coverage continues at 2:00 eastern today when roy cooper will update on the number of coronavirus cases in his state and plans to reopen the economy. live coverage here on c-span. you can watch live on c-span.org or listen with the c-span radio app. ♪ >> washington journal prime. a special evening addition of washington journal on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. our guests are house speaker nancy pelosi, talking about the steps lawmakers are likely to take to address the pandemic. also joining us is economist michael boston's. on the economic impact of the virus. join the conversation tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. i would like to hear how it is affecting them.

are you laid off? are you on furlough or part-time? are you an essential worker? we will get to your calls momentarily. the jobs numbers for april this morning, we will certainly report that when it is available. this from the associated press this morning. a devastating jobs report for april show virus' impact, writing the u.s. government on friday is poised to report the worst jobs report since a big -- record keeping began in 1948. the unemployment rate for april could reach 16% or more, according to economists surveyed . 21 million jobs may have been lost. if so, it would mean that nearly all of the job growth in the 11 years since the great recession had vanished in one month. that is from the associated press. this is the wall street journal. 3 million more, "

file jobless claims. the u.s. braces for what is expected to be the worst employment report on record u.s. workers have filed nearly 33.5 million applications for unemployment benefits in the seven weeks since the closures were put in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic, showing a wave of layoffs that is likely to push april job losses to record levels. they say that u.s. workers filed 3.2 million jobless claims last week. it was the fewest since the week ending march 14 before the pandemic caused claims to spike , but still, 15 times early march readings. toy say layoffs are expected cause nonfarm payrolls to reach -- the unemployment rate climbed to 16% in the april jobs report. that is from the wall street journal. the) 748-8000 the line for

eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001, mountain and pacific. and there may be further federal aid ahead. legislation being developed by the democrats, anyway, on the house side. coming in for a pro forma session. this is politico. negotiatingisn't with republicans or the white house on the next aid bill. in her news conference, she was asked if she is concerned about the mounting budget deficits these packages are causing. speaker pelosi: we're talking about now is a stimulus to our economy at a time when people are crippled with concern about their physical well-being, as well as their economic well-being. stamps,about food direct payments, and unemployment insurance, they stimulate the economy. their purpose is to meet the

needs of people, but they are a stimulus to the economy. and far better to spend our money that way, the republicans are supposed to be these budget hawks, had no hesitation whatsoever in the dark of night in the speed of light, passed a bill that takes almost $2 trillion in debt in order to give 83% of the benefits to the top 1%. so when we look at the needs that our people have, not the 1%, bless them all, we don't begrudge anyone their achievements, but there is no upside for our economy unless it is consumer confidence, unless people understand that the well-being of our working people and our families is what keeps our economy strong. yes, i'm concerned about the national debt but i think it's -- it would be penny foolish to say i'm sorry, we can't do snap to give you food, because there is a national debt. there's a national department we

just did $2 trillion for the wealthiest people in our country , but we can't feed one in four children in our country because of the national debt. so i think that -- i think that the secretary -- the chairman of the fed, chairman powell had said it again and again, publicly, he said think big. it to me. think big. think big. the interest rates are very, very low. think big. and that's what we're doing. host: nancy pelosi from yesterday. houston today for a pro forma session. no legislative action expected next week. your calls and comments this morning on how the pandemic has impacted your job. steve in charleston, south carolina, first up. caller: good morning, bill. hope you and your family are doing well. host: thank you.

a question. caller: well, first, i am retired but i do have a job. and i work for a company that staffs sporting events and concerts and that kind of thing. we have a 12,000-seat venue in the north charleston coliseum and when this thing first hit -- we're in the concert season is basically what we're in. and all those have been canceled and i he has no source of income. i'm not getting any income. the earliest reschedule i've seen is for october. that's just devastating to him. on the other hand, i'm not sure i want to get down in the middle of 12,000 screaming jimmy buffett fans too. it's a mess. we're in the biggest mess i've ever seen in my life. you're darned if you do, darned if you don't.

