CNN reports:

States on the country’s East and West coasts are forming their own regional pacts to work together on how to reopen from the stay-at-home orders each has issued to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The first such group to be announced came Monday on the East Coast. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island and Massachusetts each plan to name a public health and economic official to a regional working group. The chief of staff of the governor of each state also will be a part of the group, which will begin work immediately to design a reopening plan.

Later on Monday, the West Coast states of California, Washington and Oregon also announced they are joining forces in a plan to begin incremental release of stay-at-home orders. Governors of the three states will collaborate on their approach to getting back to business in “in a safe, strategic, responsible way,” as announced by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The collaborative approach by governors on both coasts underscored the massive and complex calculations that the nation is facing as it looks at steps to re-open the economy at both the federal and state levels. Though the President has asserted that he has the authority to determine when the economy will reopen, governors and mayors around the country have moved swiftly in recent days to make it clear that they control the levers of power in their own states and cities with their ability to maintain closures of businesses and schools, and to enforce social distancing through their police departments.

The announcements by the West and East Coast governors on Monday appeared to be an effort to preempt pronouncements coming from the President, who has said he will likely introduce his “Opening the Country” economic task force during his briefing on Tuesday. Governors on both costs hammered the notion that their decisions will be driven by facts, science and public health professionals, not politics. [Continue reading…]

….It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2020

The Washington Post reports:

Multiple leading conservative advocacy groups plan to announce a joint coalition to demand the reopening of the U.S. economy despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, pushing for government authorities to loosen restrictions against the warnings of leading public health experts, according to three people with knowledge of the coming announcement.

The push from conservative groups aims to pressure President Trump and the nation’s governors to relax stay-at-home orders and other measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus that threatens hundreds of thousands of American lives. Trump this week plans to launch an advisory committee to help him plan how to jump start the economy that largely shut down after the pandemic spread in the United States, but his group so far appears to be made up largely of his cabinet and senior advisers.

The outside effort from conservative groups is expected to be led by Stephen Moore, a conservative at the Heritage Foundation who is close with White House economic officials; Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots; Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy organization; and Lisa Nelson, chief executive of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative organization with ties to the Koch Brothers, according to the three people, granted anonymity to reveal details of an effort that had not been publicly revealed.

Part of the impetus for the conservative group effort is political. Many conservatives, who had long counted on a roaring economy to lift the GOP in November, are increasingly uneasy about the party’s chances if businesses remain shuttered. [Continue reading…]