later, reporter nicole gaudiano iscusses how k-12 education being affected. join the conversation. "washington journal" is next. ♪ good morning. welcome to "washington journal." the president has signed a roughly $2 trillion aid package to respond to the coronavirus pandemic as a number of infections and deaths continue to increase in the united states. the house agree to the measure less than 48 hours after the senate's unanimous approval. and the president added a signature to what the "wall street journal" is calling the largest relief package in united states history. our question to you -- what do you think about the president signing a $2 trillion coronavirus a bill -- eight bill? -- aid bill?

phonel open up regional lines. if you're in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. if you are a medical professional, first of all, we want to say thank you are what you're doing for america right now. we will open up a special line for you. medical professionals, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. and keep in mind -- you can always text us at (202) 748-8003 . and we are always reading on social media, on twitter, @cspanwj, and on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. again, the president, yesterday, signed the $2 trillion coronavirus aid bill. for you a little

bit what he said to the media after signing the. -- bill. [video clip] >> republicans and democrats coming together, putting their differences aside to make this for americans first. this support small businesses. we will keep our small businesses strong and our big misses and says -- big businesses strong. this historic bill includes $300 billion in direct cash payments available to every american citizen earning less then $99,000 per year. of00 for a typical family four. a family of four, $3400. 350 billion dollars in job retention loans for small businesses, with loan forgiveness available for businesses that continue to paying their workers. the workers get paid. approximately $250 billion in

expanded unemployment benefits. the average worker who has lost his or her job will receive 100% of their salary for up to four months. things like this have never happened in our country. host: here is a little from the new york times about what is in this bill. i will read this to you from the "new york times." friday, the president signed a law to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. ther the law, which creates largest economic stimulus package in modern american history, the government will deliver direct payments and money for states and a huge bailout fund for businesses battered by the crisis. mr. trump signed the measure in the oval office hours after the house approved it by voice vote and less than two weeks after -- less than two days after the senate unanimously passed it. mr. trump think them for coming together and putting america first. the legislation will send rick

payments of $1200 to millions of americans, including those anning up to $75,000 with additional $500 per child. it will substantially expand not was a, providing an additional 13 weeks and a four-month enhancement of benefits. and, for the first time, will extend the payments to freelancers and gig workers. 377measure will also offer billion dollars in federally guaranteed loans to small establish a 500 billion dollars government lending program for distressed companies reeling from the crisis, including allowing the administration to take equity stakes in airlines that received a to help compensate taxpayers. it will also send $100 billion to hospitals on the front lines of the pandemic. housefter the vote, the speaker, nancy pelosi, and other

house leaders came out to talk to the media about the aid package. [video clip] >> this is a very special day for us. i think it sends a clear message to the american people, to american families gathered in their homes, to all of the tolth care workers working minister to the needs of the people who need their help, to the families who have lost their loved ones. america's hearts are full of love for them. we are all a family. our many families, we have differences, but we also know what is important to us. importantfamilies are for us. we are so pleased, today, to able to have passed, on the floor, practically unanimously, this important bill, cares. we want to demonstrate that we do care for the american people, in every way.

>> to the american public, we hear you, and we are working for you. to those on the front line the medical community, we cannot thank you enough. within this bill, there are more than 140 billion dollars for hospitals. not just the necessity of the money but also for the equipment, to make sure to keep you safe and actually perform your job. for every small business asked shut down and everyone who works for a small business. now the resources are there for you. if you own a small business, apply for the loan. if you pay your employees, pay her rent, pay your utilities, that is not a loan. that is a grant. to others, we have a tax credit to keep your employees working. we will get through this together. was house speaker nancy pelosi and house minority leader kevin mccarthy talking about the passage of the $2

trillion coronavirus aid package out of the house, which was signed in by the president yesterday. let's get a quick look at where america stands when it comes to coronavirus cases. this is coming from the johns hopkins covid-19 global casas tracker, on their website. we see here that the united states now leads the world in confirmed cases of coronavirus, 104,837 confirmed unitedirus cases in the states. we want to know what you think about the president signing the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package. let's go to our phone lines and talk to carl, calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning. i am looking at your johns hopkins map. it is a scary map, all those big

red blotches, where you couldn't even see the people from the satellite on the earth. where do they come off by scaring people? i went on to my local news media the other night -- i do not watch it anymore, but i wanted to check it out. now i know why everybody is scared. it was the end of the world. i cannot believe what i was hearing. this is scary, how fast people have become scared and hunkered down. and these rotten governors. those in those states that did not have to close their states. what are they doing? i live in california. i have to put up with nancy pelosi, that liar. i have not changed a thing i am doing. not a thing. my dad -- he is 93. he drove to the commissary. hunkering down. i do not care what gavin newsom thinks. and the rest of the governors destroying our country like this. i am giving up on supporting

every one of these politicians, forever. i am so fed up with it -- host: hold on a second. it sounds like you do not think this is a serious thing going on here. caller: no, when i listen to sayingalk about aids -- we had it 30 years. we have had it too million years, when man first had sex w ith simians. ant: you do not think having extra 100 people die of coronavirus -- these debts are completely new. you do not think this is something to be concerned about? caller: what 100,000? host: the 100,000 people who have died in the united states so far. caller: they have not been 100,000 people in the united states who have died from coronavirus. host: why do you think that? -- 100,000 cases of coronavirus in the united states. caller: so it 100,000 people got

the cold. host: you think this is like getting a cold? caller: listen, how can they close down the national wildlife trails? how come they have closed down even the hiking trails, where they say we can get out and exercise. we cannot even get a permit to go hiking in the wilderness. this is how ridiculous it is. these governors are sad, what they have done to this country. there was no reason for north dakota, south dakota, montana to close. no reason whatsoever. it is unreal. host: let's talk to debbie, calling from flint, michigan. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i really appreciate c-span. our friend carl from california is the reason that there is 100,000 cases here. i know that they had to pass this, but on top of the $2 trillion tax break they just gave all these corporations two

years ago, i think they went a little heavy on the billionaire welfare. that is what it is. i am inclined, this morning, to agree with rex tillerson. this guy is a moron. the night, trump was saying women from michigan -- what a jerk. michigan, androm my one vote counts just like trump's one vote does. gretchen witmer, mark my words. she will run for president someday. i would not be surprised if it was her and nikki haley in 2024. but i am so disappointed in trump. he picks and chooses. inslees to dog out jay because he was one of the people that would run against him. jay inslee is a good guy. his people love him. if you ask people in michigan, was it right to shut down? people back gretchen witmer.

coming from a long line of nurses -- great grandmother, grandmother, mother, two nieces -- i am a retired paralegal. i have to sit down if i get a paper cut. but look at the doctors and the nurses that are dying. if anybody in this society knows how to keep themselves clean and infection free, it is doctors and nurses. so it shows us exactly how powerful this virus is. and people better set up and take notice -- sit up and take notice. host: the president yesterday responded to some of the criticism he is receiving from governors and, of course, criticized some governors himself. here is what he said when asked a question but what he wants from governors? [video clip] >> what, more specifically, do you want the governor of washington, michigan -- >> very simple. i want them to be appreciative.

i do not want them to say things that are not true. i want them to be appreciative. we have done a great job. i am not talking about me. i am talking about mike pence, the task force, fema, the army corps of engineers. no country in the world can do what the army corps of engineers have done and are doing. and are going into hotels renovating hotels. that should be for governors to do, for states to do. we have the army corps of engineers so teed up and stocked up. there really excited. there are no games with these people. they are screaming get it done. they are not taking it easy. these are workers. these are incredible people. i think the army corps of engineers -- when somebody, for political reasons, wants to blame, i view that is blaming these incredible people. nobody has ever seen it. i do not know if you have been to the javits center. i have seen it.

i would love to see it. we have this incredible hospital. it was supposed to be ready in three and a half weeks because it is under maintenance -- a big maintenance contract. we were able to get it done quickly. we were able to stock it up to the top. and it is leaving tomorrow at 2:00 -- it is leaving virginia and will be in new york monday, weeks ahead of schedule. even the media -- i think the media and governors should appreciate it. i have to say the media has been pretty good and that governors have been really good -- except for a couple. with them, is just political. because we have done a job the likes of which nobody has seen. host: i want to remind you that if you want see more of what is going on in capitol hill and around the nation about coronavirus, we will send you to our coronavirus page here at c-span. if you want to know more about what is going on in government

and around the nation with coronavirus, go to www.c-span.org/coronavirus. you can find video and other information about coronavirus and your government. let's turn to some of our social media followers and see what they inc. about the president they think -- see what they think about the president and the $2 trillion a bill. one says i own a small business. this will not do anything for us. another says people should not be laid off. the people will -- the money should be used to keep those people employed so there is continuity and people are not thrown into uncertainty and poverty after the pandemic is over. here is a text that came in that said we weeks ago, trump was touting the economy as a greatest ever and corporations were flush with cash. now, these same corporations are strapped for cash -- hard to believe they are now broke.

maybe this was not the greatest economy ever? big business tax breaks, corporate bailouts, maga? stable genius? another tweet says the giveaway to the top was a slap to the face of americans forced to stay home without any help from the 1% government. other countries can do it. we decide to pad the biggest bank accounts instead. we want to know what you think about the president signing the $2 trillion coronavirus aid bill. let's go back to the phones and talk to ron, calling from maryland, a medical professional. good morning. caller: good morning. i am sorry that america had to hear carl and then trump first thing in the morning. an i am a director of inpatient unit. i have 35 beds in my unit here in the area. i challenge carl to come and do a field trip with me.

you can see, with your own eyes, how serious this is p that is not the reason i called in. i called in this morning because i was up late last night, and i noticed there is a trend. evan :00 p.m., every evening -- p.m., every evening, and sorry i am emotional here. people around the world go outside and applaud and clap and show their appreciation and gratitude towards the nurses and the therapists and the physicians and the techs for us doing our jobs. when i saw that, i am thinking have been a nurse 20 years. i also served in the military. ast one single time has a -- a nurse has anyone said thank you for the job you have done. i do not expect that. i do not really want that.

but when i put on my uniform, every single time, people say thank you for your service. they were,what color everyone said thank you for your service. i really do appreciate that. now this relief package is a slap in the face. and i will tell you why. than 75,000ke less dollars will get a $1200 check, and depending on how many kids you have, you get however many dollars per kid. and there is a ceiling. you get nothing after $99,000. guess what? the nurses in my unit have to work two or three jobs. a lot of them are single. a lot of them are your daughters and your mom's. they will probably come in at maybe $85,000 or $100,000, but from this bill, they get nothing. physicians, they will not qualify for anything.

