Senators Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler have faced calls to resign after it was revealed that the Republican lawmakers sold off stock holdings before the COVID-19 epidemic crashed markets.

Both of the senators reportedly attended briefings on the novel coronavirus outbreak and publicly sought to calm nerves as they dumped chunks of their portfolios ahead of market turmoil in March.

ProPublica reported on Thursday night that North Carolina Sen. Burr, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, sold between $628,000 and $1.7 million worth of stock on February 13.

The stock dump came days after he co-authored a Fox News op-ed claiming the United States was "better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus."

Bulletin 2020-1: Emergency Expenditures Related to COVID-19 The Division of Local Services has issued Bulletin 2020-1 regarding Emergency Expenditures Related to COVID-19 under G.L. c. 44, § 31 and Emergency Short-term Borrowing under G.L. c. 44, § 8(9).  Please click here to view this important information.

from United States Treasury Secretary:

"We are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15," Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted. "All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties."

He said he was acting at President Donald Trump's direction.

The White House had announced previously that it would defer tax payments for 90 days but that Americans would still need to file by April 15.

Now the deadline will be extended into the summer.

Mnuchin said Americans with refunds should still file now.

"I encourage all taxpayers who may have tax refunds to file now to get your money," he wrote.