have fewer dollars to cover more people at a time when 43% of childbirth in this country are covered and paid for by medicaid. these are the fundamental issues that are at stake for women and families across this country. given these stakes i am disappointed that here we are again debating to antichoice bills that the senate already rejected. >> senate debate from yesterday. we take you live to hear from the public and leaders after their party meeting. >> good afternoon everyone. we just spent close to an hour with attorney general barr and let me just make a couple of points. first, he enjoys overwhelming support of our conference and we all think he's doing an outstanding job. his reason for coming out today was that we have these expiring intelligence provisions, some of

them have generated some degree of a bipartisan controversy in the past and the attorney general just wanted to underscore again the importance of these provisions that were enacted in the wake of the 911 attacks and they are still relevant to our effort to go after terrorists today just like they were after 911. there is a tendency with the passage of time for these measures to lose support because you have been so successful. we have had animal attacks here at home from foreigners and these tools have been overwhelmingly useful and according to our intelligence advisors and i hope that when the senate deals with these expiring provisions in a couple of weeks we will be able to continue to have them in law which will, of course, provide maximum protection for the american people.

>> this afternoon the senate will have an opportunity to vote on two very common sense measures to defend the lives of the unborn. this should not be controversial measures. the first one deals with ensuring the babies that are born not during an abortion receive the same level of care as babies born in a hospital. second measure ensures that abortions are not conducted after the point when a baby can feel pain. those are both pieces of legislation that enjoy broad support across the country and there are ways in which here in the united states senate we can express our support for the basic human rights of all, including the unborn and i would hope that democrats could find a way to support these two common sense measures. it would be a great expression,

bipartisan support, here on behalf of the united states senate on an issue that is important to an awful lot of americans and to ensure the united states continues to value human rights of every human being. >> the democrats have clearly become the party of extremism and i expect tonight when they debate in south carolina we will see another very sharp left turn for liberal policies. we sought during the fireworks in nevada last week as a dangerous democratic socialist policies were being presented, ones that i believe would be bad for the country. at the debate last week they hardly talked about the economy at all because it doesn't really fit into their socialist narrative. when they talk about taxes each one wanted to raise taxes more than the one that had just spoken. when it came to health care they were talking about taking health insurance away from 180 million americans who get it from work and providing free health insurance for illegal immigrants

and raising everyone's taxes to pay for it. when they talk about energy they talk about punishing the economy in ways that really don't help provide improvement for the environment. at the same time republicans continue to work for a strong, healthy economy and the time were last months numbers showed two and a 25000 new jobs, unemployment at an all-time low, wages up in consumer confidence at an all-time high. >> yesterday the white house sent up a $2.5 billion spending plan to respond to the coronavirus. we had a hearing this morning with the secretary of hhs which was a briefing for all senators before that couple of points to make. in the 19 spending bill for the first time we gave hhs and infectious disease fund that

they have a lot of flexibility with, $105 million. that fund has not been exhausted yet but we are beginning to see when it might be. the secretary has a authority that would add another $136 million that the secretary can use without senate or house or congressional action so we are almost at a 250 million-dollar level of money immediately available. we don't have all the time in the world but i think we do have time to look at what it will be the right number if 2.5 billion is the right number and if the paved boars are the right pay fours then secretary a czar this morning and other from the white house yesterday and today have assured me and assured chairman shelby and i think the house leaders as well and senator leahy that they will be working with us to find that right number. we intend to do that but in the near term money is available to

meet the immediate needs beginning to deal with this health challenge. we will work with the white house and we will decide the final number and we will decide the pay fours in the sec. this morning was clear that they understand that that is how this process works. >> last week i continued on my 99 county tour and was out and about with iowans and we were able to visit with a number of farmers from across the state and of course, what they wanted to talk about was trade. they are really, really thankful that we have been able to accomplish the phase i china deal that the president got over the finish line, as well as the u.s. and ca. they aren't really excited about the opportunities wrapped up in those trade deals, not only for farming but also for manufacturing and small businesses but what they want u