The Trump administration is asking a bipartisan group of lawmakers to join a task force on reopening the economy, according to Hill sources familiar with the matter.
Senators and House members received notifications Wednesday from the White House.
The Democratic senators invited to the task force are Tom Carper of Delaware, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin of Illinois, Dianne Feinstein of California, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Angus King of Maine, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Mark Warner of Virginia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Among the Senate Republicans asked to be on the task force are Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Rob Portman of Ohio, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Braun of Indiana, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. On the House side, Democrats invited to the task force are Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Ted Deutch of Florida, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Ro Khanna and Jimmy Panetta of California, Derek Kilmer of Washington, John Larson of Connecticut, Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Tom Suozzi of New York.
Among House Republicans invited are Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Greg Walden of Oregon and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.
The lawmakers named to the task force are expected to speak with President Donald Trump by phone on Thursday.
The task force invitations come as Trump and some congressional Republicans are pushing for a swift reopening of the economy. They are warning the effects of shutting down the economy to prevent the spread of the virus could be worse than the actual impact of the deadly virus.
But Democrats are urging a more gradual approach to restarting the economy and are seeking to dramatically expand testing as part of a first step to reopening businesses.
Melanie Zanona contributed to this report.
Read more: politico.com