in the military, throughout the time of war, we get bonuses. i got a retention bonus, $30,000 or whatnot. ,nd we went in with body armor every singlead item available to keep us safe. and health care professionals around the world, especially here in this country, the wealthiest country on the planet, have nothing -- host: let me interrupt you real quick, because that is one thing i wanted to ask about. how are you and your fellow nurses keeping yourself safe during this coronavirus pandemic? because you cannot help other people if you get sick, so how are you keeping yourself safe? caller: i am glad you put that out there. in the military, as far as active shooter, you first need to protect yourself before you can keep other people safe.

but you know, we put our faith in god. no one put a gun to our hand and doctorss to become and nurses. we do this because it is our passion, our love, our call. our c counting a lot on suite come out doing a great job in making sure we have our supplies. thank god our central supply actually had stopped 3000 masks in a basement in the corner in the last pandemic. after talk to that director. he said this will only last a couple of months. but thank god they actually stockpiled from the last pandemic. i do not know if it was h1n1 or the ebola pandemic. are ok forthat, we now. but have a feeling, the next five days or seven days, we are not. ramona,t's talk to

calling from laurel, maryland. caller: good morning. thank you so much for taking my call. good morning, c-span. we appreciate you guys for your constant coverage of up-to-date news going on in our government and the world. listen. donald trump signing the bill, of course people will say, certain people will say, it was a great thing. because america needs this help. however, america is not going to be the benefactor, or not the whole of america. there are people who are very smart who know how to get in and take what really belongs to people. the restaurant industry has been closed down, which i am a part of. i have not worked in three weeks. it is very difficult to find another job. there are people who have been laid off. andery stores are hiring things of that nature, but then you still have to be very careful, because they may not

want you to wear a mask, may not want you to wear gloves. then you are going out, people are still going out. cycle --epetitious host: let me interrupt you real quick. you said you work in the restaurant injured street and have been laid off. have you applied for an implement or are you actively looking for jobs and applying for unemployment at the same time? caller: both. i applied for on the planet. i have not received a letter yet. that is the other thing. all of these americans applying for unemployment, there is nobody there to work it. as well as the plans as they will extend the package to unemployment and that you will also receive this stimulus check if you paid your taxes -- if you filed your taxes. remember, they have extended the deadline. no one will see this money until april, may.

if we go back to work, if people are working -- i would hate for this "martial law" to happen, but honestly, each governor needs to have a statewide quarantine. 15 daysy stay home for to 30 days. let's knock this thing out as best we can. host: let's talk to kevin calling from rocky mountain, north carolina. good morning. caller: i am a huge supporter of this bill. i think it is working great. in parts of north carolina where i have been -- i am working on the food situation thing, passing out mre's, lysol, things like that. a lot of our restaurants are closed, things like mcdonald's, ojangles.ng, wendy's, b they are closed, so people are not really eating out. but i will agree with the last caller that the people hurting

the worst are in the surface thestry, because you got thing, when they file taxes, they are not always claiming their tips. so when they go to file for unemployment, they are basically, you know, only qualifying for a percentage of what they are claiming. people working at restaurants and redli's and outback , they will get the worst. i just wanted to say that, you know. host: going back to johns hopkins' list of coronavirus debts around the world -- deaths around the world. deaths around the world with the highest number of 9aths coming from italy with

,134 deaths in italy. the highest concentration of deaths in the united states are actually in new york city with 450 people being credited to have died from the coronavirus. yesterday, new york governor andrew cuomo provided an up date of the number of confirmed deaths in new york from new york state's counting and elaborated on the causes of those deaths. here is governor cuomo. [video clip] tothe number of deaths, up 519 in new york, up from 385. that is going to continue to go up. and that is the worst news that i could possibly tell the people of the state of new york. the reason why the number's are going up is because some people

came into the hospital 20 days, 25 days ago and have been on a ventilator for that long a period of time. the longer you are on a ventilator, the less likely you are going to come off that ventilator. -- that is not true with and that is true not just with this virus but with any illness. when someone is on a ventilator for that long a time, the outcome is usually not good. so we are seeing an increase in deaths because the length of time people are on the ventilator is increasing. and the more it increases, the higher the level of deaths will increase. again, we expect that to continue to increase. it is bad news. tragic news. it is the worst news. but it is not unexpected news either.

you talk to any health care , if they are not off that ventilator in a relatively short period of time, it is not a good sign. host: let's go back to our phones and talk to michael, calling from san diego, california. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to thank c-span for giving americans a placed event. -- a place to vent. my son is a respiratory specialist, so i am concerned about this. idiot in chief is doing too little, too late. he has put our country further in debt paid we need this money to help save our country, but i agree that the tax bill he signed a few years ago helped the rich and corporations. that is it. the guy from california that has

a 93-year-old father, he is a perfect example of a voter who has the right to vote who should not be allowed to vote. this thing is so serious. people do not realize how bad this is. i want to tell americans "wake up." republican my president is a blinken. -- abe lincoln. host: let's go to robert. caller: that was intense. you want to take away our right to vote just because you do not like who we vote for? i think this is a godsend. my wife is in the foodservice industry. she has been out of work a couple of weeks. this will probably get to us before her unemployment will, because that is backed up probably a month or two. this is a godsend. have you gotten your phone call from msnbc yet?

i think they will hire you pretty soon for trying to tell people we have had 100,000 deaths in this country. you will be getting that phone call pretty soon. i was just released from the hospital for an unrelated illness from chambersburg hospital. not too many other the people working there had the protective articles on them, the mask or gloves. inquired with the hospital administration, and they seem to think there is much to do about nothing. they say they're people have plenty of equipment -- their people have plenty of equipment. see no evil, hear no evil. host: let's talk to calvin, calling from georgia. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span, for taking my call paid i woke up this morning

and the first thing i heard was carl, and i jumped up and had to grab my phone. i am a former respiratory therapist. host: go ahead. former i am a respiratory therapist. i just wanted to call and speak to everybody, especially carl. you're fortunate to have your father, who is 93 years old, and he has not been touched by the virus as of yet. but the virus is real. it is not just about the virus, which is very important, and we need to isolate ourselves, but it is also about those who have heart attacks and strokes that do not have anywhere to go because the beds are full. so i would just like to say to everyone out there, whether you believe the virus or not, this is real. are to their capacity. i talked to other respiratory therapists working in the field right now. some of them are scared to

death, but they still go up and get to work every day to protect this country. i am also a veteran. i would like to say to everyone put the politics aside for right now. think about those people out there, the women going in to have babies, carl's father, that, god forbid that anything would happen, that he would have a stroke -- where would they go? these hospitals are overwhelmed. let's put the politics aside. start working with each other and get this taken care of. do what we have to do not just for the parties but for the country. host: let's talk to colleen calling from new jersey. caller: hi, how are you? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: are you staying safe? host: i am trying my best, because i have a wife and children to think about as well. needr: well, you know, we

you right now, to give us information and whatever. our hospitals -- i am a registered nurse. our hospitals are not giving us the right information. , i am ater of fact registered nurse, as i said, and i have one registered nurse to 40 patients. and, no, i do not have the right equipment to keep my own self safe. what can i say? we just need more governmental support. patients.r we are therefore our patients -- there for our patients. host: so without the right equipment, how are you keeping yourself safe? i have two sisters who work in the medical profession and two nieces as well. how are you while keeping yourself safe and continuing to go to work?

caller: well, actually, we are not. actually, we are not. we just have to keep going in and going in and going in and hope to god that we will be all right. marie,et's talk to calling from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is, on this stimulus package, my daughter has been out of work because of illness, and she did not file income tax last year. she had surgery and everything. now with everything going on, she has not been able to go to work because of being sick and her immune system being down. --ch she still be able to how will they know who she is? how can she go about getting the stimulus check?

because it really would help their family. they really desperately need the help. to jim, calling from fort lauderdale. good morning. caller: two things. number one, i do not like people giving the chinese a free pass on what has happened. i do not know if they intentionally sent that disease into the united states or if they inadvertently sent it and then saw the good thing about what was going on. hows really surprising quickly they knew exactly what to do -- up things down -- shut things down and get on their path. intentionally or unintentionally, i do not know. but this needs to be investigated thoroughly. the other thing is i think what we should do immediately with this almost historic low price of oil that we should put a tax

on gasoline and help repay this debt or make a fund for future need.ts that we buyt can be used to bankrupt oil companies and auction them off large oil companies. we need the oil infrastructure to keep america independent from foreign oil. i think it is important we do. also, i think it will reassure people, if we put tax on the gasoline, that we are attacking the debt side of what we are doing now. i think that is very important. host: let's talk to ramon, calling from citrus heights, california. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i appreciate the work you're

doing during this critical time in our country. i got a message for carl. i am from california. california is handling this situation really well. there is nothing wrong with our governor. carl would like to say to that this is what happens when you capitalists elect a businessman who has already , and thisap c5 times so-called businessman has already bankrupted our country, and he is on the way to giving the corporations that elected bonus, aside from the tax break that got him elected. thisnyway, carl, take information and sleep on it for a while. and i pray for your father. and thank you again for taking my call. also the coronavirus is hitting lawmakers on capitol

hill. here is a story from "the hill," which has a list of lawmakers who have tested positive for coronavirus in congress. listirst person on their is senator rand paul, who they onlyas a first and so far senator to test positive. he announced his diagnosis march 22 with his spokesman releasing a statement that he was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person. cunningham,, joe democrat from south carolina, has released a statement saying that he self-quarantined march -- after learning he had been in contact with a house colleague who was positive. he tested positive after he couldn't not see or smell, symptoms associated with the virus. a republican from florida was

the first lawmaker to announce that he had contracted the virus, with his office releasing a statement on march 18 that he had tested positive. representative mike kelly, republican from pennsylvania -- shortly after the house passed the third coronavirus relief package, he announced he tested positive for the virus after having exhibited symptoms earlier in the week. a democrat from utah. he released a statement revealing he had also tested positive. the 45-year-old said, after the developing said m's -- symptoms march 14th, he consulted with his physician. so right now, one senator and four members of the house have tested positive for coronavirus. and it is not just hitting in the united states. british prime minister boris johnson has also announced he has been positive for covid-19,

and his diagnosis was released friday. he actually made remarks to his country after announcing this positive test for coronavirus. here is what boris johnson had to say. [video clip] >> i want to bring you up to speed with something happening today, which is i have developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus , that is to say a temperature and a persistent cough. on the advice of the chief medical officer, i have taken a test. that has come out positive. so i am working from home. i am self-isolating. and that is entirely the right to do. but be in no doubt that i can continue, thanks to the wizardry of common technology -- modern technology, to lead the national fight back against coronavirus. i want to thank everybody involved. above all, i want to think our amazing nhs staff. it was moving, last night, to

join in that national clap for the nhs. but it is not just the nhs. it is police, social care workers, teachers, everybody who works in schools, dwp staff -- an amazing national effort by the national services but also by every member of the british public who is volunteering -- an incredible response. sick hundred thousand people have volunteered to take part in a great national effort to protect people from the consequences of coronavirus. i want to thank you and everybody working to keep our country going through this epidemic. we will get through it. the way we are going to get through it is, of course, by applying the measures that you have heard so much about. more effectively we all comply with those measures, the faster our country will come and thethis epidemic

faster we will bounce back. so thank you to everybody doing what i am doing, working from home to stop the spread of the virus from household to household. that is the way we will wane. we will eat it, and we will beat it together -- that is the way we will win. we will beat it, and we will beat it together. host: let's go back to our phone lines, calling from madison, wisconsin, george. caller: good morning. number one, congratulations to the president and our legislature, both democrats and republicans, for adding another $2 trillion to our deficit, immediately. i know this stuff is serious, but i think it is important to keep in perspective that,

