President Donald Trump has formed a new business-focused task force that includes 15 top tech executives as his administration attempts to gain approval for a plan to revive a reeling U.S. economy from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The White House announced on Tuesday the formation of the "Great Economic Revival Industry Groups," described as bipartisan groups of American leaders who will "chart the path forward toward a future of unparalleled American prosperity."
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The announcement comes as Trump hopes to reopen the economy by May 1, despite concerns by health experts, including top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, that moving forward with such a plan would be "overly optimistic" due to a lack of testing capacity and tracing procedures.
Trump's Great Economic Revival Industry Groups represent several industries, including agriculture, energy, financial services, food and beverage and hospitality, counting Sysco Corp. CEO Kevin Hourican, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, chef Wolfgang Puck and Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson.
Representing the tech industry in the new task force are Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, SAP co-CEO Jen Morgan, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, Intel CEO Bob Swan, Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra.
"The health and wealth of America is the primary goal, and these groups will produce a more independent, self-sufficient, and resilient Nation," The White House said in a statement.
In Trump's first call with the groups, the president was urged by some executives to drastically ramp up testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, before considering any recommendations for people to return to work, The Wall Street Journal reported.
White House aides told The Washington Post that despite Trump's desire to reopen the country for business by May 1, the exact timing is up in the air as no final decisions have been made. The newspaper reported that Trump's advisers are hoping the president can win the approval of top business executives and other prominent figures so that the blame can be spread evenly if plans don't work out.
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