The Hill’s Morning Report – Policies and politics on masks are changing

by Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver - 02/17/22 6:22 AM ET

Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It is Thursday! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the co-creators. Readers can find us on Twitter @asimendinger and @alweaver22. Please recommend the Morning Report to friends and let us know what you think. CLICK HERE to subscribe!

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 919,697; Tuesday, 922,473; Wednesday, 925,560; Thursday, 928,519.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teased on Wednesday that the Biden administration is considering changes to mask guidance as the COVID-19 situation continues to improve across the country, with more states and cities relaxing restrictions amid improved caseloads and hospitalizations.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky (pictured above) told reporters the agency is considering alterations to its mask guidelines, acknowledging that individuals are “so eager” to do away with masking rules. She noted that the CDC is shifting its COVID-19 focus in the direction of hospitalizations as a key measuring stick to determine the severity of an outbreak.

“We all share the same goal -– to get to a point where COVID-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives, a time when it won’t be a constant crisis — rather something we can prevent, protect against, and treat,” Walensky said.

“We must consider hospital capacity as an additional important barometer,” Walensky continued. “We want to give people a break from things like mask wearing when these metrics are better and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen.”

For now, the guidance remains unchanged. Health officials still recommend that people wear masks at indoor public spaces in locations of high viral transmission. However, case totals continue to plummet across the country. The U.S. is reporting an average of 124,000 new infections per day over the past seven days — a total that is down from 800,000 per day roughly a month ago at the height of the omicron surge (CNBC).

NBC News: CDC expected to update mask guidance as early as next week.

Reason: Walensky confirms behind closed doors she won’t relax school mask guidance.

Julia Manchester, The Hill: Democrats face blowback over COVID-19 policies.

However, changes continue to be made at the state and municipal levels. Philadelphia on Wednesday followed a move by Washington, D.C., earlier in the week and nixed its requirement for individuals to show proof of vaccination to dine indoors. Shortly after the news landed, the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers added that they would not be requiring vaccine proof to attend games. However, unlike the District, it kept intact its indoor mask mandate (CBS Philly).

In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed the first significant measure of his term on Wednesday, ending school mask mandates in his state and leaving school face coverings up to parents. The legislation takes effect immediately, and school districts have until March 1 to be in compliance (The Hill).

Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles County lifts its outdoor mask mandate.

The Hill: Texas sues Biden administration over transportation mask mandate.

Variety: Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals in California this spring will drop all COVID-19-related restrictions, including negative tests and masks.

To the north, truckers abandoned their blockade along the U.S.-Canada border on Wednesday and are focusing their attention on Ottawa as their big rigs continue to sit outside the Canadian Parliament with horns honking throughout the downtown area.

Officers delivered multiple rounds of warnings to truckers on Wednesday telling them to clear the area, with the city’s interim police chief indicating officers may move in to clear the hundreds of trucks in the near future.

“We are going to take back the entirety of the downtown core and every occupied space. We are going to remove this unlawful protest. We will return our city to a state of normalcy,” interim Chief Steve Bell told city leaders. “You will be hearing and seeing these actions in the coming days” (The Associated Press).

Bloomberg News: Europe heads toward a new normal as final COVID-19 curbs unwind in Germany, Netherlands and France.

The Associated Press: United Kingdom to offer COVID-19 vaccine to all children ages 5 to 11.

Kyodo News: Japan to ease COVID border controls, lift entry quarantine.

Haaretz: Israel to lift travel restrictions, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declares “COVID wave has been broken.”

LEADING THE DAY

ADMINISTRATION: In the continuing clash between Russia and Ukraine, Wednesday ended as it began: in flux without a breakthrough and ripe with distrust. Today’s perspective in Washington and at NATO is that the Kremlin is poised to attack and is ramping up its forces (The Associated Press).

The United States said Russia was not withdrawing troops and weapons encircling Ukraine, calling Moscow’s claims to the contrary “false.” President Biden spoke Wednesday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who met Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as part of a diplomatic offensive to try to achieve de-escalation along Ukraine’s border. The two leaders focused on ways to shore up NATO’s eastern flank (Reuters).

NATO commanders said they were drawing up plans for new combat units that could be deployed in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. “So far, we do not see any sign of de-escalation on the ground — no withdrawals of troops or equipment,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday during a news conference following the first session of a two-day meeting of allied defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels (Politico).

Today in Brussels, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet with Stoltenberg to discuss the allied military preparations to counter Russia. The 27 leaders of the European Union member states are also scheduled to meet today in Brussels for a crisis summit (The New York Times).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken (pictured below), said during a Wednesday interview on ABC News that Russia had added rather than subtracted forces, later described by the administration as an estimated 7,000 more Russian troops near the border with Ukraine (The Hill).