,ccording to the cdc, from 2017 october, to march of 2018, we lost over 67,000 people to the h1n1 virus. number far outweighs the global number of deaths so far. i did not see any panacea caused by that. that did not cause a panacea of will by proportions. it is just important to keep things in perspective here. i do not think it warrants any $2 trillion -- adding $2 trillion to our deficit. especially if there is extra added for remodeling the kennedy center in washington, d.c. to brian,s talk calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning. all of those listening out

there, i just want to say something. i do not take anything from the medical people working, but what about the american truck driver? i am a truck driver, delivering medical supplies to new york at this moment. nobody has said anything about -- about us here out here doing what we do. i am here for the stimulus will, because there are people here who need this money, but people should think about the american truck driver. diane,et's talk to calling from charlotte, north carolina. good morning. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. this is my first time taking -- calling, but i listen to you every day. it is very informative for me. i was just given a piece of information that i do not know if you will know, it if you will be able to answer this or not. how do we read the entire bill?

because as i understand it, on page 203 of the 888 page document, that under the of thes plan, the 0.1% rich people would be able to sidestep taxes on stocks and other investments by claiming only on paper losses on real estate, even if they are raking in profits. congress itself said this would be the second is tax rate in the entire stimulus package. awareot know if you are of that or if someone can answer to that, but it is being designated as a loophole for the very rich, and it could cost 170 billion dollars in lost revenue , of lostnext decade tax revenue. host: if you want to read the

coronavirus economic stimulus bill yourself, you can actually find it on c-span.org. you can click on congress. once you get the congress, you will see a red bar that says dollar economic stimulus bill, and you can read the bill for yourself and see what is in the text. once again, you can find a copy of the $2 trillion economic stimulus bill signed by the , if yout on c-span.org want to read the provisions of the bill yourself. i want to show you -- this is how the final vote on that bill happened in the house yesterday. and representative thomas massie's efforts to force a recorded vote. here is what happened on the house or at yesterday. [video clip] >> pursuant to house resolution 911, their previous question is ordered on the motion. the question is on adoption of

the motion. those in favor say aye. >> aye. >> the supposed essay no. >> no. >> the ayes have it. >> mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i came here to make sure that our public does not die by vote in an empty chamber and ask a recorded vote. >> those in favor of a recorded vote will rise and remain standing until counted. a recorded vote is refused. >> mr. speaker. >> is the gentleman recognized? >> i object on the basis a quorum is not present. i make a point of order that a quorum is not present. >> the chair will count for a quorum. a quorum is present. the moment -- the motion is adopted. motion tojection, a reconsider is laid upon the table. pursuant to section 70 of house

the house stands adjourned until 3:00 p.m. tuesday, march 21 -- march 31, 2020. host: representative thomas massie attempted to get a recorded vote on the house passage of the coronavirus aid package. week, ourkers" this guest, the top republican on a key committee dealing with health, greg walden, commented on the rescue package and the role of congressman massey and his objections about the rules for the bill, which caused hundreds of lawmakers to get back on planes and come back to washington to vote in person instead of voting by unanimous consent. keep in mind, you can hear greg walden, top republican on the energy and commerce committee, on "newsmakers" this week talking about this. you can watch this sunday at

10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern time. [video clip] >> it was unfortunate and unfair and unnecessary. but we all get a voting card. we all have our rights and privileges on the house floor. he exercised his. it just was not necessary. we had the votes and have the quorum in the house, as was easily identified, and move on. it did not have any delay in effect him up but it did discomfort numbers. we are 130 some members. there are a lot of members who have certain illnesses or are dealing with things that make them even more vulnerable to this virus, so -- i do not know. it was a waste. really unfortunate. >> did that move plate members at risk, health risk? >> i think it did. otherwise, members would have stayed isolated, would not have

driven from michigan or ohio or would not have gotten on a plane or fly down from new york or somewhere. i am sure they would have rather stayed where they were. frankly, that was a medical guidance we were given -- do not move around a lot. stay isolated. stay home. we were not able to maintain those protocols because of this. but he believed strongly what he believes. his voters will have a say in how they interpret that. i know how the president interpreted it. he was pretty forthcoming. but the big news is not that. the big news is we passed this bill unanimously in the senate, overwhelmingly by voice vote in the house -- i am not sure if there were many, if any, objectors. but it moves forward to the president, who puts it to law, and now we get relief to american citizens. through people falling the cracks. this bill is designed to build a bridge to get to the other side and have a safety net to catch

people falling. can see that full interview on "newsmakers" this week starting at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern time. hadesentative massie something to say after getting all of this criticism on the house floor. i bring you what he said after the vote in the house. [video clip] >> they did not even give me a minute to speak in a four hour debate. that is a big cover-up. >> what cover-up? >> they are trying to cover-up their votes. they had enough people to pass the bill but refused to have a recorded vote. they told me they were trying to protect members. believe that is the case -- >> they are trying to protect the members there from political ramifications. >> your side and the other side -- and the white house pressed forward on this bill that

everyone agreed to be passed. >> i came here to make sure our republic does not die in an empty chamber by unanimous consent. these people need to do their jobs. if they are telling people to drive a truck, bag groceries and grow their food, then they can be in there and vote. that is what they did this week -- it did not delay the vote anyway. they sat on their cans yesterday here. they did not do a thing yesterday. it,ou are willing to report the truth is they do not want a recorded vote. they do not want to be on record in making the biggest mistake in history. host: let's go back to see what some of our social media followers are saying about the president signing trillion dollar coronavirus aid bill -- the. one tweet says i think the president will act like his -- and is his own largess

loaded over recipients as though he is our benefactor. another one says we lose 2 million each year to the flu and do not panic about that. this is not the end of the world. ignore american media. the task dr. birx on force. another tweet says the money in this pandemic says -- should be given to people, not corporations. it will trickle down to corporations. we, the people, promise. one more tree that says this bill is a hoax, trump's new hoax. many businesses will never reopen. thousands of people will not have jobs. on's take a few more calls the president signing the $2 trillion coronavirus aid bill. callingart with dee, from washington. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my

call. you are very much appreciated. what i would like to say is i appreciate that he signed the bill. i think it maybe should have -- youe of the first 3 know, like first, second, third. we got to three and then i had to do with people. i think it should have been the nurses and the doctors and the stuff needed to keep them safe to do their job that should have came first before anything. then to the people. and then to worry about the economy. i think, anytime you put money ahead of life, you are risking extinction. jacob,et's talk to calling from florida. caller: i am happy they are doing something to fight the

coronavirus and giving money to americans who are unemployed is a good start. but i am seeing a lot of information out there that the airports are still open, like here in orlando. tsaad three to five employees affected, and they still have not close the airports. what is the point of this bill if the airports are still open and people are still congregating together and there is no social spaces at the airport. especially got a case -- i am a ucf grad. we have a case on campus i read about, and affected student at ucf, so the airports and college campuses are not safe. i am concerned about that. i started a website to track it, called coronavirusoutbreak map.com. it is hitting his heart in

florida, so i am concerned about this. emelia,t's talk to coming from california. caller: good morning. i am not too crazy about this stimulus package. i don't know how disabled will recieve mo -- receive money. their money is not taxed. it is from the federal government. ahave breast cancer, i have 75-year-old mother with parkinson's and an 80-year-old father. when we have to go to the supermarket, we wear our masks and go out and get what is necessary and come back. but this virus is real. it leaves you very vulnerable -- for me, personally -- because i have nothing to fight it. i have to be careful.

i just want to say all my brothers and sisters fighting cancer, please be careful. stay home. wash your hands. and thank you for c-span. ,ost: let's talk to jimmy calling from kentucky. caller: good morning. for the all, thank god president this morning and getting us started. and thank you for accepting my call. ahead.o all, thank godf for waking us up this morning and thank the democrats and the together,s getting and thank god for the president passing the bill.

we all got children. the little children and the older people that pray for them. and getting everything together. i have to say, thank you. we will be all right, in god's name. thank you very much. host: let's talk to leonard, calling from north carolina. . youer: thank you for what are doing. imm by the largest employer in the county i live in. we are considered an essential business because we are a free-trade zone. and they are going to make us work. i was asking corporate yesterday how do i get to work if my city is under lockdown, and they said show your badge and you will get there. so i have to go to work and make makeup and haircolor products so that my billionaire, ron

perlman, can use this as a tax write off we are, because he owns mcmaster ford, which owns 85% of revlon stock, and he says i have to go to work. the particulars of the bill that any congress passes are always skewed toward the top 1%. i guarantee this one is skewed even more. we need to have an accounting of the bill. accountability is not what we are getting. i think c-span, think the u.s. government, and i thank god emma because i believe this is truly a wake-up call and a judgment upon western civilization. host: we would like to thank our callers and social media followers for joining us the first hour of the show. coming up, a discussion on the economic impact of coronavirus with brian sozzi with yahoo! finance. later, we will take a look at adjusting with

temporary and even cancellations of the school year with nicole gaudiano of politico. yesterday, new jersey governor phil murphy announced new funding for health care providers in his state and provided an update on testing. we will bring a little bit to you of what he said. [video clip] >> before i speak more about testing, i want to announce i have authorized the advanced payment of more than $140 million to our health care foriders to ready them covid-19 related expenses, including from our from our acte efforts to significantly and immediately expand their capacity. we must ensure their viability to meet the challenge this emergency has imposed. now on testing, we know so much of our chances for success in ending this emergency relies on expanded testing. in new the lab capacity

jersey, and we have taken concrete steps to increase our collection capacity. that is an all hands on that process from the departments of federal health, fema, local health departments, health care systems, and our private sector lapse. the metric we have been focused on from day one and that everyone must be focused on is the rate of positive tests among symptomatic individuals. quite frankly, in a perfect world, i suppose we would do it, but for the experts to my right, attempting to test every single person that would give us data that in the context of fighting the pandemic and given limited capacity would be useless. we need to know --

where testing -- on our health care workers and would not provide us with the critical data that we need to get out front and stay out in front. for ensuringic that our testing resources are dispersedperly and our greater medical resources are being put to their best use comes from testing the right people, those who are symptomatic. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we're back with brian sozzi, editor at large at yahoo! finance.

