election security at administration will be examined by the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee at a hearing wednesday morning. watch that life beginning at ten eastern on c-span three, on live at c-span org. or listen on the free c-span radio app. select the food and drug administration meets an open session to approve moderna vaccine for covid-19. live coverage thursday 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. stream live and on-demand at c-span.org. or listen on the free c-span radio app. earlier today senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and other republican members held a news conference with reporters at the capitol. they spoke about covid-19 relief legislation, and the upcoming legislative agenda. this is 20 minutes. >>

[background noises] [background noises] >> will there is a general feeling of excitement around the country with the deliver the vaccine around the country. the largest concentration of ups employees in the country is in louisville, kentucky my hometow hometown. i wish the corporate headquarters there but it is in a lambda. but nevertheless, packages are being routed through louisville to go all over the

world. it is one of the key locations that are delivering vaccine all over the country. over the last 24 hours. the first shots have been administered, hope it's on the way. and our job here is to guarantee that there is enough money to facilitate the delivery as well as to do other things that we can agree on. and as i have said repeatedly, number one we are not leaving here without a covid package. not going to happen. we are going to stay here until we get a covid package to matter how long it takes. we will be here until we get a covid package. number two, the way ford obviously is to put aside the two things that are the most contentious on each side. liability production and staying local.

we all know the new administration is going to be asking for another package, we can live to fight another day i what we disagree on. we ought to agree to go forward i what we can agree on. that is the way forward. no less in the number two democrat in the house speaker of representatives, the majority leader said on sunday and one of the talkshows that it made sense to set aside the two things that were the most contentious and agree on all the rest. so it is still my hope we are going to get an appropriation. and it will have attached to it when it comes over from the house, an agreement that we have been able to reach with the four corners. and secretary mnuchin and the president. >> while it is great news the vaccine coming out in record time, five times faster than any vaccine literally in history.

henna my state of south dakota yesterday, front-line workers were getting vaccinated. which is a great story for south dakota. it's a great story for every state in the country. and it is great credit to the scientists, the trial volunteers, the companies themselves working with the senate and the house and the white house to make this happen in record time. truly remarkable achievement. one that hopefully will start to deliver meaningful relief to the american people. there are a few things left for us to do. always with the vaccine out there we have resources available and legislation that we are continuing to help distribute that vaccine and a quick and efficient way. that needs to be addressed in a covid package. as the leader pointed out the list of issues has narrowed significantly. there is a bipartisan buy-in and support for a proposal that does a few of the basic things we all agree on. it helps our hardest hit small businesses, it provides

unemployment for those unemployed. provides money for just tradition and money for schools. those are all elements that we have been talking about. frankly legislation that we have voted on a couple of times in the senate have a majority of senators vote in favor of it. that is where i hope this will land. whether or not it lands there really is up to at this point, speaker policy and democrat leadership schumer and the senate sprayed the bipartisan group is comes to that decision for they jettison as the leader pointed out the most controversial element of that proposal which is funding for state and local governments. and liability protections. so those two things if they are not on the table, what you are left with it are the things i just mentioned which has broad bipartisan support and should make this an easy negotiation. but it does require leadership on the democrat side to agree with the bipartisan group of senators including senator durbin who been working on this for some time.

i think we all need to get this done. in a targeted fiscally responsible way, the most critical needs that are out there as a result of the pandemic. we are in a position to do something about that, to do it this week. live a spending bill that will be coming over it is the perfect place for the covid relief bill to get this all done at one tim time. and i certainly hope on behalf of peoples country that the democrat leadership here in the congress and the house will get together with our republican leadership and finish a job that should have been done a long time ago. but frankly if it gets done now will be greatness for the american people. two well people all across this country are receiving today the shot against coronavirus. the vaccine has arrived and i

will tell you from the point of being a christmas gift to the american people you can help know better through the year 2020 truly is remarkable 3 million doses sent yesterday to 3206 locations. it is working it is a front page story in every newspaper in america. you open a newspaper you see someone getting the shot, the vaccine for coronavirus. it is also a sign of ingenuity. our efforts made by scientists, by researchers to get this developed and distributed all across america. i talked to healthcare providers in wyoming and this weekend there's a huge sigh of relief as they look forward to receiving the shot, the medicine because it will provide relief for them the doctors, the nurses the therapists. i think of this of being a doctor in terms of how important is this, it is

similar to insulin. to penicillin. and certainly safe effective as the polio vaccine. it is exactly what we need to get america back on track in terms of our economy, kids back to school, and put the disease behind us. so what have the democrats been doing? they have continued to block us every step along the line. just in the last couple of weeks both speaker pelosi and senator durbin have admitted that they held up relief for political purposes. they held up coronavirus relief for political purposes because of the election and allow the american people to continue in isolation and hardships because they had a political agenda. they blocked our efforts as republicans different times for it's time for the political games to be over. we need a solution. the american people are

depending on all of us. from the standpoint of good news she may have seen some of the polls that show more people as they learn more about the vaccine are much more willing to get the vaccine. i saw former presidents clinton and obama and bush also they would get the vaccine into publicly to show that it is safe and they trust the entire vaccine. and to that as a doctor i would say sign me up as well. >> well on the recovery from the pandemic front, which obviously is going to take some time now before we get there. the national institute of health today announced the first home test to come to the shark tank process. it will be producing about 100,000 of those a day in january. 250,000 a day in february. task can be taken at home. i think over 800 applications of various kinds on testing or

