this regard.”

The UK has alerted the World Health Organization and will continue to analyze data on the new strain.

All the pieces you might want to know is right here

The scale of an elaborate cyberattack on the US government that was exposed this week is much larger than initially thought.

The agency for cybersecurity and infrastructure security said in a summary on Thursday that the threat “poses a serious risk to the federal government”.

It added that “state, local, tribal and territorial governments, as well as critical infrastructure units and other private sector organizations” are also at risk.

CISA believes the attack started at least as early as March. Since then, several government agencies have been reportedly attacked by the hackers, which the Energy and Commerce departments have so far confirmed.

“This threat actor has demonstrated sophistication and sophistication in these interventions,” said CISA. “Removing the threat actor from compromised environments will be very complex and challenging.”

Russia accused

CISA has not said who it believes is the “advanced actor of the ongoing threat” behind the “significant and ongoing” campaign, but many experts point to Russia.

“The scale of this ongoing attack is difficult to exaggerate,” former Trump Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert said Thursday in an article for the New York Times. “The Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for six to nine months.”

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations, according to the Tass news agency.

“Even if it is true that there have been some attacks over many months and the Americans have not done anything about it, it may be wrong to immediately bash the Russians,” he told Tass. “We have nothing to do with it.”

The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The FBI said Wednesday it is “investigating and gathering information to attribute, track and disrupt the responsible threat actors.”

It is not currently clear what the hackers did other than access top secret government networks and monitor data.

Hackers have also accessed systems operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which, according to the Politico news site, maintains US nuclear weapons supplies using officials familiar with the matter.

SolarWinds back door

According to CISA, those behind the attack used network management software from SolarWinds, an IT company headquartered in Texas, to breach government networks.

Up to 18,000 SolarWinds Orion customers downloaded a software update that included a back door that gave the hackers access to the networks.

CISA released an “Emergency Policy” this week instructing civil federal agencies to “immediately disconnect or turn off affected SolarWinds Orion products from their network.”

However, the perpetrators may have used other means to access the networks. According to CISA, Thursday is investigating “evidence of additional access vectors other than the SolarWinds Orion platform”.

Targeted Microsoft customers

According to Reuters, Microsoft was hacked in connection with the attack on SolarWinds’ widespread management software.

As with the SolarWinds cyberattack, hackers infiltrated Microsoft products and then went after others, Reuters said, citing people familiar with the matter.

“We have been actively looking for indicators of this actor and can confirm that we have discovered malicious SolarWinds binaries in our environment that we have isolated and removed. We have found no evidence of access to production services or customer data,” said a Microsoft – Spokesperson in a statement shared with CNBC.

“Our ongoing research has found absolutely no evidence that our systems have been used to attack anyone,” they added.

Microsoft said more than 40 client organizations were compromised in the attack.

“While around 80% of these customers are in the US, victims in seven other countries have also been identified in this work,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith on a blog.

“These include Canada and Mexico in North America, Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom in Europe, and Israel and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. It is certain that the number and location of victims will continue to increase.”

Smith added that “this is not the usual espionage,” and “while governments have spied on each other for centuries, recent attackers used a technique that has compromised the technology supply chain for the wider economy.”

US President-elect Joe Biden pledged on Thursday to make cybersecurity a focus of his administration.

“A good defense is not enough. We must first prevent our opponents from carrying out significant cyber attacks,” said Biden in a statement from his transition team.

“We will do this by, among other things, imposing substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks, also in coordination with our allies and partners. Our opponents should know that I, as President, will not remain idle cyber attacks on our nation.”

President Donald Trump, who has remained silent about the hacking, threatened Thursday with a veto on the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains money to prevent such cyberattacks.

Trump loses it, falsely claiming that China hacked voting machines

Trump showed he is staying in Putin’s back pocket by falsely blaming China for the US’s Russian hack.

Trump tweeted:

…. Discuss the possibility that it could be (it can be!) China. There could also have been a blow to our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is evident now that I won big, making it an even more corrupt embarrassment for the US. @DNI_Ratcliffe @SecPompeo

– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2020

Do you remember the good old days about six weeks ago, when Trump ranted for months about mail-in votes tampering with the election?

It turns out that, according to Trump, the threat wasn’t mail-in-voting, but voting machines.

The Chinese didn’t hack critical US systems and stayed there for months. The Russians did it, and the Chinese didn’t hack the voting machines. Audit after audit has shown that the voting machines are working properly.

