from the president after our lunch. it was a good discussion and dominated the whole hour. where we go from here, it seems to me with regard to any kind of package, the secretary of the treasury has gone over to see the speaker of the house. they work well together and developed the caps package that we passed last year to determine how much we were going to spend. i think the secretary of the treasurer will have control for the administration and i expect that will speak for us as well. we are hoping that he and the speaker can pull this together so we end up not playing partisan games at a time which seems to me to it cry out for bipartisan, bicameral agreement. that's what i'm hoping to see and i'm hoping to see it pretty soon. >> our number one priority is the health and safety of the american people. i think we have heard from a lot of health experts about the things the american people

need to be doing to try to protect themselves and we would continue to suggest listening to those experts. as we have pointed out, what we heard from the president today is an array of ideas of things that could be done to assist with getting the economy, sort of back on its feet. and we had great bipartisan cooperation last week between the house in the senate democrats and republicans, and getting the immediate relief package out there. which has provided the resources and the assistance that is necessary for our medical professionals to respond in the best way possible. hopefully, we can see that same level of cooperation on whatever it is that ultimately is put forward, but as it was clear today, the president, his team, the vice president, the administration is working aggressively to do everything they can to keep the american people safe. protect those who might be

having -- coming into contact with the disease, and also to assist those who have suffered as a result of the economic impact that this is causing. >> as a doctor, just only talked about the fact the concern is that health, well-being, safety of the american public. we talked a lot about that today and the need to continue to be vigilant. congress is acting in real time to make sure that the experts, the medical experts, have what they need. congress responded with a package of about $8 billion to focus on treatment, to focus on developing vaccines, medicine, and testing. we know those at greatest risk seemed to be the elderly and people with underlying medical problems. as a number of people being tested goes up, we had a million tests out at the end of last week and 4 million out by the end of this week. the number of those testing positive ago up as well. we know that the signs and to

make sure folks at home know what the symptoms are. it is coughing, it's a fever, and it shortness of breath. though it ways to try to help protect you and your family as a cover when you cough. if you are sick, stay home. make sure to wash her hands regularly. for a great deal of americans, the public, the risk at this time of developing this virus infection remains low. >> the vice presidents report on corona virus, very helpful. all 50 states are now testing. the private sector tests are also coming to the forefront quickly. so anybody that can't get a test needs to reach out, maybe to one of our offices and say we understand there should be a test available, it should be quickly available in our state. if sense and from our community, so the state and local responders are doing what they need to do. $450million will go to the state and local governments

within the next 30 days. another $450 million will be distributed based on need, looking at what might happen for future areas of intense effort that needs to be made. the vice president also reported that medicare, medicaid, and i think all private insurers have agreed to cover the cost of tests and also to cover the cost of deductibles if it relates to the coronavirus. so those are all big and reassuring steps to people who have any hesitation about getting this checked. because they might not be able to afford what happens next if they have medicare or medicaid, or if they have private insurance, the administration is working vigorously to be sure all of those costs, and particularly initial testing costs are met by somebody other than the person who is covered by any of those big areas that cover most americans now.

>> i am very grateful that we were able to act so quickly on a package that will support the resources necessary to combat the coronavirus. again, it was a bipartisan measure and very thankful that the president had that signed as quickly as he did. i hope that we are able to continue working in a bipartisan way to work our way through the coronavirus and all of the following issues. back home in iowa, we do have a great partnership between governor kim reynolds and the administration. the delegation here in congress, and working with her and making sure all of our public health officials are informed and getting the word out to our constituents. so i do hope that all of the other states are working in conjunction with each other. it is going to take a partnership to get through this episode. so again, we hope to be working together, very tightly

in the upcoming months. a little different topic, it is sunshine and government week. tomorrow, a number of fellow senators and i will be on the floor talking about shedding light in our government and making sure that the public is aware of what we are spending our tax dollars on. in making sure that it is done in an efficient and effective manner. so they can be things that we can work together on his simple as putting a price tag on a government project and letting our constituents know whether it is on time or whether it is overbudget. there are just some simple things that we can do as a federal government to make sure our consumers, our taxpayers are aware of how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. thank you. >> while indiana had our first positive test for coronavirus just last week. and we've had a couple since then. i have to commend our governor

and state department of health for their response. it is been incredibly professional, and really increased in maintain confidence in the government's ability to respond on this. here at the federal level, i am very pleased that myself and our colleagues came together and were able to get some emergency and finding out the door to make sure that states and localities have sufficient resources to respond to this. were preparing for the absolute worst, so the worst doesn't happen. it's a good way to think about the process we're going through right now. we are certainly trying to contain and prevent the spread of coronavirus, to the extent we can. we are learning more every day about this virus and we want to minimize the economic impact. we are weighing a number of different policy measures to figure out how to most responsibly and responsively respond to the needs of our economy. the president is to be

commended for his decisive action early on and must be noted, he was able to stop air travel from coming out of china. i think that helped contain some of the spread of this. but again, we still have a lot we need to work on here. i just urge fellow hoosiers to remain vigilant as individual families and communities deal with this. basics, wash her hands, stay home if you're sick. check for updated information. for example, visit corona virus.gov. that can be access through my own website young.senate.gov and some other things that could be of interest to all americans is available through coronavirus.gov. it's to how to prepare one's home, one's workplace, or one school to prepare for this virus. some very accessible bit information engine informative information found on coronavirus. >> the president seems

skeptical of what the speaker had proposed and described it as chopped up. isn't it important for people to get tested, incurred costs, reimburse them, if they have high deductibles extended unemployment insurance? i know you said the treasury secretary is meeting with the speaker but aren't those things importance and it's going to be part of this package? >> i think the package needs to be negotiated. the speaker is the most prominent democrat here on the capitol hill. anything to get on the president's desk has to be agreed to between the administration and the speaker of the house. the way forward, is the way we handled this last week. to come together, not pursue some sort of a partisan agenda here, and see if we can reassure the public by not following our worst instincts to get into fights over everything. last week was a good example of how to do it. i am confident the treasury secretary in the speaker can find a way forward that will

be comforting the both sides. >> senator ted cruz has self corn seed after coming intact unchecked contact with someone. [inaudible] this virus can affect older americans more than younger ones are there concerns about protecting the senate and this customer. >> yes if you have anything to add on that i will let you know. >> this is a challenging time for federal workers, especially those in the front line of the coronavirus. we wanted to know, why has the senate not confirmed three nominees. [inaudible] >> if they are out on the counter, you would have to ask senator schumer. >> you are the leader of their publican party, the leader of the senate. why. [inaudible] >> because the way those get confirmed is by consent. typically we don't have big fights over those kind of nominees. in the first two years of this

administration, i had to file closure 128 times to move even the most insignificant appointment to the senate. i few go back six presidents, six of them, the number of times the majority leader had defied cloture cumulatively, on the executive counter, 24 times over six presidents of the first two years. so that's probably a question better directed at the. >> 30% of private-sector workers in the east south central region, that includes kentucky are without paid sick leave. what is your commitment to those kentuckians to those who can't afford to stay home if they are sick customer. >> they are going to be a number of different things considered and putting together this package, which i said i hope and that being a bipartisan bicameral negotiated way forward that

will reassure others and that's the example of the kind of thing that's being discussed. thank you. [background noises] [background noises] okay everybody thank you for coming i am proud to be joined by my colleagues. i am going to be blunt. we are very worried