he is here to talk about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the american economy. guest: thank you for having me. host: how does this $2 trillion stimulus package, how is it going to help our economy? what can we expect to see? there of bad to be news. all it does is club a whole in the u.s. economy. hole in the u.s. economy. you are going to see shocking economic data over the next few months where you might see upwards of a million jobs lost. the stimulus package is a big number. it just prevents a lot of companies from going bust and the stock market from coming under increasing pressure. a lot of the sources i talked to on wall street see this as a

down payment for something intentionally larger in the second half of the year just to get the economy accelerated, getting things going well into 2021. host: you are seeing people on wall street and in the business community saying they are going to need another stimulus package just to get things back on track. this $2 trillion is not enough? guest: you are right on. that is the reality of it. marriott, one of the biggest hotel chains in business, they are furloughing tens of thousands of workers. it is unclear when that demand will pick up. yesterday, i talked to the founder of growth help. -- of grubhub. $100 million in fees.

it is unclear when demand will come back. i caution people that think the u.s. economy will snap back in the second half of the year. that is false. year where thee u.s. unemployment 8%. might spike up to that is a long way from where we were at the beginning of the year. the economy does not just jumpstart. host: what are the business experts saying that the government needs to do right now? if the $2 trillion was not enough, what are they saying actually needs to be done to save the economy? guest: they need to come up with a bigger, more defined plan that is better targeted to industries. within this $2 trillion deal, one of the industries that was

not included that has been hammered is the cruise line industry. in this package, the major cruise lines were not given any relief. lawmakers did not want to put that in. they want to see companies based in the u.s. getting that money first. these are companies that employ thousands of people. they need to do something. , lot of these cruise lines they might have look at mergers. what does that cause? potentially more job layoffs. a lot of people calling this a bailout, that is the wrong term. this is a relief package. a lot of companies are going to need a lot more relief in the coming months. i look at the april employment report. when you lose over one million jobs in the month, those jobs do not come back overnight. host: you brought up the cruise companies. i will bring up what i heard

people say about the cruise companies. a lot of those are not american companies. why should the u.s. government give them a relief package when they are not based in the u.s.? they would have to reconsider where they are domiciled. something needs to change on that front. so many of these companies that international in waters so they do not pay higher taxes here in the u.s., but if you want relief, get it back in the u.s. these companies employ thousands of people. it is not just u.s. workers. it is international workers. where are you going to go? you are not going to work at a restaurant right now. those jobs are no longer going to be there. restaurants may not open after this black swan event. where do you go if you were just

laid off? host: let me ask you this question, with all of the economic information we are getting now, people looking at the stock market and unemployment numbers, what information are you watching to tell you how the economy is going to be tomorrow, next week, next month, for the rest of the year? guest: it is interesting you ask that. a lot of people on the street and business leaders are starting to say ignore the data that is coming in a couple of months. the stock market has predicted it. the stock market is a forward-looking indicator. that is absurd. you have to pay attention to the data. like i mentioned, the april job losses might be upward of one million. the worst month during the great recession during 2009 was 800,000. i'm looking at the osundairo brothers rate, which might spike

close to 20 -- i am looking at the u.s. unemployment rate, which might spike close to 20%. weeksk in a couple of when companies start to report their latest earnings results, you are going to see some shocking news. potential more layoffs, profits under severe pressure, potential business closures. that is the reality. that is where businesses are. our viewers remind that they can join this conversation. we are going to open up regional lines. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, you can call in and join this conversation at (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, you can call in at (202) 748-8001. we are going to open up a special line for those who are

just recently unemployed. we want to hear from you. we want to know what industry you work in. we want to know when you got laid off. if you are recently unemployed because of coronavirus or any other reason, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading on social media, on twitter, and on facebook. brian, we have been talking about the economy in the macro level. let's talk about the micro level, the personal level. a lot of people are being laid off and furlough. what can we expect to see from the unemployment numbers in the future? guest: we just got a taste of it this week. each week you get initial jobless claims data.

for the most part, for the last five years, this data has been boring. the unemployment rate 3.5%, 50 year low coming into march. now, the initial jobless claims data that it's every thursday is watched closely indicator. that hit 3.3 million. you might see that number increase close to 4 million per week if not even more, which brings us back to the april employment report. losing over a million jobs, and you might lose even more over the headline in may. that is a shocking number. i'm looking at a lot of the gig workers. and lyft, these are

contractor driven. if you are quarantined at home, you are not jumping into a lyft. this is not a mild recession. this is a pretty severe recession. host: defined for us what signifies a recession. i have someone who has just wrote in and said can your mind is what a black swan event is? guest: the technical definition of a recession is two quarters of an economic retraction. we will not know that officially from a technical standpoint within a couple of months from now. the consensus view is that we are now in a mild recession. that is the view on wall street. that could morph into a more severe recession, a sharper decline in gdp or economic output going into the third quarter. look at the stock market.

25%s&p 500 is down over from the february 19 hi. that is a bear market. the stock market is saying we are probably in a more severe recession. in finance terms, a black swan event comes out of nowhere. you can predict business slowing down, but the coronavirus is not something that was on people's radar screens 12 months ago. that is why you are seeing to figure scrambling out how they are going to survive the next week or two weeks or month. gig: you just mentioned the employees. what type of employee is being affected the most? is it the restaurant industry? visit the travel industry? -- is it the travel industry?

what kind of employee is affected the most? guest: out of all the industries i have been studying, it is the restaurant industry. these restaurants, small independent chains, the pizza parlor on the corner of the street is closed. they have been closed two to three weeks. these businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. i talked to a lot of fast food chain ceos. in many respects our small businesses. they are primarily now just take out oriented. you cannot keep a restaurant profitable and keep people operatingy just delivery. retailers. i think retailers are in dire straits. a lot of them have cap employees

on the payrolls despite stories being closed. the reckoning is coming. you will see a lot of furloughing of retail workers in the weeks ahead. this is going to make things a lot worse. that is macy's, jcpenney's, even kohl's. let's have our viewers join in on this conversation. we will start with dave calling from new york. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to try to contract some of the things you are saying quick. one of the things with the bailouts is the federal reserve is printing money. it is going to buy corporate debt. corporate debt has been issued consistently over the last five years. they take that money and buy back their own stock. then the corporate executives cash out their stock options.

with this bailout, you are bailing out their luxury homes on the ocean, their lamborghini, there for ari. their fofeig -- rarri. that is a big thing. the bondholders will lose all their money. you are not bailing out the corporations, the company, you are bailing out the people that lend that company might. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i get the outrage. i'm no fan of stock buybacks. this situation is a little bit different from what we saw in 2008 and 2009. leading up to that, you had investment bankers on wall street take absolutely insane risks to line their pockets and get rich.

since then you have seen a lot of regulation come into place on wall street. if you are carnival cruise lines, royal caribbean, macy's, trying to do business on the up and up. this event came out of nowhere. orclose a department store cruise line overnight, that means you have no cash coming into your business. these are capital intensive businesses. because you do not have cash coming in, you will have no other choice but to lay off workers. i think the government should protectionsgreater to the money they are lending out, but a lot of these industries need relief. they need a yesterday. host: let's go to the top chef in new york. tasha in new york.

she was recently laid off. caller: i was working in the plastic surgery industry. i'm a per diem person. self-employed pretty much. i had a good business going. i was working for three different facilities. one was on fifth. one was in queens. i worked for another private plastic surgeon. my husband worked in the food industry. he lost his job before i did. made his way in the .igher echelons of manhattan basically everybody is out. everybody lost their job. i just want to tell the people that they just have to have

faith in our government and the people that are above us because they need to help us. the way they can help us is for us to be calm and believe that something good is going to happen soon. host: go ahead and respond. guest: my heart goes out to you and your family. i know this is tough stuff. i think what she brings up is key. business leaders thinking the economy can bounce back quickly and this is a blip on the radar screen. treasury secretary steven mnuchin said this will come back quickly, and the economic data they will see in the coming weeks he said is useless. this is not useless. this is the definition of a black swan event. she and her husband were working. things were going well. the coronavirus comes out of nowhere.

they will have to adjust how they spend and plan for retirement. how is the economy going to survive this and handle it over the next three to five years? play sound for you from president trump, who said he was targeting easter as the day the country could relax social distancing and bring people back to work. [video clip] >> ultimately the goal is to ease the guidelines and open things up to large sections of our country as we near the end of our battle with the invisible enemy. we win. i said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. i think that would be a great thing for our country, and we are all working very hard to make that a reality. we will be meeting with a lot of

people to see if it can be done. easter is a very special day for me, for a lotor of our friends. what a great timeline this would be. easter as our timeline. is always theity health and safety of the american people. i want everyone to understand that we are continuing to evaluate the data. we are working with the task force and making decisions based on what is best for the interests of our fantastic country. host: that is what president trump said about opening the economy by easter. how does that resonate in the financial and business community? guest: it really did not. a lot of folks i talked to, eir openings are being

delayed until mid to late april. retailers were supposed to open this weekend. they are starting to push back those reopened dates until the end of april. a lot of the folks i have talked to in the business community view it as the right thing to do. a lot of them have strong financials. they can survive this for the next two or three months. i get where the president is coming from. you want to pick up the economy. you want the economy going in the right direction before the election. the economy could pick up strongly. if you have the fed with a stimulus package, the government with a $2 trillion plan, but the key thing is get the american people healthy and then reopen businesses. you don't want chaos. you don't want to open up the mall, get infections rising again and then have the economy thisng into turmoil

summer. that is not the right way to think about it. host: here is the question i'm interested in. a lot of these businesses have closed their doors. a lot of these businesses are furloughing people. when they reopen their doors, do they expect to get the same employees that? -- back? do they have to retrain people before they can reopen? guest: i will not say retrain. a lot of these people they are furloughing, those are people with institutional knowledge of the company. those are the people that marriott calls back first. i'm concerned what hourly wages these workers come back with. we have seen a lot of companies across the board cut hourly wages across the board for those that are still working. as they come back, they might have a check coming in, but is

it at a lower pay rate? these companies are concerned if sales will pick up in the later half of the year. at some point these people will come back to work, but the question is how much money are they going to be making? host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to eric, who is calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning, america. thanks for giving this opportunity to speak. when you see the president trying to fulfill bible prophecy by moving the embassy to jerusalem, this is causing these .ypes of reactions spiritually, he called on the unseen army of the dead from the north. the president called it a hoax. he is costing people's lives.