Trump’s tweets are an example of his illusion that his thinking has grown. Trump refuses to admit he lost the election. He has taken up fringe conspiracy theories and even considered not leaving the White House on January 20, 2021.
Donald Trump proves Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is right. He and his administration are completely compromised. Trump makes excuses for Putin when Russia is embroiled in virtual warfare against the United States.

For more discussions on this story, join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC groups.

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Mr. Easley is the Founder / Executive Editor, White House Press Pool, and a Congressional Correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His thesis focused on public order with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and professional memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association

HHS publishes a full new report on the US Covid outbreak transferring in direction of transparency

The Department of Health and Human Services released a comprehensive new report on the state of the U.S. Covid-19 outbreak on Friday, releasing data previously only available to government employees.

The new “Community Profile Report” uses data collected by various agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the HHS Protection System to show the severity of the outbreak in different states and even counties. The first report shows that 35 states are “red,” indicating a major outbreak.

The report also names “selected high-exposure areas” where the number of new cases is increasing rapidly along with the percentage of positive tests. For example, Nashville, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Somerset, Pennsylvania are high-pollution areas in the first report.

The report also identifies “Rapid Riser Counties” and displays several heatmaps that contain various statistics that are used to determine how bad the local outbreak is in counties across the country. It records, among other things, the death rates, the percentage of positive tests and hospital admissions in Covid.

It is the most comprehensive picture of the US outbreak released by the federal government about nine months after the virus spread across the country. It is a reminder that such data was withheld from the public for months while it was distributed among federal and some state officials.

Jose Arrieta, who served as the chief information officer for HHS when the government launched HHS Protect, the agency’s Covid-19 hospital data warehouse, said the new report was “certainly a step in the right direction” toward transparency. Arrieta resigned in August.

“A number of agency staff, including myself when I was there, pushed for transparency,” he said in a telephone interview on Friday. “I appreciate the fact that the data is being shared.”

Dr. Janis Orlowski, Chief Health Care Officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, is a member of the working group for White House Health Advisor Dr. Deborah Birx, on improving HHS protection. She said she and other members had been pushing for more data to be released over the past few weeks.

“We pushed for transparency, transparency, transparency … and they are doing a good job,” she said. “I like that it’s transparent and that epidemiologists and other people can look at it and say that’s fine, but it would really be better if we knew X, Y or Z.”

HHS spokeswoman Katie McKeogh said in a statement to CNBC that at least some of the data is in one form or another in scattered reports, but this new report brings it all together.

“As you know, there are different reporting processes at the local, state and state levels, and it has taken time and effort to build consistency between these systems to present the data as you see it today,” she said in a statement opposite CNBC. “This report has been extremely valuable to the federal response and we hope it will be helpful to state and local health departments, hospitals, businesses and the public as well.”

Much of the data in the report has been distributed to governors and state officials by the White House coronavirus task force to guide local Covid-19 strategy. Many of the reports, which in public statements often paint a worse picture of the outbreak than federal officials, were received from reporters.

The new public reports are a major step towards transparency in a federal response that is largely characterized by its opaque data collection.

“We hope that making this data public will help Americans make personal choices to slow the spread,” a group of federal officials who campaigned for the report said in a statement titled “Our data is yours Data”. The group includes Heather Strosnider, Co-Head of Integrated Surveillance at CDC, Kelly Bennett, Co-Head of Integrated Surveillance in the Assistant Secretary’s Office for Preparedness and Response, Amy Gleason of US Digital Service and Kevin Duvall, Assistant Head of Data Officer at HHS .

“HHS believes in the power of open data and transparency,” they wrote. “Publicly publishing the reports that our own response teams use and using the information by others outside of the federal response will only make the data better.”

A federal conflict over data transparency began this summer when the CDC’s data infrastructure proved inadequate to meet the requirements of the Covid pandemic. For example, federal officials needed daily data on the number of Covid patients in each hospital in order to be able to make potentially life-saving decisions about the allocation of scarce resources.

Instead of working on a quick overhaul of the CDC system, HHS rolled out a new data collection system called HHS Protect this summer with the help of federal companies, including Palantir. While many in the public health sector recognized the limitations of the CDC’s data collection system, some saw it as a move by the Trump administration to phase out the CDC amid a crisis.

Orlowski said the detail of the new public report is a demonstration of what HHS Protect is capable of and a testament to the progress the U.S. has made in collecting public health data during the pandemic.

“Never waste a crisis,” said Orlowski. “As long as we don’t increase the burden on the hospital, I believe we must continue to do so.”