Records from the Department of the Treasury in response to American Oversight’s request for communications containing key terms related to Covid-19 testing. These records span March to April 2020. Details on the content of these records are below.

Records received December 2020

Records received from March to May 2022

In the Documents

March 2, 2020: Justin Muzinich, the deputy secretary of the Treasury, informed Brent McIntosh, Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, about a meeting that day with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company to “talk about real economy effects of covid19.”

March 9, 2020: Kenneth Kies, the managing director of the Federal Policy Group, forwarded to Muzinich an email from Michael McGarry, a senior vice president at the Cruise Lines International Association. McGarry had emailed Kies for help facilitating a meeting between the CEOs of Carnival, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruises, and MSC Cruises and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. McGarry said they wanted to discuss “adverse actions […] which could irreparably harm the cruise industry.” Muzinich replied, “Got it, will raise.” 

April 18, 2020: Muzinich sent Mnuchin a “Covid-19 Response Update” from the Cypress Group, a private equity firm, and highlighted that it contained a summary of recent letters sent by House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters and Senate Banking Committee Chair Mike Crapo as well as an “analysis of needed PPP size.”

April 25, 2020: Muzinich forwarded Mnuchin an email from Anil Kashyap, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Kashyap wrote that he was working with professors at Harvard Business School to analyze the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program, and he shared a list of suggestions. 

May 9, 2020: Muzinich forwarded Mnuchin an email from Benjamin Friedman, a Harvard professor, who wrote that his colleagues had been doing “some interesting thinking on the recently initiated lending programs.” He attached the same memo that Kashyap had, which recommended that the lending programs feature broad eligibility at the beginning of the pandemic, with the possibility of narrowing in later months.