Joe Biden, pictured here on March 12, has held daily briefings by phone and Zoom video as the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded.
Photo: carlos barria/ReutersWASHINGTON—Bunkered in his Delaware home, Joe Biden has been formulating a series of policies to address the coronavirus pandemic, offering a window into how he might lead the nation if elected president.
The likely Democratic nominee has been holding daily economic briefings by Zoom video and by phone with campaign advisers and outside economic experts as the unprecedented outbreak has unfolded.
For Mr. Biden, who oversaw the Obama administration’s roughly $800 billion Recovery Act, the Covid-19 saga has forced him to compete for attention against President Trump, who has delivered daily updates from the White House briefing room. His agenda aims to offer a counterpoint to Mr. Trump on the economic and public-health response as the general election develops.
Senior adviser Jake Sullivan has helped organize the briefings for the likely Democratic nominee.
Photo: Cliff Owen/Associated PressMr. Biden has placed an emphasis on the implementation of the $2 trillion stimulus and the need to move quickly to deliver cash payments to Americans and speed lending for small businesses. During the morning sessions, his questions have often delved into the practical, such as how states will keep unemployment offices staffed as a deluge of laid-off workers seek help, according to advisers.
Jake Sullivan, a senior adviser who has helped organize the briefings, said the sessions evolved out of Mr. Biden’s “desire to put together his own set of proposals around how to deal with the coronavirus.” After Mr. Biden issued a series of proposals in March, he decided to keep the daily briefings as part of his schedule.
Mr. Biden has been advised by a rotating group that includes his staff, alums of the Obama administration, and members of think tanks and academia. His briefing includes market data, leading economic indicators and data released by the Federal Reserve.
Along with Mr. Sullivan, some of the participants have included Ben Harris, an economist at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Mr. Biden’s former economic adviser; Heather Boushey, the head of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth; Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; and Stef Feldman, Mr. Biden’s campaign policy director.
Every morning, Mr. Biden also holds a separate call with his public-health advisory team, which includes Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general; former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler; and Dr. Rebecca Katz, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s department of microbiology and immunology.
Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff and the Ebola czar during the Obama administration, has assisted both teams.
Mr. Biden and his campaign have also consulted with historians, such as Jon Meacham, to discuss how past presidents have led the nation through crisis. Mr. Biden frequently cited Mr. Meacham’s 2018 book, “The Soul of America,” on the campaign trail before the outbreak.
The sessions offer parallels to former President Obama, who received frequent updates from the campaign trail during the fall of 2008 as the financial crisis unfolded, all aimed at having a response prepared if elected.
Ron Klain has helped Joe Biden’s economic and public-health teams.
Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Associated PressMr. Biden is working on a more extensive economic plan and plans to lay out a “broader case of what is going to be required not just over the next few months but over the next few years to adequately respond to what has happened and set up the American economy and social compact better for the future,” Mr. Sullivan said.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump expect to speak by phone about the pandemic, Biden aides said, even as the two likely campaign rivals have traded barbs during the crisis.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has accused the former vice president in recent days of “ineffectively sniping from the sidelines,” and “hoping for relevance and political gain.”
Mr. Biden has focused heavily on the Defense Production Act, which was established in 1950 during the Korean War to allow the federal government to require manufacturers to produce items needed for the war effort.
The president has invoked the act to produce ventilators and secure the supply of protective face masks, but Mr. Biden wants it to be deployed more aggressively to produce other equipment such as medical shields and masks.
His discussions about the act have also led him to propose a financial version of the law, which his campaign has dubbed the Defense Production Act for Banks. Under the proposal, if banks failed to quickly lend to small businesses under the $2 trillion stimulus, Mr. Biden as president would seek authority to ensure banks place a priority on processing loan applications from small businesses afflicted by the pandemic.
“The government is providing the guarantees. Now the banks need to step up and do their part,” Mr. Biden said Thursday.
Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is part of Joe Biden’s public-health advisory team.
Photo: Jake May/Associated PressDuring the briefings, Mr. Biden has also pressed his team to find ways to increase the availability of hospital beds and speed resources to emergency responders, nurses and physicians, according to participants.
He has also emphasized the importance of implementing the stimulus and the next phase being developed in Congress.
Mr. Biden has noted that the bill signed by Mr. Trump didn’t include student-loan forgiveness or an increase in Social Security payments for seniors. He has also called for a reopening of the enrollment period for Obamacare, free medical care for Covid-19 patients and full paid sick leave for workers.
The Trump administration has said it doesn’t plan to hold a special enrollment period for Obamacare but intends to use the stimulus to pay hospitals that treat uninsured people with the virus as long as the hospitals agree not to bill the patients or issue unexpected charges.
Mr. Trump, during a Friday briefing, touted the administration’s push to speed direct payments to Americans and help small businesses receive loans.
“The people are getting their money. There’s a lot of stimulus going in a lot of different ways,” he said.
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With 10 million workers filing for jobless claims during the past two weeks, Mr. Biden has expressed worries that states won’t be able to process all the paperwork during the pandemic.
“His favorite word is ‘granularity’ in this context,” Mr. Bernstein said.
Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who has been advising the campaign on consumer-finance issues, said the pandemic will require a massive response to a “raft of new consumer issues.”
“This so far has been a health crisis and then it has turned into a macroeconomic crisis that we are starting to see with some of the unemployment numbers and businesses failing. But it is soon going to be a consumer crisis—it already is, really,” he said.
Write to Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com
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