“Unfortunately there’s a difference between what Russia says and what it does, and what we’re seeing is no meaningful pullback,” Blinken said. “On the contrary, we continue to see forces, especially forces that would be in the vanguard of any renewed aggression against Ukraine, continuing to be at the border, to mass at the border.”

The Biden administration pointed to a marked increase in Russia’s false public claims that could be intended by the Kremlin as pretexts for an attack, including fictional discoveries of unmarked graves of Russian civilians allegedly killed by Ukrainian forces, assertions that the U.S. and Ukraine are together developing biological or chemical weapons, and claims that the West is positioning guerrilla forces in the region.

Russia, reacting to the strident skepticism from the West, mocked assertions of Russian duplicity, false flag plots and imminent planned attacks on Ukraine. “If you make accusations — especially such very serious accusations against Russia — you bear the burden of providing evidence,” Russia’s ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov, said. “Otherwise it is slander. … So, where is the evidence?”

In Ukraine, a government official floated the prospect of holding a referendum on NATO membership that could keep his country from joining the alliance, possibly becoming a way of appeasing Russia while retaining sovereign independence. The referendum would focus on implementing the current peace agreement, known as the Minsk accords, a sore point with Putin (The New York Times).

On Capitol Hill, GOP senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and James Risch (Idaho), said they want to have a forceful legislative response aimed at Russia and Putin, should an attack occur. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton points out that some Republican senators, mindful that former President Trump adopted a solicitous posture toward Putin, are hanging back for the time being.

More administration headlines: U.S. fighter jets on Tuesday escorted Russian aircraft out of coalition restricted air space in eastern Syria (CNN). … For the fiscal year that begins in October, Biden will propose more than $770 billion for defense (Reuters). … An Air Force research initiative is spending $7.5 million to head off the problem of “lunar traffic jams,” a potentially deadly hazard for the new generation of manned moon missions (The Hill). … Following the resignation of controversial former Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Eric Lander, Biden on Wednesday appointed Alondra Nelson to fulfill the duties of OSTP director and said Francis Collins, recently retired former director of the National Institutes of Health, will step in as science adviser to the president and co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology until permanent leadership is nominated and confirmed (Politico).

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IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

POLITICS: Biden on Wednesday rejected Trump’s claim of executive privilege over White House visitor logs from his presidency and ordered the National Archives to turn over documents to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

White House counsel Dana Remus told U.S. archivist David Ferriero in a letter that the documents are to be turned over to the panel in 15 days “unless prohibited by court order.”

“The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records,” Remus wrote, noting that the White House’s current policy is to release the logs for transparency’s sake. That practice was halted during Trump’s presidency (The Hill).

Daily Beast: Rudy Giuliani now casts doubt about cooperating with “Illegal” Jan. 6 committee.

The Hill: Interior inspector general finds former Trump secretary Ryan Zinke broke ethics rules.

> Unfazed by 45: Republicans who have missed out on Trump’s support are grasping for ways to tie themselves to him and his political movement, betting his message will prove more powerful in contentious primary races than the man himself.

As The Hill’s Max Greenwood writes, the strategy is playing out in GOP primaries across the country. The most recent public example is playing out in South Carolina, where the ex-president threw his support behind Republican Katie Arrington’s primary challenge to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) (pictured below).

Mace, a once completely loyal ally who drew the former president’s ire by criticizing him following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and responded by filming a video of herself praising the ex-president and touting her support for him outside Trump Tower in New York City. The video underscores a problem several Republicans face: how to use Trump’s message to appeal to Trump’s voters without the backing of Trump himself.

“The titular head of Trumpism is Trump himself, and yet, when he’s endorsing in these races, you’re still seeing traction by candidates who have found their own embrace of Trumpism but don’t have the titular head behind them,” one GOP strategist told The Hill. “And a lot of them have a good fighting chance here.”

The Hill: Retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) backs Jane Timken as successor in Senate primary fight.

The Hill: Green groups press for progressive upset in Texas House race.

*****

CONGRESS: Rubio, who is seeking reelection in November, is blocking a measure that would fund the government on a temporary basis (The Hill). He says he shares a conservative concern that the administration might use federal dollars to pay for drug addicts’ crack pipes. The White House argues this worry is unfounded and arose earlier this month in a conservative news outlet in part because the rising rate of violent crime is shaping up to be a potent GOP election-year theme. A bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Rubio would prevent the government from purchasing syringes and needles to be used for illegal drug injection. The bill also dictates that federal funds cannot be used to “procure, supply, or distribute pipes, cylindrical objects, or other paraphernalia that can be used to smoke, inhale or ingest narcotics.”

