[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] mr. connolly: i understand you all had an opportunity to hear from the president after our lunch. it was a good discussion. it 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 worked well together and developed the caps package that we've passed last year to determine how much we were going to spend. mr. mcconnell: i think the secretary of the treasury will have control for the administration and i expect that

will speak for us as well. we're hoping he and the speaker can pull this together so we're not playing partisan games at a time which seems to me to cry out for bipartisan, bicameral agreement. that's what i'm hoping to see and hoping to see pretty soon. >> our number one priority is the health and safety of the american people. i think weave heard from a lot of health experts about things the american people need to be doing to and protect themselves and we would suggest continuing to listen to those experts. what we heard from the president today is an array of ideas, the 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 and the senate, democrats and republicans, in getting the immediate relief package out there, which has

provided the resources and assistance that's 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 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 come into contact with the disease. then also to assist those who have suffered as a result of the economic impact that this is causing. >> the concern is the 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 realtime to make sure that the experts, it's 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 seem to be the elderly and people with underlying medical problems. mr. barrasso: as the number of people being tested goes up, we had a million tests out at the end of last week. four million by the end of this week. the numbers of those testing positive will go up as well. we know that the signs and to make sure that folks at home know what the symptoms are. it's coffing, it's a fever, and it's shortness of breath. the waits to help try to protect you and your family is to cover when you cough. if you're sick, stay home. make sure to wash your hands regularly. for the great deal of americans, the public, the risk at this time of developing this virus infection remains low. >> the vice president's report

on coronavirus, very helpful. all 50 states are now testing. 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. mr. blunt: if sent in from our community. so the state and local responders are doing what they need to do. $450 million 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. if they have medicare or medicaid or private insurance, the administration's working vigorously to be sure that all of those costs and particularly initially all the testing costs are met by somebody other than the person who's covered by any of those big areas that cover most americans now. >> i'm very grateful that we were able to act so quickly on a package that will support the resources necessary to combat the coronavirus. it was a bipartisan measure and very thankful that the president had that signed as quickly as he did. i hope that we're able to continue working in a bipartisan way to work on our way through the coronavirus and all of the

following issues. back home in iowa we have a great partnership between governor kim reynolds and the administration, the delegation here in congress. ms. ernst: and working with her and making sure that 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's 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 in 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 and making sure that it's done in an efficient and effective manner. so it can be things that we can work together on, as simple as putting a price tag on a

government project and letting our constituents know whether it's on time or whether it's 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. >> 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 our state department of health for their response. it's been incredibly professional and really i think increased and maintained confidence in government's ability to respond on this. mr. young: here at the federal level, i am very pleased that myself and our colleagues came together and were able to get some emergency funding out the door to make sure that states and localities have sufficient resources to respond to this. we're preparing for the absolute worst so that 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, the extent we can. we're learning more every day about this virus and we want to minimize the economic impact. we're 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 it must be noted, he was able to stop air travel coming out of china. i think that helped contain some of the spread of this. but, again, we still have a lot that we need to work on here. i just urge fellow hoosiers to remain vigilant as individual families and communities deal with this. basics. wash your hands, stay home if you're sick. check for updated information. for example, visit clonevirus.gov. that can be accessed --

coronavirus.gov. that can be accessed through my own website, young.senate.gov. some information that will be of interest to all americans is available through coronavirus.gov and it's how to prepare one's home, one's workplace, or one's school for this virus. some very accessible but informative information found on coronavirus.gov. reporter: the president seems skeptical of what the speaker had proposed, described it as chopped up. isn't it important to try to -- people need to get tested, incur costs, reimburse them, if they have high deductibles, extend unemployment insurance? i know you said the treasury secretary smeeting with the speaker but aren't those things important and is that going to be part of this package? mr. mcconnell: i think the package needs to be negotiated. the speaker is obviously the most prominent democrat here on 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 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'm confident the treasury secretary and the speaker can find a way forward that will be omforting to both sides. reporter: senator ted cruz self-quarantined after coming in contact with someone. [indiscernible] -- this virus can affect older americans. are there concerns about protecting the senate in this? mr. mcconnell: yeah, if we have anything to add on, that i'll let you know. reporter: this is a challenging time for federal workers, especially those on the front lines of the coronavirus.

we wanted to know, why has the senate not confirmed any -- [indiscernible] -- nominees -- [indiscernible] -- mr. mcconnell: if they're out on the calendar, you'd have to ask senator schumer. reporter: you're the leader of the republican party, the leader of the senate. why -- [indiscernible] -- mr. mcconnell: 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 cloture 128 times to move even the most insignificant appointment through the senate. you go back six presidents, six of them, the number of times the majority leader had to file cloture cumulatively on the executive calendar, 24 times over six presidents in the first two years. so that's probably a question better directed at the --

[talking simultaneously] [indiscernible] reporter: 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 don't -- can't afford to stay home if they are sick? mr. mcconnell: there are going to be a number of different things considered and put -- in putting together this package which i hope ends up 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2020] >> and the senate back in session this afternoon, continuing work on their bipartisan energy and environment legislation. follow that over on c-span2. the house is coming back in a few minutes, couple of votes, including a vote on the bill debated