made nih to become partners in the shark tank. about two dozen of those have been in production. many were point of service tests that have been happening at campuses and other places. this is a first at home test. so people work to be sure they continue to be safe while others in the house are waiting on the vaccine. that will be importance. in on the vaccine front, not only another good report from a moderna as we go towards hopefully the approval of that later this week, but i was in a conference call last week with people running that program. they were saying 20 million people will have their vaccines done by the end of december. 100million by the end of march. they would mean 100 people would have both shots, 100 million by the end of

march. and the answer is yes. that many people will be through this process, should be able to fully engage in society. at least safely for them and others they are with. and on friday the government just bought another 100 million doses of the moderna vaccine. will be added to the 100 million we previously contracted for. so back over the we had a football game. i don't know if you caught that, todd. but the united states military academy did defeat the united states naval academy. fifteen -- zero total shut out. so again we want to thank not only the cadets and all of those who stepped forward to our our nations uniform. not only is the army a winner, but also the american people right now. across our great united states.

this is a tremendous success thus far with operational warp speed. i really want to give those who have been in charge of this program, all of those up at the research and development into it, those that are working on the logistical side to make sure our states are receiving the vaccines, i want to say thank you to all of them for the great efforts to make sure we are protecting the american people. we are very concerned about that. iowa is excited about their receipt of the fox nation. they will go ahead and distribute those two of course those hospital and healthcare workers. and those that are most vulnerable. they'll start receiving those. but beyond that, beyond operation work speed, a number of my colleagues mentioned we need covid relief. okay so not only do we need to fund the fox nation and the process of distribution, we also need to make sure that we

are supporting our american businesses, industry, our individuals, our healthcare system. i could go on all day. and again we do not want this to be political at this point, we just need relief. iowa restaurants are wondering if we are going to be here. are we going to be here in another week or so. i am encouraging again everyone to come together. let's wrap this up, we need to get it done by the end of the year. and we need to make sure everyone sees the relief that is necessary to support our econom economy. >> joni, i want to congratulate you and all of the army fans out there. better luck next year for those of us who are backers of navy print out that joanie's pregame position american people win every time we play. [laughter] so a win for the american people. it's not about who wins and

loses, thank you for recognizing that last week. clearly a win for the american people with this rapid development of approval with coronavirus vaccine. it is a testament to the ingenuity it was developed and approved in such rapid precession. without operation warp speed with this would not have happened. we are now at a point where just yesterday there was vaccine delivered to a hospital in indiana so that our high risk healthcare hard-working personnel would have access to this ground breaking game changing vaccine. but in the few weeks who will see this vaccine to 50 additional hospitals run the state of louisiana so they can

be protected. so we can do we can control the symptoms of and contain this deadly virus. the researchers have done their work. the essential workers are doing their part. now it's time for congress to do their parts the current virtually vaccine package and make sure the vaccine up to more americans as we head out to next year and provide economic relief that some americans continue to suffer. we really need to put politics aside. it seems like we're getting very close to doing that. and coming to terms on some difficult issues. i'm very pleased about that. the electoral college submitted its votes.

i also think as we look into next year it is very important that each of us pledges to work with president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris to ensure we keep the american people safe and secure so we get through this coronavirus. and we emerge very strongly on the back end of it. >> let me add one additional thought on the vaccine part as a polio survivor myself, unfortunately the vaccine had not yet been developed. i am a huge supporter being vaccinated when you have substance that you know works. so whenever my turn comes i'm going to be anxious to take the vaccine and reassure and do my part to reassure those who are doubtful about this that we really need to get the country vaccinated.

when you have about half of the population either skeptical or saying they won't do it, that is not good news. so all of us who have at least some following in the country as the presidents are and i'm sure people in the entertainment world will as well encourage people to do this. it's the right thing to do for yourself, for your family, and for the country. reporter: the vaccine mining covid relief plans the. [inaudible] how long will they have to wait? we tried in september, i would remind you we try to october. we have been trying for months. we should not of been put in this position. we should have done this a long time ago. i've been saying for weeks and you have been listening to me safer weeks, let's politicize it things we can't agree enjoy

the things we can. that is just another good argument to get it done, to get it done now. we are not leaving, i assure you we are not leaving until i finish this package. reporter: 's morning congratulate joe biden on winning. [inaudible] president trump. [inaudible] stolen [inaudible question]'s direct, i do not have any advice to give the president on this subject. the said this morning for me, and on the basis of the way the system works, the decision by the electoral college yesterday was determined. reporter: present like testified this moring that you spoke on the phone.

do you think he deserves to have key members in place. [inaudible] to back our first job here is to finish up this session with this administration. and we will have plenty of time to talk about the way forward. our concentration right now is on the subjects we have been talking about. finishing up our work. and if president trump is going to be there until january 20 need to continue to work with him, the future will take care of itself. sue becker thoughts on is no deal available. [inaudible] [inaudible question]. we are not negotiated the deal in here. but it's pretty obvious the way to get the deal for weeks has been exactly what i said, what is been suggested and the bipartisan group has suggested is to drop the two most pretentious items for the moments.

we all know the new administration will ask for yet another package. it's not like we won't have another opportunity to debate the merits of liability reform and its state and local government in the very near future. thank you. [background noises] senate minority leader chuck schumer also held a briefing with reporters at the capitol earlier today. he discusses party's legislative agenda, covid-19 relief legislation and the electoral college votes. this is about ten minutes.