> If Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better agenda, currently in limbo, served to divide Senate Democrats — while efforts to address voting rights, immigration and police reforms were blocked or went nowhere — what’s on tap to attract voter support this fall? The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) may try to pass measures this spring focused on the economy, such as temporary tax suspensions and changes that could lower prescription drug costs. Schumer wants to use floor votes to showcase GOP opposition to voters’ pocketbook concerns as a strategy to try to bolster Democratic candidates. … White House chief of staff Ron Klain is expected to speak to Senate Democrats during their policy discussion this afternoon in the Capitol.

Flashback: With former President Clinton in the White House in 1994, Democrats lost eight Senate seats in midterms that delivered divided government. With former President Obama in the Oval Office during the Democrats’ “shellacking” of 2010, the party lost six Senate seats but narrowly held the majority while Republicans took control of the House.

The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com and aweaver@digital-stage.thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE!

OPINION

From liberal San Francisco, a school board recall is a three-alarm warning for Democrats, by Mark Z. Barabak, columnist, Los Angeles Times. https://lat.ms/3sOBq8G

Joe Biden faces the return of crime in the United States, analysis by Arnaud Leparmentier, New York correspondent, Le Monde. https://bit.ly/34YchQK

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets on Friday at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session. The House returns to work Feb. 28 following the Presidents Day recess.

The Senate convenes at 10:30 a.m. and resumes consideration of a motion to proceed to the “Further Additional Extending Government Funding Act.”

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 8:30 a.m. Biden will travel to Cleveland and Lorain, Ohio, to deliver remarks at 12:15 p.m. about the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure law. He will return to the White House in the evening.

Vice President Harris will travel this morning to Germany to participate in the Munich Security Conference, which concludes on Sunday. According to a senior administration official, Harris “is leading the U.S. delegation … as a resounding signal that engagement with our allies and partners is an absolutely critical part of our overall diplomacy and our approach to this situation” involving Russia, Ukraine and European security.

Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://digital-stage.thehill.com/hilltv or on YouTube at 10:30 a.m. ET at Rising on YouTube.

ELSEWHERE

➜ ECONOMY: Americans think inflation is the most urgent issue facing the United States, followed by immigration and the pandemic, according in a new Quinnipiac University poll (The Hill). … At their January meeting, members of the Federal Reserve board said the central bank may need to raise interest rates and reduce bond holdings faster if inflation continues to rise above its target, according to minutes of the discussion released on Wednesday (The Hill). … Rising oil prices, up more than 50 percent from last year, could spark new U.S. drilling and revive industry investment. Before the pandemic, the U.S. was the largest producer of both oil and gas and is back in that spot because of Russia-Ukraine tensions (CNBC). … A jump of 3.8 percent in January’s retail sales in the United States tracked rising inflation (The Wall Street Journal). There’s a divergence between higher spending and the dark mood of consumers, suggesting the country could see slowing demand (Axios).

➜ TECH: Google announced Wednesday that it will begin removing ad trackers on its Android operating system in an effort to improve user privacy. The proposed changes include phasing out advertising ID — a special code assigned to each Android device to allow advertisers to build specialized profiles and serve targeted ads. No timeline for the updates was laid out, but the company said existing technologies would be supported for at least the next two years. The news comes a year after Apple began asking permission from users before allowing advertisers to track them (The Hill).

➜ OLYMPICS: The Canadian women’s hockey team nabbed the gold medal on Thursday, defeating the United States 3-2 in yet another battle between the two archrivals. Marie-Philip Poulin tallied two goals and an assist, and goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 38 shots to help Canada capture its fifth gold medal in the event’s history. The gold medal match-up marked the sixth time Canada and the U.S. have met in the final since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998 (ESPN).

THE CLOSER

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Because Russia is prominently in this week’s headlines, we’re eager for some smart guesses about Putin.

Email your responses to asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com and/or aweaver@digital-stage.thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

During the recent flurry of bilateral meetings at the Kremlin with visiting heads of state, a seated Putin has been pictured several times with an elaborately large ______.

Foot brace
Bust of Lenin
Conference table
Throne

Global leaders and analysts often refer to lessons Putin learned during his early career in _____.

Insurance sales
Ballet
Bear wrestling
The KGB

The United States has said if Ukraine is invaded, Putin and Russia could be expelled from what?

SWIFT
CRUSH
SPECTRE
KAOS

Opposed to a war between Russia and Ukraine, teens, tweens and Gen Z adults have referred to Putin on TikTok and Instagram as _______, according to recent news coverage.