then they use pride and go celebratingndays race cars going around racetracks. now you see the bible prophecies being fulfilled. i agree with you on this economy . nobody ever thought about this. even having the conversation today, still with this individual misrepresenting the truth. in placesnd ourselves we never have done before. the president is trying to fulfill bible prophecies. now we have all this money to do this. host: go ahead and respond. i could make a lot of economic tie-ins. i don't know that i could tie in

bible prophecy. this is a black swan event. you have a lot of confusion in corporate america. people are being laid off. has the administration made all the right decisions? absolutely not. i think the bigger story is how does the u.s. economy kickback into gear? i think you're going to need something even bigger the back half of the year to get the economy going in the right direction. shape at thene beginning of the year. we just have to get back there. some of your recent stories, you have highlighted some industries that are seeing a spike amid all of this coronavirus. what are some of the businesses out there that are still doing pretty good in the middle of this pandemic? host: i go back to grow --

i go back to grubhub. we are seeing a boom in the food delivery space. a lot of these companies are delivered to people's homes because they cannot go out. seen almart, i have not roll of toilet paper in my local target or walmart going on three weeks. you are seeing supermarket chains doing very well. is the suddenly bleach hottest thing at the supermarket. i have not seen a bottle of bleach going on over a month. clorox, walmart, target, those companies that are playing into panic buying. we just talked to hormel's ceo. they make spam.

sales of spam is off to a record-setting pace this year. people are buying a lot of canned goods. host: let's go back to our phone lines. let's talk to eddie calling from india. caller: good morning. brian, i am proud of you for saying the world does not revolve around wall street. towns have never recovered. i understand what you're saying. amen for that. i have a question for you. who in the world is going to buy all of this debt from america since all the countries, nations are going to be just about as broke as we are in the united states? thank you for telling the truth about everything.

i have always felt like wall street was always a place that was too big to fail. host: go ahead and respond. guest: you bring up an important question. our debt levels, we were not in a good place coming into this black swan event. in the light of this $2 trillion stimulus plan, they are not looking too well. this is an issue that has gone overlooked by many economists. we did this week see an interesting development. the s&p reiterated their aaa credit rating on the united states. aaa is the best rating you can get. they did note they could move to a negative watch. that is important for a lot of investors. if you get a downgrade on the countries credit rating, the cost of borrowing goes up.

what happens then is you go into a spiral. we saw social security and medicare payments that are not going anywhere. they are going higher because of retiring baby boomers. at some point that they are reckoning will have to come -- day of reckoning will have to come. it is just not coming today or tomorrow. host: let's go to terry. caller: i was calling because one of the things i was upset about in this package is people are getting checks from the government that are still employed and working. i don't understand why people that are not affected like the they arealler like really impacted and hurt by the situation, they would need help.

people that are working, i don't understand why they would be getting checks. it seems crazy. my second point would be i think we could pay a lot of this debt back if they just legalized it.juana and taxed it is legal in colorado. i'm sure that has generated a lot of income. host: go ahead and respond. guest: within this plan, if you $75,000, you get $1200. couple and00 for a $500 per child. is it perfect? no. if you are working and you get one of these checks, the question is where your hours

reduced? a lot of companies are cutting hourly rates. you may need this check to pay your rent and get your food. host: a lot of people are focusing on the tax return you may need this check to pay yourprovision. what year did you have to last file tax returns to qualify for that check? guest: i believe they are using the 2018 tax returns. ,ost: let's go to elizabeth calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: i'm on social security. that's all i get. this year i get a $19 increase

in my social security, and a live in a senior apartment upplex, and my rent went $35. from what i heard so far, i don't know if anybody on social security is going to get anything. i have some physical problems, and i cannot work. for72, so i cannot apply disability. i'm wondering if social security people get anything. ono i would like to comment one of the governors the other day said they had a deal with a ppe's for get all the the nurses and doctors, and the company called back later and said we cannot do the deal with you anymore because we've got

somebody who is going to pay a higher price. i worry about that. i certainly hope that the thatrs and the governors have to do with these companies remember that. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i do not see anything in this planhost: regarding social security beneficiaries. it is something i will have to look more into. toill encourage elizabeth hop on the phone and call the owners of her facility. there is tremendous deflation. prices are going down across the economy. we have seen oil prices crash. are a the time if you consumer and you are in this situation, get on the phone and call the building manager, call

your landlord and say i need relief. a lot of these landlords are up against it right now. if anything good is coming out of this, it is that consumers have a lot of bargaining power. host: to help answer that question, i'm looking at a story that came out of mcclatchy news that sayssterday millions of americans are about to receive checks from the government, including recipients of social security. $1200 under the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. an additional $500 will be paid out for independence. securitywho get social payments will also get money. those with supplemental security income and those who have little or no income.

that answers that question. let's go to michael, calling from michigan. good morning. hello. thank you very much. host: go ahead. caller: i have a couple of questions. is sent to the markets when politicians sell off millions of dollars in stocks? how would americans be benefited if our government was not paying over $600 billion a day in interest on our debt? thank you. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i share your distaste on dumpeditician that that stock. that is disgusting.

clearly had some insight into what was coming down the pipe. i suspect there will be a day of reckoning for those politicians once things settle down. that story is not going anywhere. that is not the right thing for you to be doing when you are a lawmaker. households, you just do not do that. should government officials be allowed to own any stocks? we will leave it there. the country has a lot of debt. the debt is only going to increase exponentially in the months and years to come. some point the stock market could be negatively hurt because of that. now thanks tot the federal reserve and 0% interest rates. host: the wall street journal

had a chart that compares the coronavirus package to the package that came during the last recession, the american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009. brought $700ram economy in 2008 and the economic stimulus act of 2008. what lessons can we take from the last time the government had to pump in 2008 and the economic stimulus act oy like this? greatert: putting regulations and preventing the risk-taking that companies do. i'm not a fan of stock buybacks. what i'm seeing in the stimulus plan i do not like in terms of limitations on stock buybacks. there should be more done.

if you are giving money to a public company, and they are going to go out later in the year and buyback stocks, do not do that. if anything good came out of the great recession in 2008 2009, more regulation on wall street. wall street loves to buy a lot of risky stocks. we have not seen that type of egregious behavior after that situation. should there be more precautions? sure. did we get them? no. in the next bill, there will probably be more oversight. let's see if we can get in a couple more calls. let's start with millie from connecticut. caller: good morning. thank you for all the information you are giving to us. in the not making much

category that you mentioned earlier. the 1099 people fall into this stimulus package? several distillery companies in our area making hand sanitizer. believed homegrown businesses would crop up based on what is going on. people that think people are buying so much stuff because they are orders, you have to think about the people they are buying for, disabled people and elderly people. let's not always think the worse. the 1099, how do we -- are we included in that stimulus package?

my knowledge, if you file your tax return in 2018, you should be getting the check from the government. you get an extra $600 per week for unemployment. job in that respect. stores seen a lot of putting in measures to prevent hoarding. people are buying for families. we make life of the fact that there is a run on toilet paper. people are quarantined at home for a day or a month. douglas.: let's go to caller: good morning. let's just pray and get through this. to 1985, 1930,ck

1840, 1780? are we looking at the magna carta? how far back is humanity going? guest: that's a deep one. i don't know how far humanity has gone back. the world is not ending. we will recover from this. 2008 or 2009.ke this is a true roundhouse kick that came out of nowhere. the stimulus plan is plugging the hole. there will be a lot of pent-up to theto go back restaurant, to splurge just a little bit because you have been quarantined for three months.

right now it will be tough. this is not a structural issue in the economy. this is an event that came out of nowhere. i think by december, january, even the first quarter of next year, the economy will be in much better standing. the next three months will be tough. you will see numbers in terms of unemployment that you have never before seen in your lifetime. things will get better quicker than people think. let's take one more call, maryland from illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. as theyn the heartland call this country. i know a lot of farmers.

trump reduced taxes to the corporations. why can't the money that they saved not paying the government taxes, why can't they use that money that they have stockpiled and pay their employees? trump has been trying plus the republicans to reduce all of the regulations so that they can get away with what they used to get away with, the companies, the corporations. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i hear what she is saying. paye tax cuts, they went to rising health care costs, higher defense spending. thist to push back on notion that you have corporate america out there taking insane

risks. so many of the companies i talked to, they are not in that same mindset. they are not taking insane risks, leveraging up their balance sheet and making stupid acquisitions. it is not the same situation. these companies were hit with a roundhouse kick. they are trying to deal with an event that they have never had to deal with before in their lifetime. a lot of leaders are operating by the seat of their pants. he will get through this. where should we have our eyes next week when it comes to the economy and the financial market? guest: the jobs report. the interesting thing about the jobs report for march, you might see an increase in jobs upwards of 90,000. it does not reflect the standstill that has occurred in

the past couple of weeks, which means the april jobs report that will come out in early may is one of the most critical financial reports in the last five to 10 years. you need to pay attention to that. i am watching the u.s. nonfarm payrolls report. host: we would like to thank brian sozzi, editor at large of the god who finance. thank you for that yahoo! finance. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you. host: we are going to go back to the phone lines. you see the numbers on your screen. when we come back, we will be taking your calls. we will be right back. >> calvin coolidge presidential on thetion chair

u.s. government response to economic crises from the great depression through the coronavirus. >> the crash of the great cast the was the crash of the early 1920's, not 1929. people thought america would never come back from the upheaval of world war i. there was inflation. we were getting over the spanish flu. at that time, the government took a policy. the policy was let's get out of the way. the government response was so counterintuitive. sunday night at 8:00 eastern on q&a. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are to go back to our phone lines in listen to you and what you think about president trump signing the $2 trillion

coronavirus aid bill. we are going to open up those regional lines for you. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, we want to hear from you. if you are a medical professional, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. we salute your service. at (202)lso text us 748-8003. we are always reading on social media. twitter and on facebook. there has been a lot of places around the country that are seeing spikes in coronavirus cases. one of the places has been in

louisiana. yesterday, john bel edwards discussed the increase in coronavirus cases in his state and in new orleans. [video clip] 746louisiana has reported 2 cases of covid-19. cases more than yesterday. that is a 19% increase in the last 24 hours. there is good news and not so good news. it is a lower number from yesterday's increase of 510. yesterday's growth was 28%. i want you to keep in mind that today's increase was only from half as many tests. it is a mixed bag. we are trying to figure out what it means.

