RELEASE: CAP Memo Highlights Need for National Stay-at-Home Guidance and Outlines Areas of Inquiry for Coronavirus Oversight

Washington, D.C. — In recent days, the Center for American Progress delivered a memo to leaders on Capitol Hill urging them to push the Trump administration to offer clear federal guidance for a national stay-at-home order. The memo comes on the heels of CAP’s recently published national and state plan to end the coronavirus crisis and follows remarks from the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s Dr. Anthony Fauci and Surgeon General Jerome Adams sending mixed messages about a national stay-at-home order.

Additionally, the memo also lays out key areas of inquiry that Congress should pursue to probe the administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis as well as how, in future funding deals, appropriators can incentivize state cooperation with efforts to limit transmissions.

“Public cooperation with physical distancing is absolutely essential to save lives and mitigate economic damage, but not all states have put in place stay-at-home orders and closed nonessential businesses. Leading members of the Coronavirus Task Force have made clear that a national stay-at-home order is their preference to a patchwork of state strategies that vary in their aggressiveness. Congress should press the administration to listen to their recommendations and provide clear federal guidance on a national stay-at-home order,” said Topher Spiro, vice president of Health Policy and senior fellow for Economic Policy at CAP.