Coronavirus Roundup: New CDC Mask Guidance Expected; Biden Prepares for SOTU Amid Pandemic Changes 

The Government Accountability Office’s review of the federal government’s financial statements for fiscal 2021 shows the same “serious” issues as previous years, although agencies have made “significant” improvements since the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act was enacted, said a blog post from the watchdog on Feb. 22.

“Once the pandemic recedes and the economy continues to recover, Congress and the administration should quickly pivot to developing a plan to place the federal government on a sustainable long-term fiscal path,” as current projections show it is not on such a path, said the post. “Well-designed fiscal rules and targets can help manage debt by controlling factors like spending and revenue as part of a long-term fiscal plan. Further, we have recommended that Congress consider alternative approaches to the current debt limit as part of any long-term fiscal plan.” Here are some of the other recent headlines you might have missed. 

The delay in President Biden nominating and the time it took the Senate to confirm the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a vital position amid the pandemic, “highlight the difficulties that Biden faces in filling key positions throughout his administration,” The Associated Press reported on Tuesday. “The White House blames gridlock from Republicans in a sharply divided Senate, but it also has not submitted nominations for many of the open positions.” 

Ahead of the State of the Union address on Tuesday, the White House has been working on an overhaul of its pandemic strategy, ABC News reported on Thursday. “The new strategy was expected to acknowledge that the virus—which has killed at least 936,162 Americans in the past two years—is less of an urgent threat to most Americans because of widespread access to vaccines, booster shots and testing, as well as increasing availability of therapeutics,” said the report. “At the same time, the White House on Wednesday began working behind the scenes with some of the nation's most prominent pandemic experts to game out the various paths the virus could take to ensure the government is prepared.” 

Ahead of the speech, Biden has “been engaging with his COVID team, talking about where we are in the state of the pandemic, what's next in the pandemic,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during the briefing on Thursday. When asked about the ABC News report, Psaki said she doesn’t have an update on the “timeline or format” on the reported new COVID-19 strategy. 

“But the president has been working and engaged with his COVID team for some time now, and we're making strong progress on moving toward a time when COVID is no longer a crisis,” she said. “The COVID team has been spending a lot of time and energy, including with the president, working with experts inside and outside government, local public health officials, and governors. And this work is broader than one piece of guidance.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to loosen its mask guidance as soon as Friday as Omicron cases have declined, The Washington Post reported. This comes after several states, including some led by Democratic governors, have lifted or announced plans to lift their mask mandates. 

The Environmental Protection Agency’s ​​Office of Grants and Debarment doesn’t know the full extent to which its program offices and regions implemented flexibilities and exceptions for grants allowed by the Office of Management and Budget due to the pandemic, the EPA watchdog said in a new report. “Program offices and regions inconsistently tracked pandemic-related flexibilities and exceptions,” which “hindered the agency’s ability to assess how the coronavirus pandemic impacted the grant process as it relates to the grant recipient’s ability to accomplish its program mission to protect human health and the environment,” said the report. “Additionally, the EPA should implement an official agency-wide electronic grant file storage system that provides staff with consistent access to grant files in emergencies and while teleworking.” 

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