i have asked my team to make sure we are analyzing these learn aso we can quickly as possible what the trends are. as far as what we know, we still , then on the growth curve trajectory that we don't like, the one that we need to flatten just as soon as possible. the other news that there is no have 119in it, we now deaths. 36%.is an increase of this is the largest increase in deaths yet. debts.ay, we had 18 you will also see if you look at

the video monitor that new orleans has surpassed 1000 cases. host: we are seeing the spike in louisiana of coronavirus infection cases. a reporterg to go to who is working in louisiana right now to see if we can find out more about what is going on on the ground. adelson, who jeff is a reporter in new orleans. good morning. guest: good morning. thanks for having me. host: what is going on on the ground in new orleans right now? guest: as the governor said in the clip that you played, we are factg a pretty heavy the -- heavy effects from

coronavirus here. rateve the highest death by far on a per capita basis. are pretty intense down here. much fully inetty lockdown. they have shut down the bars and restaurants. everyone is just trying to figure out how we are going to handle this. host: what is different about new orleans and louisiana? quickly? spreading so guest: that is a very good question. i don't think anybody has a solid answer to that. there have been a lot of theories about some underlying conditions within our population that make people eventually more

susceptible to having extreme illness when they get the virus. thatinly there is the fact any federal were warnings, we had mardi gras. that is something some experts think might have helped the virus spread more widely. what has been the response from local officials in new orleans and the governor for people who have been told to stay at home, possibly losing their job, and the people who may be possibly exposed to ?oronavirus guest: that is a good question. a lot of the help so far has been through nonprofits and

community groups. a lot of restaurants are on ading meals for people nonprofit basis. meals fore providing students that are no longer attending schools. uncertaintyot of about what the effects of this are going to be because so much of the economy is based on tourism. all of those businesses have been shut down. ande is a lot of question uncertainty about what is going to happen to all of the workers and businesses that rely on those industries. what is the mayor of new orleans doing to help slow the spread?

doings governor edwards as well the state level? both the mayor and the governor have been very proactive about this ever since the first case was i don't ride. all of the schools statewide are shut down. all of the bars across the state are shut down. restaurants are only allowed to do takeout. both the state and the city have issued orders requiring that only essential businesses be opened. nonessential businesses scaled back to work from home or the absolute minimum that they can. we are under orders to be at home as much as possible as well. you drive around the city, and

it is empty. people seem to be largely abiding by the rules to stay at home as much as possible to avoid spreading the virus further. you can go through the french quarter even at night when it is usually packed with people, and it is completely empty streets. it is kind of a little eerie. host: do the medical professionals in louisiana feel like they have what they need? what are you hearing from people in the medical industry? guest: that is the biggest concern right now. concerns about protective equipment, which a lot of hospitals say they are

really concerned about running out of. frightening,more the state models predict that we could run out of ventilators sometime in the next week just with so many patients needing them. key to keeping people alive when you have serious cases of coronavirus. the governor has said that we need thousands and thousands more ventilators then we currently have on hand in louisiana. ordersbeen putting in and requesting ventilators from the federal government. in the meantime, they are in the process of converting the convention center, which is a huge building down by the new orleans riverfront.

right now, they are going to be putting about 500 beds in the convention center. the idea is that they can scale that up to about 3000, which would almost double the hospital capacity in the new orleans area. host: there has been a lot of conversation about whether marty brought should have been held in new orleans this year. there are a lot of people who are second-guessing the fact that the parade went on as normal, and now louisiana is seeing all of these cases. what is the conversation going on in louisiana about what state and local leaders to with keeping mardi gras up and going? of that ist hindsight being 2020. at the time mardi gras happened, there were virtually no cases of

coronavirus in the u.s. all of the cases that have been identified were directly related to travel -- that had been identified were directly related to travel. other cities were still holding major events. stuff like sxsw was not canceled until weeks after mardi gras. nott of local leaders would have held mardi gras knowing what they know now, but at the time there was not enough information before hand to act that becausebout nobody in the federal government was saying this is actually a if you go ahead with mardi gras, it is going to cause a problem. thankwe would like to

jeff adelson for being with us. stay safe. thank you. you as well. our phone lines and see what our callers about the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package that has been signed by the president. let's start with tuan, calling from texas. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: just fine. caller: first, i want to say hello to my daughter. secondly, i would like to comment on the coronavirus package. i believe that it would be much more effect of if the government was to send the $2 trillion ,ackage to the individual

whether the individual is a regular taxpayer, a big company owner -- once they receive that money, that money will automatically go to the bank. there is no need to send an additional funding amount to a rich banking institution. secondly, i would like to add bill 2881 was signed into law by the president. the 5gw is to secure security, which has been known to cause the same symptoms as the coronavirus in most people. host: let's talk to laura, calling from michigan. laura is in the medical profession. what you do in the medical profession? caller: well, i am a practice

manager. i run all the functions in the doctors offices and handle to nuts.g from soup the reason i am calling is i take great offense when the president talks about treatment of government officials. he says that they should appreciate him. and yesterday, in one of his speeches, he mentioned that they should not listen to our witmer,, gretchen because he did not like what she said or did. also he mentioned the governor of the state of washington. the president works for us. anybody -- any money that is expended is coming out of his pocket, which we

all know that is not true. host: are you still going to work and how are you keeping yourself safe in your doctor's office? caller: well, somebody has to be there. the doctors are there. another thing, too. this bargaining with the different companies that make medical equipment or the apparel, respirators, some of the governors have said that they have placed an order with a company, and then the federal government comes in, and there is a bidding war. that should not happen. we have someone occupying the white house that has no feelings for anybody but himself. you have no idea the things we hear from people who come into the office. it is appalling. and the fact that the government -- the fact that the president

was a do not listen to the governors and they should appreciate me, like he is doling out the money. i take right offense on the treatment of the people. to gary,'s talk calling from california. it morning -- goo dmo -- good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i have a couple of observations. i would like to find out how is the cruise ship industry -- are you there? host: yes, go ahead. caller: the cruise ship industry has their hand out for some of this money now, and they are foreign registered vessels employing foreign nationals. they do not pay united states taxes for that reason, and the employees make a pittance of money. but they are not u.s. citizens. there is only one cruise ship that is registered in the united

states. and another observation -- how did the congress sneak in a pay raise for themselves in this legislation? thanks, c-span. want toe first thing i go ahead and add in is apparently congress did not give themselves a pay raise in this bill. that is something that has been going around a lot, and actually we have a pay cheer from fact -- factcheck.org that takes on the claim that there were congressional pay raises in the stimulus bill. here is what they wrote. facebook posts falsely claimed that house democrats included to boost their own salaries in the proposal for the coronavirus stimulus package. that funding is not for legislative pay increases.

also in the bill being advanced by the republican controlled senate. --o, there are a number of the posts $25ifically refer to a million to increase -- included $25oposal million for salary for the chambers, which would be allocated in accordance with a spending plan submitted to the committee on appropriations on the house of representatives by the chief administrative officer and approved by such committee. but the bill never said it was for legislators salaries, nor does a version of the stimulus package being worked out in the republican-controlled senate, which similarly outlines $25 million for the house. didpparent leave the house not give themselves a pay raise

, the house did not give themselves a pay raise in the coronavirus package. let's go to lisa. caller: good morning. i am single. i am disabled. i never asked for this. i thought i would work the rest of my life. is really tough -- i am calling you from a landline phone. afford internet or nothing like that. any amount -- i am just so glad he signed it. me amount that would come to -- i am so thankful. i am just glad it is going out

to the american people. i am so thankful. all of this going overseas -- here, the poorest people the very poorest, and cannot save any money. bill,let's talk to calling from florida. you work in the medical profession. what you do in medicine? caller: i am a physician, an ophthalmologist. host: what are you seeing out there now? caller: i am seeing patients. i attend a hospital in the large and the elective surgeries are being canceled. nonurgent office visits are

being deferred. it is extensive, what is being done in hospitals. as what i called about was, a medical professional, i must am absolutely devastated theow little we know about death rate of this virus. atas listening to dr. birx the conference two or three days ago, and when dr. birx said that when they have tested large it appears many more people have been affected.

in iceland, i think they tested everybody, 300,000. i do not know their rate, but it was a fair number. and interesting, when the people who came on the flights from wuhan to the united states, a high number of those people were tested. -- when thes this decisions were made to do the extensive economic lockdown in this country, was it based on a projected case fatality rate? that is my first comment. if the deathld be rate and case fatality rate is a lot lower than projected, what has happened in this country and this to trillion dollar -- $2

trillion stimulus bill is an economic catastrophe. the "wall street journal" a week ago, the editorial, said would it be better that we just simply ,uarantine and support people older people? super older people and allow the economy to function at a higher level? ,hen you listen to dr. fauci and he was saying this thing may have a cyclical tendency, this country could not afford an economic wasteland that goes into the fall. callingt's talk to lee, from washington. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. i have a couple of different comments i wanted to make. first of all, i am one of the self-employed. many people that i know who are self-employed have a lot of questions on how to be able to take advantage of unemployment, which is typically not available for self-employed people. i have heard different things. i've heard that the bill covers , that independent contractors or self-employed can take advantage of that four months. i called the unemployment actually, i went into the computer side of it -- and it is asking me how many jobs have i applied for -- the way of unemployment doing things, so i do not see

them having any special site for covid-19 unemployed people, because the state and government have shut you down. that is one comment. second of all, the leaders have let seattle just go to a wasteland. tents everywhere, unemployed -- they have softened drug laws so that people have at it down there. hopefully, with everybody not working, you have all of these people that have no place to go, and hopefully, they actually do something about cleaning up the city so the taxpayers can go in and enjoy the city that they pay a lot of taxes for. whether they get buildings and remodel them, maybe have women and children in one building, maybe men in another, clean up the drug mess down there and do something seriously for this city.

thank you. host: to answer some of the about giguestions employees and freelancers, here is a story from reuters that talks about what the bill does for gager economy employers. economy employers. the story says gig workers would be allowed to claim unemployment but how these benefits will be distributed is not clear. worked as people who contractors for platforms, such as uber, have not had access to on a plumber benefits reserved for full-time employees of traditional businesses. here is a look at the situations workers and the obstacles they face. most of my safety nets, including health insurance, sick pay, are attached to an employee relationship, said a

law-enforcement -- law employment professor at washington university. companies save money by not paying costly benefits and offloading from the traditional employers side response ability to employees which are defined as independent contractors are the companies say many workers use services to supplement income from other full or part-time jobs. what is changing under this bill? under the coronavirus relief bill, contractors and self-employed workers are included for unemployment benefits if they can show they have been affected by covid-19. requirements are defined broadly and should allow nearly every gig workers to claim benefits, said a labor and employment

lawyer. the program offers up to 39 weeks of benefits based on the most recent tax return, with per week payout to depend on the seat of the worker. workers receive up to $600 per week up to four months. so what documents do workers have to submit? it is still unclear. the u.s. department of labor is expected to issue guidelines soon. so it is still being worked out, but apparently gig employees will be able to get some benefits under the coronavirus aid package. let's take one more call and talk to brenda, calling from lexington, south carolina. good morning. are you there? caller: i am. host: go ahead. caller: hi. i had a few comments and then a

few questions. -- i voted for the president, of course, but along because kind of changed i do not like a lot of things happening. one of the things that a lot of the backlash i get is that i do not deserve to have a check because i do not support the president. i get a lot of personal attacks just because i do not support the president. what would you say about that? we would like to thank all of our callers for being with us here for talking about the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package. coming up next, we will take a look at k-12 education in the united states and the impact that coronavirus has had on learning.

