Coronavirus: Donald Trump declares national emergency in the United States

Washington

Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday March 13. The decision aims to accelerate the payment of federal funds to the states, local communities, and municipalities in order to fight the contagion of the coronavirus.

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This marks a turning point in the management of an epidemic that Donald Trump, a few days ago, compared to a seasonal flu. It is true that at the moment America counts less than 1300 verified cases of contagion and about thirty deaths. However, it is suspected that these figures underestimate the problem, due to the limited testing of people with symptoms.

The worst Wall Street collapse since October 1987, observed on Thursday, is partly attributed to a loss of confidence in the financial community in Washington's ability to manage the health and economic emergency created by the pandemic, and prevent a recession . Before President Trump's speech, the major American stock market indexes regained in Friday only a fraction of the 10% brutally conceded the day before.

Video conference Monday

In the entourage of the President more and more officials, including Steven Mnuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury, compare the current situation to that of the United States at the time of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The shock suffered by the airlines days, due to the drop in bookings, is certainly comparable.

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Extremely rare

A law of 1938, the Stafford Act, amended in 1974, allows the American president to release federal emergency credits to allow American states to face an emergency, like a natural disaster. It thus authorizes a state to request federal funds to cover 75% of its expenses such as medical tests and equipment or the salaries of emergency personnel, or those of the police force to protect them.

The use of this law for medical reasons is extremely rare. You have to go back to 2000 to find an example. At the time President Clinton used it to fight the West Nile virus.

In this context, a compromise on emergency fiscal measures was Friday in the process of adoption in Congress, in order to help the economic victims of the coronavirus. The legislative package was negotiated by Steven Mnuchin with the Republican and Democratic leaders of the two chambers.

The idea of ​​suspending automatic payroll taxes does not seem to have been retained, despite the efforts of the White House. It seemed too costly to the most conservative Republican elected officials and not fair enough in the eyes of the Democrats, since by definition it would not benefit the unemployed.

The legislative package on which the House, dominated by the Democrats, was to decide in the evening, includes funding to cover 14 days of sick leave and a revalorization of unemployment benefits for people laid off due to the economic consequences of the 'epidemic.

The text would also include credits to finance up to three months of leave so that employees can help sick family members. The conditions of eligibility for food aid for the most disadvantaged would also be relaxed for the period of the epidemic. Steven Mnuchin had also set himself in his negotiation as another priority to help airlines, hotels, cruise lines and small businesses.