New efforts to form a Commission to investigate the development and rersponses to the coronavirus pandemic

WASHINGTON — The lawyer who led the inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks has quietly laid a foundation for a nonpartisan commission to investigate the coronavirus pandemic, with financial backing from four foundations and a paid staff that has already interviewed more than 200 public health experts, business leaders, elected officials, victims and their families.

The work, which has attracted scant public notice, grew out of a telephone call in October from Eric Schmidt, the philanthropist and former chief executive of Google, to Philip D. Zelikow, who was the executive director of the commission that investigated Sept. 11. Mr. Schmidt urged Mr. Zelikow to put together a proposal to examine the pandemic, which has caused 600,000 deaths in the United States alone.

Now, with the nation beginning to put the crisis in the rearview mirror, Washington is taking up the idea of a Covid-19 commission. Bipartisan bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate, and have the backing of three former homeland security secretaries — two Republicans and a Democrat — as well as health groups and victims and their families.

Unlike the rancorous debate that doomed the proposal for a panel to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, discussion of a Covid-19 commission has not produced partisan discord — at least, not yet. Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and a lead sponsor of the Senate bill, noted that its work would cover both the Trump and Biden administrations.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month committed to an inquiry into the pandemic that would place “the state’s actions under the microscope” and take evidence under oath. But in Washington, a commission with subpoena power could be a hard sell to Republicans wary that such a panel would become an instrument to investigate former President Donald J. Trump.

Meantime, the Covid Commission Planning Group directed by Mr. Zelikow, is forging ahead on a separate track that might, at some point, merge with a congressionally appointed panel. It has financial support from Schmidt Futures, founded by Mr. Schmidt and his wife Wendy; Stand Together, which is backed by the libertarian-leaning philanthropist Charles Koch; the Skoll Foundation, founded by the eBay pioneer Jeff Skoll, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

In interviews on Tuesday, both Mr. Zelikow and Mr. Schmidt said that while they would like cooperation from Congress and the White House, their effort could proceed without it, though it might be handicapped without subpoena power and access to documents. Mr. Zelikow said there was internal debate in his group about which route was preferable.

If Congress does establish its own commission, Mr. Zelikow said, his group would be willing to share its work. But if the government does not act, Mr. Schmidt said he was confident that he could raise enough money for the group directed by Mr. Zelikow to go forward on its own. ...