education reporter nicole gaudiano will join us. yesterday, south carolina governor henry mcmaster and announced a mandatory quarantine for those coming to the state from what he termed coronavirus hotspots. here is what he said. [video clip] >> ladies and gentlemen, we have a good bit of information to give out today. we are making progress. one thing i would like to announce his i have just issued another executive order. there is a mandatory quarantine -- we know there are hotspots around the country. they have been identified, some very clearly, others identified now. by the authority invested in me by the statutes of the constitution, i've issued another executive order requiring those coming into our state, regardless of if they came from our state or from somewhere else, if they come to south carolina from one of those

hotspots, they must self-quarantine for 14 days, two weeks. there is a criminal penalty attached to failure to comply with that executive order. that executive order mentions specifically the states of new jersey, connecticut, and the city of new orleans, all of which have an identified as hotspots. >> "washington journal" continues. host: before we get to our next we want touest, announce senator tom coburn has died. we have a tweet coming up talking about senator tom coburn. he writes that one of the greatest influences in my life was my relationship with senator tom coburn. he taught me about leadership and jesus. now he is with the lord. life well lived. love to his family. once again, it has just come out that senator tom coburn apparently has died.

now we will turn to our next guest, nicole gaudiano, education reporter from politico , and talk about how the coronavirus has impacted k-12 education in the united states. good morning. guest: good morning. thank you for having me. host: thank you for being with us. the $2 trillion coronavirus aid bill that has passed congress and been signed by the president, is there any help for education in this package? guest: there is. 30 $1 billion in education stabilization funding. it will be divided between k-12 and higher education. k-12of this funding for should help handle continued purchasingd education technology for online learning, because they are a new system on

the fly. this is designed to help with that. of guidance is coming from the federal government down to the states and the local education boards and to the schools about coronavirus? re: hearing much from the department of education on what schools should be doing right now? much from theing department of education on what schools should be doing right now? guest: we are hearing some things. one of the challenges for school has been this ability laws. disability laws. there was initial guidance that said you have to provide a free and public education for all students, even when doing distance learning. there was some confusion and -- will wem schools

run afoul of the law if we do something for one and not for another? concern.been a big education secretary betsy devos put out additional guidance clarifying that there is flexibility in the law. but it remains to be seen how that will be implemented. the guidance except some schools were not providing any distance learning, because they were if theyf repercussions did something that did not meet the requirements of idea. host: now a lot of parents, like myself, have our children at home right now. guest: me too. host: whether you are in virginia where school has been canceled already for the rest of the year, or you are in maryland, where they are still

holding out hope for our children to go to school this year. how can parents work with schools to make sure the education that their children got earlier this year is not lost before they go back to school next year? tough one. is a we know they are learning lots even over summer vacation -- there is learning loss, even over summer vacation. an open question, what will happen with test scores next year. i spoke with one researcher at tulane. he was studying the reform effort after katrina, but he looked at the data on some of these children -- fourth-graders who were returning after being -- and their test scores dipped in everything but social studies.

that same trend continued the next year. there was a lot of trauma come of course, with displacement during katrina, but you have some similarities in the situation, where we have children forced from their schools. this is a scary, this is scary stuff. next year, what happens to test scores, that will be something to watch. we also have to see how teachers adapt lesson plans to account for this learning loss that is happening now. host: so who is making the decisions, nationwide, about whether schools are open or closed? is that decision coming from the local school boards, from mayors, from governors? and who makes the decision for private schools? and let me add one more question. could the president declare public schools in america are

closed -- not that they should close. could he declare them closed? guest: i want to pull back for one second and talk about a map that is fascinating to me on the unesco site, the u.n.'s education site. 160 nations have shut down schools nationwide at this point. studenthe world's population. in the united states, though, it works differently. we have about seven states, at this point, that have canceled school the rest of the academic year. it does not mean they are not providing learning, but they are closing buildings for the rest of the academic year. across-the-board, there are closures. there are only two states left that are not closed statewide. does have powers

to do a lot of things in an emergency, but the decisions to close schools are left to the states and localities. guidance fromon the federal government, but , evencontrol continues amid a pandemic. when we talk local control, are we talking governors, local school boards? who makes a decision statewide on whether schools should be closed? guest: i think it is a mix. governors are making the announcements, but they rely on superintendents. they are making announcements about statewide closures, but you also have closures for districts -- superintendents are involved in that decision, too. they are looking to local health

officials to make decisions like that. host: let's let some of our viewers join this conversation. we will open up special lines for our conversation about k-12 education. if you are a student or the parent of a k-12 student, we want to hear from you. call (202) 748-8000. k-12nts and parents, students and parents, (202) 748-8000. educator, an teacher, teacher's aide, you are working directly with students -- we want to hear from educators how are you adapting lesson plans? are you having open office hours online? your number will be (202) 748-8001. you are an education administrator, if you work on the school board, if you are the principal, assistant principal, we want to know what you are

doing to keep your schools going virtually. school, education administrators, your number is (202) 748-8002. if you do not fit in any of those categories and want to have something to say in this conversation, your line, for everyone else, will be (202) 748-8003. once again, for everyone else, if you are not a student or parent, educator, or administrator, we still want to hear from you. (202) 748-8003. you can also text to those numbers, (202) 748-8003. and we are always reading it on social media and on twitter, @cspanwj, and on facebook, facebook.com/cspan. nicole, i have a seventh grade daughter. we were getting ready to get her started on her psat, which we know she needs to take next year. what is happening with parents

right now with standardized tests like the sats -- s.a.t .'s, s.o.l.'s. what can parents do to get kids ready for those tests? guest: last week, the trump administration announced it was waving the federal requirements for standardized tests. waiving the federal requirements for standardized tests. they made the request for waivers from states turnkey. it was simple. week,w that, within a most states -- i think it is 46 at this point, have requested an been given waivers for standardized tests. and s.a.t.'s's

have been postponed. there are some states that are actually making them optional to take. for the ap test, those can be taken at home. there was an announcement they can be taken at home. i think they will be shorter as well. host: ok. are wonderingts about graduation for seniors. i was just having a conversation with another parent about this last night. what happens for seniors who normally need those grades to get scholarships for college in the fall, students who are looking to go on to college. what happens with them? we are not talking about prom and the ceremony, but what happens for those who needed those things to go onto to the next level of education? guest: i think, in a lot of

places, that is still being worked out. i saw in michigan there will be an announcement this week that those students will graduate. no one will be denied graduation just because of the coronavirus. and all students would move onto the next grade level. it will vary. that is something we need to pay attention to, moving forward, how this plays out for the hoping atho were another shot at eight test to get their grades up. because right now, there is not a lot of grading happening for this quarter. schools are providing work, but what i am told is it is not being graded. not: so right now, there is a uniform decision around the country of whether schools are opened or closed or delayed to the end of the year. does that give competitive

advantages to students in some states where schools are still open or plan to reopen over others who have already closed for the year? i do not know about competitive advantage, but i think, at this point, most schools are closed. so i am not really sure about that, but there is always equity concerns when it comes to education. one thing that has been popping up quite a bit is the concern about some students have access to broadband. others do not. studentsu reach those with online learning when they either do not have access to high-speed internet or they just do not have it at home. 12know there is an estimated million young people that fall into that category, who do not have it in their home. some of those students are

getting textbook paper assignments while the classmates are getting assignments online. those are some of the equity concerns that come up. host: let's let viewers join the conversation. already we have a parent calling from maryland. morning. caller: good morning. how are you guys? host: doing fine. go ahead with your question. caller: i have a daughter with special needs. she has a complicated medical profile as it stands. my concern is, even with online access, how are children with special needs going to be instructed and how our institutions going to keep up their legal end of the bargain, because it is more entitlement than eligibility. how will my daughter received education she would have

received in school out of school? nobody is talking about that right now, especially kids with special needs. host: go ahead. guest: that is an issue causing a lot of people concern. that there before are concerns in the school community, what if we give to one and not the other and then pull back on the education we provide? that theomething education secretary has been trying to get the message out idea, the individuals with act,ilities education there is a flex ability. they give an example. if a student is blind, you can

give weekly assignments for everyone else, and the student that is blind can get a phone call from the teacher reading the assignment or a video. they have to be ways to reach these students, and i think what is happening is what we are seeing is different states are doing it in different ways. one that is highlighted is florida being an example. new hampshire as well, taking a tiered approach to getting lessons out. think, in new hampshire, what they were saying is if there is a problem, if we cannot get the services out to the people who , we will work something out to get that to students later.

it is a serious concern that is out in a lot of minds right now, and they are just trying to figure out how to deal with it. it is so unprecedented. host: speaking of unprecedented, we had a couple of social media followers who asked this question that we have already addressed a little bit, but i want to point out that answer another social media follower gave us. one tweet asked what happens to those children who live in rural areas and do not have access to high-speed internet? this will be a big disruption for their learning. another social media followers as their school district is using school buses fitted with wi-fi to park in rural areas for students to access. do we see a lot of schools coming up with these unprecedented solutions to make sure learning continues? guest: creative alternatives. the education secretary, betsy devos, was at

coronavirus task force briefing and mentioned some of these examples. one of them was in south carolina. they are deploying school buses with wi-fi hotspots so they can reach some of the students in rural areas that do not have access to high-speed internet. this is something being done in utah, i think, and there is legislation in congress to try and find these efforts. democrats, in the stimulus bill, were calling for $2 billion to a program administered by the ftc. it funds connectivity for schools and libraries. i think the idea for that call for finding was get more hotspots out there. make access easier for these kids that are in rural areas -- and it is not just rural areas. there are some kids in poor

urban areas who do not have access either. these are kids that fall into what is called the homework gap, where they go to school, have access to high-speed internet, but then they go home and they are not able to access the internet. this situation is exacerbating a long-standing problem with that that has not been fully addressed. laurie,t's talk to calling from new york city, and educator. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you. i have a couple of comments and questions. i appreciate you being online, on the tv. as a special education teacher for young children -- that means preschool as well, i know your kindergarten through 12 -- it is really hard. i've been trying to get people together, kids parents on skype and other venues, to do some

learning. but as a special education teacher for young kids, it is hard to get a 4-year-old, 5-year-old, 6-year-old to stay in front of the screen and keep them attentive. are alle a.d.d., they over the place. you are hearing me, right? host: yes, go ahead. caller: the thing is it is really hard. it is such a challenge. i am trying to get these kids online. some parents are helpful. some do not know what to do. i am in new york city -- it is impossible. we are so dense. the other thing is my agency i work for -- i am not an independent contractor -- it depends on agencies and how they set up their payroll. one agency has let everybody go. in order to get back on and try to do this online learning, it will be this impossible thing to get myself back on their payroll so that i can get paid for my

