need to combat this just as the president has requested. reporter: are you concerned that administration has eliminated some conditions disease?ith infectious they elimb named the -- i think c.d.c. epidemiology around the world? mr. mccarthy: n.i.h. and c.d.c. have more money from this than they had from the past administration. organization, they have constant improvement. however they streamline that in he process to make sure the outcome, the number one thing i want to see here is the outcome and the safety of the american public. exactly what the president is looking for as well. that's why he provided them more money. and being prepared for this situation. thank you, all, very much. reporter: thank you. >> meanwhile, mitch mcconnell

the senate rning on floor, quote, there seems to be covid-19 estion that will cause some degree of disruption here. he also talked about bipartisan spending s on the package to help combat the virus that were, quote, under way. here's his entire statement from the senate floor. mcconnell: thd spread of the covid-19, coronavirus, has the world on notice. here in the united states we are fortunate not to be facing an immediate crisis. in response to earlier reports of the outbreak, the administration began monitoring efforts and enacted commonsense travel restrictions to help blunt and delay the spread of the virus here in our country. but cufl, as our public health experts remind us, a nation of nearly four million square miles and more than 300 million people cannot be hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world. there seems to be little question that covid-19 will

eventually cause some degree of disruption here. the question before us now is how we can help the administration and our professional medical experts continue their efforts to take advantage of this head start. our task is to make sure these dedicated professionals have what they need to continue preparing in ways that are calm, smart, and effective. here in congress, first and foremost, that means providing additional resources for the comprehensive federal response. it's our job to ensure that funding is not a limiting factor as public health leaders and front-line medical professionals continue getting ready. that's exactly why several days ago the trump administration submitted an initial request for supplemental funding to begin the conversation. it was exactly the kind of action that many of our democratic colleagues had been

demanding. but as soon as the administration did take action, to the apparent puzzlement of basically everyone including his fellow democrats, the democratic leader began launching partisan political attacks at the white house instead of working together to get this done. just days ago, the democratic leader signed a letter, quote, strongly urging this kind of funding request but almost the instant it arrived, he began blasting it as, quote, too little, too late. and our colleague continued to move the goalpost. his strong views on the necessary amount of funds varied daily. it has been a strange and clumsy effort to override normal bipartisan appropriation talks before they even happen and replace them with top-down partisan posturing. everyone from his fellow democrats to president trump have seemed perplexed by the democratic leader's political

game playing. it's not clear to anyone why he is prioritizing fighting with the white house over simply letting the appropriators do their work. i feel confident, mr. president, that the coronavirus does not care about partisan bickering or political news cycles. this new disease is not going to press pause so that members can engage in performative outrage that gets us farther from results rather than closer. this is our first step in confronting the challenge. congress must be prepared to work together across the aisle in a collaborative way and actually get results. fortunately, it appears we will have an opportunity to put this cynicism behind us quickly and move forward in a unified way. bipartisan discussions are already under way among our colleagues on the appropriations committee. i have full confidence that chairman shelby, senator leahy, and our colleagues are fully

capable of handling this quite well. i have faith the committee will carefully consider the right sum to appropriate at this time to ensure our nation's needs are fully funded. i hope they can work expeditiously so the full senate would be able to take up the legislation within the next two weeks, and i hope as we move forward through this challenge, this body can put reflective partisanship aside and uphold the spirit of cooperations and >> and house speaker nancy and pelosi said today that congress on lose to an agreement additional federal money for the coronavirus outbreak. democratically led house is insisting that the funds not be pulled from other accounts. house chaplain, father pat conroy, started the house session today with a prayer over those