you certainly don't want to kick-start the second wave of this thing. so it's just the biggest darn mess i've seen in my life. we've got this evil viral pyramid scheme going on. host: so steve, the venue you work for, you said october was the earliest that they thought they would reopen for concerts? caller: so far, that's what i've seen. it may change. but i haven't seen anything in my e-mail yet. you know we have professional tennis matches and sports venues at baseball. it's all over the country, obviously. host: and the artists are reluctant to tour as well, right? which states will be open, etc. caller: i'm sure. and i understand. but think of all the other logistics involved the truck and the truck drivers that bring the roadies that are on the road and the food beverage industry. in the hotel industry. and the hotel industry. it's just awful. all the spin-offs are hurting too. host: great to hear your story

this morning, matt. let's go to matt in vista, california. good morning. caller: good morning. host: tell us your story, matt. what's going on with you and your line of work? caller: shipyard in southern california, which there are a few. we still haven't been impacted by this. i don't know where it is at. very few of my friends are affected by it at all. host: so in the shipyards, there's still ships coming in, still trucks coming in? caller: naval ship repair, actually. host: i see. ok. so it's essential work that it is, military navy-related work? caller: i believe so. host: all right, matt from california.

for those of you on the west coast 202-748-8001. , eastern and central, 202-748-8000. a couple of comments on facebook. this one from john who says this. i'm an essential worker dodging the virus every day. do your part. wear a mask, he says. russell says, my entire industry is shut down. doesn't indicate what that is. and this from john who says that history, 75 years ago today at 11:59 p.m., the war in europe ended. americans built the arsenal for defense, sent our grandfathers and grandmothers to war. sacrificed at home. we were united in defending freedom, defeating a brutal enemy in saving the world to be made better. god blessed with us the greatest generation. we then faced new challenges with the knowledge of our power in this unity. we overcame them. now we face a new enemy. a virus as ruthless as any. we must draw on the lessons of our shared pasts. we must unite, support our efforts, and defeat it and with all the skills that we have, do your part.

john, referring to 75 years ago today. it is v-e day, victory in europe day. the 75th anniversary of the triumph of the allied forces over germany. and i want to let you that we will be joined this morning by historian and author rick atkinson this morning at 9:00 eastern and our partners with american history tv. rick atkinson, the author of the "american trilogy: the guns at last light" about the final year of the war, 9:00 eastern. welcome your calls and comments as we welcome rick atkinson this morning. back to your calls. this is william in maryland. good morning. caller: hello. hello. host: good morning, william. you're on the air. caller: yes, so i produce an event in maryland and run a nonprofit called juice box jams. and it's our fifth year. and at this point, we're looking like we have to cancel it in july. we've reached out the governor's office multiple times to figure out what phase we need to be in

. and at this point, our only option to do an event is one of these drive-in events which is kind of weird keeping everybody in their car, driving in the county fairgrounds and letting them do a drive-thru festival. so for them, i'm sure we're done for this year looking to move on to next year. host: do you think typically, how many people would you draw to an event like that? caller: it's about 4,000, 2,000 to 4,000 people. it's a nonprofit. we let in military veterans, first responders, their wives, husbands, children, significant others, all free. last year, we did close to 1,500 people free. so for us, it's really hard because we relied on donations and input from the community. liquor sponsors and all that money is gone. for an event like ours, we make zero dollars. we lose money every year to support our community and we're

not getting any feedback from the local government on what our options are. i wanted to move forward with the governor by just getting an approval that i can do a drive-in event. i can get someone to say that is approved. and as a nonprofit, we don't want to do something that is without strict approval. went to do something and have everybody look forward to. so far, not happening. host: maryland's governor came out with some new guidelines yesterday for outdoors events and yours was not covered in that? caller: no. live events like that with that number of people are just not covered. we can go the beach. we can go to private beaches. we can golf and stuff like that. but, you know, and i wouldn't feel comfortable producing my event with 4,000 people either. i would much rather do something -- and there's plenty of space there. the idea is to have hour-long events. so you buy that 1:00 p.m.

ticket, you come in, and you pull through all the vendors, you order some food, you park at the end, and you watch a concert for one hour, and you leave. there's 200 tickets per hour. that is kind of our working model. you can order from one of the food trucks. you can drive by the vendors and hop out and everything's cleaned after you. and really, there's no money to be made here. it's really to help a community, shed some light, give some hope. we're all moving forward. host: well, thanks for calling in. hope you're able to pull it off in some fashion. peterson foundation with their survey. nearly seven in 10 americans say their incomes have taken a hit from the pandemic. we go to winter haven, florida, next and hear from brian. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: doing fine. thank you. caller: yeah. i work for a grocery distribution center and we're actually nationwide. and we've experienced lay-offs

, and they offer furloughs to employees that want to take time off and they can actually use time out of their vacation or they can go on furlough without being paid. but we've actually since florida has been opening up or reopening over time now, we've actually -- our business has picked back up. so we did experience an impact at first and it wasn't too, too bad but like i said, now we're just picking up. gov. cooper: good afternoon, everybody. sorry about the technical delay there.