the to draw your attention to the remarks during the press conference today. he said the president is right and the state's testing as up in the states to do which will implement the tests and logistically co—ordinate the tests. they have about 300 labs in new york and they are great lives actually. it is my job to co—ordinate the 300 labs and i think the president is right when he thinks that the states should read in the governors are really getting it together in new york and a lot of good things are happening in new york and i think the governor is going to come ncs tomorrow. he is coming to the oval office this afternoon. some of the articles just recently have come about if you will remember i put out a statement today for a month it was all ventilator,

ventilator, it was all people could talk about with ventilator is. and we did a greatjob with that. we built a lot of ventilators to the mic we have so many know that at some point soon we will be helping mexico and italy and other countries and we will send them ventilators since they are not in a position to build them themselves. we have thousands that are being built and every state has had the ventilators and if they don't we have almost 10,000 in our federal reserve and stockpiles as they are called and we did a greatjob with ventilators but u nfortu nately did a greatjob with ventilators but unfortunately the press does not cover it other than the fair price. g, we need ventilators and don't have ventilators. nobody that needed a ventilator in this country did not get one. and the story thatjust came out and how they completely

blew the donald trump ventilator story. that is the respected journalist, how they blew the trumpet ventilator story which u nfortu nately trumpet ventilator story which unfortunately he dead and here is another that just came out. unfortunately he dead and here is another thatjust came out. kyle smith, the ventilators shortage that was ventilators shortage that wasn't. we got it fixed and we help the states by the way to stockpile ventilator so if they should be than they have them. the stories on testing are all over the place and we are actually in good shape on that. i will have the vice president speak to you about that but we are in good shape on testing and get better all the time and we see interesting things. i thought before i went any further i would have the general has done an incredible job and tell us where we are and that we

are still building beds and hospitals for people who need them. i guess the hospital business is getting pretty much close out now but we are creating a lot of space for people just but we are creating a lot of space for peoplejust in but we are creating a lot of space for people just in case and in some cases they probably will be using them. i thought that they have been so them. i thought that they have been so impressive and have done such a great job, so impressive and have done such a greatjob, on behalf of the services in the federal government he could say a few words, we are doing right 110w. say a few words, we are doing right now. thank you very much. thank you mr president and i want you to know oi'i mr president and i want you to know on behalf of all of us and the department of defence, our thoughts and prayers go to all those who are affected by the terrible virus. the vice president and president talk about the heroes who have been out there andl about the heroes who have been out there and i have seen the doctors and nurses in all those worked very ha rd and nurses in all those worked very hard and we are just so proud to be pa rt of hard and we are just so proud to be part of this noble calling. for my team, i needed simple. there are three legs of this stool, there are sites which are hospitals, supplies,

and staff. and right when the governor of new york called the president 30 days ago and said i need some help, worrying about what could be tens of thousands of hospital rooms shortage is said the president and secretary assets to fly to albany and on the way up we understand how complex of a challenge it was and there is no way you can solve a complex catastrophe with a complicated solution. we needed a simple solution to be able to then work with hhs and fema and work with the vice president cosmic task force and be able to power this down all the way down to the local level. some of the governors access to build a hospital in a parking lot ora to build a hospital in a parking lot or a field in two or three weeks and you cannot physically do that. what we said was let's go to where there is an existing facility. we will make this into big pods, and hotel i’ooitis make this into big pods, and hotel rooms or college dormitories or in

large areas like convention centres. we designed the facilities that could be covid—19 or not covid—19. got approved by the federal government to power that back down so we government to power that back down so we went to him and he said i love the concept and i am ready to start having you work tomorrow afternoon. when we flew back to happen in the next day, we basically build the standard design and continued to power down all the way through the re st of power down all the way through the rest of the team. i want to show you a couple of sites here and we will let you know where we are at right i'iow let you know where we are at right now mr president. we had to do a lot of assessments. there were over a hundred different locations we went to and we work for fema and the president and the governors and mayors. we said what do you think your demand will be. based on a lot of the modelling we were able to understand when the peak curve was that we were able to understand

there was a bed shortage. we used 1100 facilities and we are actually executing 32 different facilities on the order of merit on 16,000 beds. eight are done and we have more to complete and in the next week and a half we will complete 15 more facilities. we had some pending some mayors and governors are still wondering if they have enough dead space and we need a plan, you cannot do something a few weeks ago. this virus gets a vote and the entire role of federal government has trained to be as agile as they can important to the states and governors but the beauty to the plan as it does not need to be the by the united states army corps of engineers. we designed an extra 52 facilities and gave this to the governors now have to be a laudatory to the governors, they impose and put a lot of those on the ground and did those themselves. i will show you some simple pictures here. go to

the next light if you do not mind. this is an example of the centre and you heard the president talk about ita you heard the president talk about it a few times. this is about 2100 bed spaces. what you get is about 11 or 12 foot square cubicle. there are lights in there or a nurse call so if you need to call the nurse station, there are those stations throughout and pharmacies throughout. desmond started as non—covid—19 but we came back in and played essential oxygen so everyone has oxygen behind their bed to take ca re of has oxygen behind their bed to take care of those patients. that a thousand patients treated. she walked us through and told us her intent and this is where she needed to do this, and the tcs centre. you see the cubicles laid out, this is in the middle of the convention floor and went in and built 970 different capabilities there. a lot of great work by my guys and that