work. agencies are more amenable to just going back to work and getting them on. go on inosed to another 20 minutes, i have a kid i am waiting for. those are my comments and questions, and i really wish these people would be on the same page so they have one uniform way of doing things. host: go ahead and respond to her concerns. guest: it sounds like she is doing a lot of great things. i think those concerns -- we have definitely her concerns in new york with online learning that is very difficult there. there have also been concerns about guidance, not just with idea but guidance coming from the white house and the cdc in terms of when to close schools

or not, is it even helpful? so her concerns about the .uidance have been common that is the issue. kelvin,t's talk to calling from portland, oregon, an education administrator. what do you do in education? caller: thank you. i am an agile professor and an administrator for inner-city, urban high-risk school districts. i want to applaud you and the caller -- i mean you and the guest speaker, because this show -- at this exact show needs to be duplicated on viacom and other cable networks. betsy devos has done absolutely nothing. this shows giving more information in terms of steps forward than her administration has initiated throughout her

tenure. so i applaud your guest speaker for being detailed and providing a pathway forward and applaud you for taking on this. i am a father, and it has been appalling that her office has not had a sense of urgency, to ongoing, type of show, these conversations. what we are doing is important. we have digital divide, advised those families with kids, whether it is early learning or 12 grade, read a minimum of three books to five books and to read and write. for those folks who have the digital capability, we have asked teachers have the opportunity to do skype and do lesson plans via internet. i would like to echo your guest speaker's statement. feet policy0,000

solution of boots on the ground. when those dollars to the states, there is inconsistency in terms of how those dollars will get to teachers and social nonprofit programs that are doing the work. there needs to be an intermediary system to identify how those dollars will get to those volunteers and those paid professionals who are initiating action in lieu of this education gap. the last two points i would like to speak to is that what we are pushing for is that the school year be extended throughout the summer, the remaining three months. my kids are half japanese, and they go to year-round school, during the summer months. so we are pushing the governor in reference to coming up with at least two months of school for the summer time.

then your guest speaker also identified uniformity. ande needs to be a rural urban uniformity position coming from the fed to the state as to a pathway forward. this is a fantastic show. in the one other thing i would ise to say, as a foot note, here in oregon, there is an , aine company called hotshot marketing company that does online marketing -- stay away from hotshot. they have made over $200 million and it is a ripoff. host: so he had a couple of things i want you to address. i have not yet heard locally about school district even talking about extending the school year into the summer months. see a lot of school

districts talking about that yet? guest: there is some conversation, maybe with trying to talk to members of congress, try and push for that. a couple of ways you can go about this. you can extend in the summer. somenk advocacy groups, advocacy groups, are pushing for that, schooling in the summer, after school programs, tried to get kids to catch up. then there is the other issue with the digital divide -- this is something democrats will keep pushing for in what may be the next stimulus bill. so two approaches i am hearing about quite a bit. that,one of the things again, as a parent with two middle school students at home that i am trying to figure out

is how long should my child be working at home during the day with their online learning? is this an eight hour day for them, a six hour day, a four hour day? in fact, one of our social media followers as parents are being told you do not have to have your child stick to six hours a day in homeschooling. is there any guidance that you are hearing out there for how we are supposed to deal with homeschooling our children -- how long should we make them work, is it a regular day, what should we be doing? guest: i have not seen that. that is a good question, because i've been thinking about it myself with my daughter, who is a second-grader. she is getting assignments online, and how long by what her online? -- want her online? how long why want her at a computer? how long do i want her at a computer. andot a teachers schedule

tried to follow that to the best of our ability. finally, when it is time to get off the computer, we say it is time to get off the computer. but as far as federal guidance on that, i have not seen it. but it is a great question. teachersbe one of our will call in and give us advice. the only thing i've told my children is we will read one of every week from beginning to end, a whole book, and we will complete every assignment there school is sending to them. we will get it done before the due date of the assignment. i would love to hear from some of the teachers out there exactly how long you would want to keep kids in the home school environment at home. let's get to our calls. jack from los angeles. caller: good morning. this is my favorite program. i have a ninth grader in high

school, and she is at home. my family that has teachers in it, we are seeing some teachers are not even going online. people cannot even do their assignments. teachers themselves are kind of dropping out. they are unwilling to participate in logging on. other than the digital divide that you are talking about, the people are scared, still. i am talking about the teachers. thank you. host: i will save that at least all of the children at my kids school are making themselves available all day long from regular office hours to regular school hours. i have not heard of many teachers dropping out, but what are you hearing? guest: i have not heard of that either, just dropping out, but there is something that the education department appointed

-- pointed to in the updated guidance and that some schools were just closing and not offering any distance learning. because they were afraid of running afoul of disability laws, not giving an equitable education for everyone. we are hearing anecdotally about that. and i know -- it is a concern for schools. it is certainly something that they are looking at. .ut it is anecdotal because the system is so decentralized, it is a little hard to track. and for schools not providing any distance learning -- host: if you are a parent of a 12 grader on track to graduate, do you have any concerns about your child not being able to

graduate high school right now? guest: it depends on where they were before this happened. i would be concerned, but they have to pay attention to their local government and the guidelines coming out from there . just like i said before with michigan, they are not going to let anyone not graduate because of the coronavirus. that was one report i saw yesterday. it will have to depend on their locality. host: let's see if we can get a couple of calls in. a couple of educators waiting to chime in. let's talk to riley, educator calling from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a seventh and eighth grade middle school science teacher here in maryland. my wife and i are both teachers.

rights our whole life now, talking about how will we be doing this. for our county, we are in this transition period where they sort of -- we have to follow the lead of maryland state laws, the governor declaring schools being closed. then we, as teachers, are waiting to hear from the county and with the county decides about continuing education. of course, we as teachers, we are there every day for our 150 kids. we are having one-on-one, human relationships, committed to their learning, every one of them, managing all of their social experience and all of these things. the biggest issue for us, i would say, is this profound uncertainty about where we are now. there is only a limited time left in what would have been the school year.

of course, there are learning objectives. but we are professionals. we have a practice of being teachers in the classroom. it is just so hard for me to imagine how i will be able to be myt effective educator for 150 students, who i will not even be able to see, because i do not expect to be doing videoconferencing and that sort of thing. the otherd i and all teachers i communicate with, we will be going into do collecting of materials let -- next week and some sort of planning, but we are all in different places, so it is all up in the air. host: first of all, thanks for calling in. why has it been so difficult for us to shift to online learning in the united states? guest: i think this situation really shines a light on how many services are provided through the school.

, provided in the school building. we are not quite set up foreign event like this where we transition overnight automatically to a remote system. there are so many things to figure out. there are some schools that i think have remote learning platforms and were able to make , but that'sansition not really what we are set up to do here. i spoke to one expert who said in china that it was easier to do. they had everyone in an online learning, remote environment quickly. i think another big question to watch is, as we move forward, how did other countries deal with this and how do we stack

up? where are the deficiencies? servicesaking of provided by k-12 schools, something we had not talked about yet, is the food normally provided to students that they get at school. for example, where i live in maryland, several schools are breakfastr supervised -- to provide a breakfast and lunch to students who get their food at school. in mississippi, where i am from, my brother is one of their people driving a school bus to deliver to committee centers and churches so people can get it. how are we dealing with the food gap for children who may not be able to get food at home? i think the statistic is 20 million students who rely on school lunches, free and reduced price, i am reduced

sorry. what is happening now is the department of agriculture is granting waivers to school so grab and gon offer kind of meals. that is happening in a lot of places. but the waivers only cover certain school areas with 50% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. threshold,below that those schools, i guess, will not be able to get that federal funding. so you have lawmakers calling for a tweak in that area to try to get those dollars flowing. and: let's talk to bud, educator calling from tennessee. good morning. you very much for this program. i appreciate the opportunity to speak. i work in resource, special

education, and i want to concur with laurie from new york who made very valid points. bothf and my wife are educators. tennesseeeducator in and i work in north carolina. it is very challenging. being in special ed, we have idea service requirements. also our support people, like occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists, i have to have contact with students, so they are not able to provide those services right now. we live in a very rural area that is pretty poverty-stricken. a lot of our students do not have internet, as was mentioned earlier, send -- so we send packets home. you do have some students with

internet, and we are getting a 30% to 40% return of schoolwork right now. we cannot give instruction as we normally do. to answer a previous question you guys had, our administrator -- and i am at the middle school level -- asked for our students to work one hour on language arts, one hour of mathematics, then 30 minutes each on social studies and science. those were our instructions, to give to families. , with the food programs, you mentioned mississippi, that one of your relatives is driving a bus -- that is what we have been doing. our governor friday issued a stay-at-home order. not included in

that, so we are still compelled to go to school as long as we do not, you know, have a health condition or something. so we have been going to the school building. we are supposed to adhere to the six foot rule. my question is this -- i delivered 104 meals friday. now, with the stay-at-home order and the six foot rule -- and we deliver by bus, like they do in mississippi. we do not have grab and go like in tennessee, where my wife teaches. conscience,n good participate in that program when there are three individuals on the bus and there are approximately 25 to 30 individuals in the cafeteria bagging -- host: go ahead and see if you can answer that. we know teachers are making big sacrifices now to get their

students the information they need and to get food. what would you say to teachers out there still learning -- still working, trying to get students not only educated but fed? -- yeah.think that that is a really big issue he is dealing with. i suppose it is something that the unions are thinking about. they are probably going to have to work through something. i know that, early on, the , becausere very upset there were teachers having to report to a school to provide online education in dod schools overseas, like in italy. and they did not have anyone to look after their children. so they would have to bring them in, too.

this was when italy was basically shutting down. so that is something that i am sure we will be hearing from the unions on, trying to figure out what to do in those circumstances -- what do you do is to keepe order distance, but then you are in a bus with two other people? host: what should we be looking for coming up in education in the next couple of weeks and months? i will be thing tracking is, as part of the stimulus bill, there is a requirement that education secretary betsy devos submit a report to congress requesting any additional waivers that she thinks are needed for the disability law and for other education laws. people inally, i has

the disability community -- rights community very concerned. even though i do not think she has given any indication that she will be lobbying for that. but there are schools who may have concerns about meeting the requirements of the law and find uncertainty in getting an unlimited waiver. that is one of the things i will be tracking. quick --ink host: real guest: host: we'd like to thank nicole for being with us and talking about what is happening with k-12 education. thank you, nicole. we'd like to thank all our callers and guests through sticking with us through washington journal today. we'll see you again tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. everyone have a great saturday and stay safe.

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp.2020] >> calvin coolidge presidential foundations chair and author and economic historian on the u.s. government responsibilities to the economic crisis from the great depression through the coronavirus. amity: the crash of the great gatsby was the crash in the early 1920's, not the crash of 1929. people thought america would never come back from the big