Headline News
COVID-19 News Updates for August 18, 2020
White House Updates
- Remarks by President Trump in a Signing of a Proclamation on the 100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment (HERE)
- Proclamation on 100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (HERE)
- Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding the Pardon of Susan B. Anthony (HERE)
- Remarks by President Trump During Iowa Disaster Recovery Briefing | Cedar Rapids, IA (HERE)
- Readout from the Vice President’s Governors Briefing on COVID-19 Response & Best Practices (HERE)
HHS Releases Healthy People 2030 with National Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Objectives for the Next Decade (HERE)
- Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released Healthy People 2030, the nation’s 10-year plan for addressing our most critical public health priorities and challenges. Since 1980, HHS’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has set measurable objectives and targets to improve the health and well-being of the nation.
Healthy People 2030 Launch | August 18, 2020 (HERE)
· This decade, Healthy People 2030 continues its focus on health data, social determinants of health, and health equity with a new set of 355 measureable health objectives with 10-year targets.
HHS Secretary Azar Statement on Review of Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy (HERE)
· On Tuesday, the U.S. Departments of State, Defense, and Health and Human Services and the United States Agency for International Development released the second report that reviewed the implementation of the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) Policy. The report shows that the policy, which aims to ensure that U.S. taxpayer funding does not support foreign non-governmental organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning, was implemented with minimal effect on services provided by grantees across the government.
Using Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Data to Fight COVID-19 | August 2020 (HERE)
· Watch speakers and presentations from the HHS Webinar on Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Data to Fight COVID-19 on August 12th, 2020.
NIH Coping with COVID-19: Sleep and Health (HERE)
· In this Coping with COVID-19 livestream on “Sleep and Health”, Dr. Marishka Brown, program director for sleep disorders medicine research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Dr. Chandra Jackson, investigator for environment and sleep research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, share practical tips for getting adequate, restful sleep during the pandemic.
CDC COVID-19 Partner Update: New Tools for Schools (HERE)
· Dr. Brooks shared updates on CDC’s COVID-19 response, including where we are now with the latest scientific information. Dr. Sauber-Schatz and Dr. Szucs provided an overview of CDC’s new COVID-19 toolkits and information for schools.
FDA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update Daily Roundup – August 18, 2020 (HERE)
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to announce actions taken in its ongoing response effort to the COVID-19 pandemic.
13.9 million Americans to receive IRS tax refund interest; taxable payments to average $18 (HERE)
- This week the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service will send interest payments to about 13.9 million individual taxpayers who timely filed their 2019 federal income tax returns and are receiving refunds. The interest payments, averaging about $18, will be made to individual taxpayers who filed a 2019 return by this year’s July 15 deadline and either received a refund in the past three months or will receive a refund. Most interest payments will be issued separately from tax refunds.
Working Virtually: Make a Plan for Protecting Data and Reporting Theft; Part 5 of Security Summit Tips for Tax Professionals (HERE)
- The Internal Revenue Service and Security Summit partners today reminded tax professionals that federal law requires them to have a written information security plan. Amid continuing security threats during COVID-19, the IRS, state tax administrators and the nation’s tax industry − working together as the Security Summit − also recommended practitioners create an emergency response plan should they experience a data theft. Contacting the IRS is step one in the plan to quickly protect tax professionals and their clients.
IRS: Unemployment Compensation is Taxable; Have Tax Withheld Now and Avoid a Tax-Time Surprise (HERE)
- With millions of Americans now receiving taxable unemployment compensation, many of them for the first time, the Internal Revenue Service today reminded people receiving unemployment compensation that they can have tax withheld from their benefits now to help avoid owing taxes on this income when they file their federal income tax return next year.
Federal Government Exceeds Small Business Contracting Goals by Awarding Record-Breaking $132.9 Billion to Small Businesses (HERE)
- Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced that the federal government exceeded its small business federal contracting goal, awarding 26.50 percent or $132.9 billion in federal contract dollars to small businesses, over $12 billion increase from the previous fiscal year. Additionally, the Fiscal Year 2019 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard marks the second time in Scorecard history that the women-owned small business contracting goal of 5% has been met*.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson Visits Faith-Based Homelessness Service Providers in Michigan (HERE)
- U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson today visited Gospel Ministries in Kalamazoo alongside U.S. Representative Fred Upton (R-MI 6) and Mel Trotter Ministries in Grand Rapids. Both ministries received critical Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds, as authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) signed into law by President Trump.
U.S. Department of Labor Receives Top Marks in Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard (HERE)
- The U.S. Department of Labor received an A+ on the Small Business Administration’s recently announced Fiscal Year 2019 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard, marking the third straight year the Department has received the scorecard’s highest grade. The scorecard measures the contracting opportunities federal agencies make available to small, small disadvantaged, women-owned, service-disabled, veteran-owned and Historically Underutilized Business Zone businesses globally.
Statement by Secretary Scalia on the Lost Wages Assistance Program (HERE)
- U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia issued the following statement regarding the first round of awards to Iowa, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, Utah, Colorado, and Missouri as part of the Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program.
U.S. Department of Commerce Continues to Invest Cares Act Funding to Boost Economic Development Programs Critical to Helping Communities Respond to Coronavirus (HERE)
· EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance, which is being administered under the authority of the bureau’s flexible Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) program, provides a wide-range of financial assistance to eligible communities and regions as they respond to and recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. For complete information, please visit EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance page.
Second Review of the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy (HERE)
· The United States leads the world in global health assistance and is committed to protecting life through every health program funded by American taxpayers. The Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) Policy aims to ensure that U.S. taxpayer funding does not support foreign non-governmental organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.