co re of great work by my guys and that core of engineers and all pulling together. the governors sat us down and said this is our intent on what we want to do. and we went into another large convention centre. this is 3000 bed spaces, a large belt and got this one done in a relatively short time. here is another one to help you understand the dynamics. this is in miami beach andl the dynamics. this is in miami beach and i flew in to see the governor and i flew in to see the governor and my guys trade to about 450 beds and my guys trade to about 450 beds and said how long will it take to build this. we said to the 27th of april. he went to his health people and he said how long do you need? the day we needed is the 21st of april. he did not have to the 27th, figure out how to get it done by the 20th. did not get the bill to be able to have the perfect solution you have to get the mission essential done. lives down the line

and we need to be able to get everything done to save those lives. this is when we are doing right now, colorado and another gigantic convention centre and you see all the cubicles, be able to bring in the cubicles, be able to bring in the oxygen, six inch copper pipe and there are copper pipe, six miles able to make that happen and in closing i want to be able to say that we are very focused on the corps of engineers getting this done but this is about the team, the federal theme and state team, the vice president cosmic task force and a lot of people sitting here have informed us of how fast we need to go and he goes back through all the governors and mayors have made this happen. but i want to reiterate, donald trump has called me three times and the secretary has been on the phone at least three of those times and what do we need to do for a success what else do we need to do to help you go and you think about the equation of those three essays,

i think about the mayors and cities here have effectively taken that first asked out of the equation. i cannot tell you of all the things i have been in my career, this is a noble calling to be able to step up and save american lives. i think you. do you want a question for the general obvious here, anybody? are there more projects beyond the one that you have identified they are working on? i say that a virus gets a boat and we see some of these currents are stretching out where we might've thought we only had five or six days we have a couple of weeks now. all the ones we are seeing the exact opposite so when we did not think there was sam, i am not going to go into locations here but we get requested and have six more requested and have six more requested in the last four or five days. they are a little bit smaller facilities and more remote areas but if we have enough time to go build we want to be in there and do the assessment and work for the mayor and city and governor here and still

get them done at the mayors and those elected officials make a fast and at the session. while you are here, we are building that the generals in charge on the border and we wa nt generals in charge on the border and we want to build 450 miles of wall thatis we want to build 450 miles of wall that is under construction and might give you a bit of an update on how we are doing with the wall. the morris stomach most important thing is there are several different priorities here. the number one priority in the department of defence and corps of engineers is to protect the forest. we have to continue to take care of our billions and servicemembers out there so every single thing we are doing whether we are building for the va or civil works projects or the va or civil works projects or the southwest border, we are going out of our way and i talked to my commanders this morning and we have over 4000 contractors on the ground out there and we have no positives as of this morning and knock on wood as of this morning and knock on wood as with the employees. we want to

make sure everyone is safe and goes out of their way to do things the right way. construction is going very smooth and what we are seeing is that our contractors are extremely focused now that we have a clear path both to make both on the cdp and dod programme am i think we are well postured and it is a very aggressive bill for build but we are going to make it by december 2020. 164 miles and we will have it done sometime pretty early next year. i am excited. yes sir. i would like to say the quality of the wall to stop people coming into our country.“ you have a standard design that you trust in and works very well, i have a pat on the back commissioner morgan who was adamant to make sure that it supports his agents that we have a design know that certainly does that and we have a phenomenal

contract work for and there. my corps of engineers employees and if it is going well we see no significant problems. it is important to point out we want to do this the right way, balances with environmental considerations out there and due diligence which comes with citizens affected and we will protect all the things we need to protect all the things we need to protect and find that balance where we can both meet the administrations directive while at the same time make sure we are doing this so that everyone gets a vote and everyone has theirfairshare. everyone gets a vote and everyone has their fair share. may i ask what you're doing the availability of the recreation sites that the army engineer is operate and the restrictions. i take my guidance from expert sitting on the bench and when the president says turn on america, but we initially did like

many other governors who shutdown beaches and cities, i had a meeting with my commanders this morning and as we think it is safe to turn him back on. breaking out we are 500 feet away from everyone is probably low threat. when we get reminds back in sneeze plate rack areas full up and let everyone go out there and so i want to do it safe but i do not wa nt i want to do it safe but i do not want to be the last guy that turns things on. not at all. thank you for walking through some of the efforts. d think there are any specific efforts in communities that are hardest hit, like black communities or other communities that are hardest hit. we teed off let the city asked for, the city and the governor. there are some specific areas that city mayors assess for andl areas that city mayors assess for and i am not going to go into

details but basically everyone can say i am worried about this hot spot on the side of town or that specific community year we will do and this is what the administration charged us is what the administration charged us to do. we did not want to ever have an ambulance pull up to the back of the hospital and somebody says we are out of room, go to the next hospital now. we try to make sure that that that space is available and so far everything we have built as i had, two or three days before it is needed. you can stay and watch these wonderful people or you can go back to building things. i have a lot of building things. i have a lot of building to do. ill make really great. thank you very much. he's a terrific gentleman. we have a lot of great people doing that kind of thing, they really have to get recognition for the incrediblejob they really have to get recognition for the incredible job they're doing. because i don't think anybody

else could do