sarasina.m., leslie looks at the challenges faced by food retailers. ♪ host: it is the "washington journal." at 10:00 today, dr. anthony fauci and others will testify before the senate come among the topics the reopening of the states. he will express concerns about reopening the country prematurely. c-span3 andthat on follow along at c-span.org. this comes as massachusetts, virginia, and louisiana moving to resume more activities. in our first hour, we want to have you tell us your experience

with the conducting of normal activities in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic. here is how you can express your thoughts. for those in the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. for you medical professionals in the audience, it is (202) 748-8002. you can text us at (202) 748-8003 "washington journal." . you can post on our twitter fee d. it was the gallup organization posting a poll yesterday asking people what they would like to see as far as returning to normal before they themselves return to normal activities. 80% said the one thing they would like to see is a mandatory quarantine for anybody testing positive for covid-19 followed by improved medical therapies for treatment of covid-19.

73% of those participating said they had to see a significant reduction in the number of new followed by 68% saying the availability of a vaccine to prevent covid-19 and 61% saying they needed to see widespread testing to identify and monitor coronavirus infections. there is more information about what was asked. when it comes to the topic of reopening states, it is anthony fauci who is going to testify today before the senate at 10:00. saying, thed as major message i wish to convey to the senate health committee tomorrow is the danger of trying to reopen the country prematurely. if we skip over the checkpoints, we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. this will result in needless suffering and death and will

send us back in our quest to return to normal. that was from his new york times interview. you can see more at 10:00. you can follow along at c-span.org. cameaw the results when it to the topic of testing. the president talking about financial efforts to the states to deal with their testing capacity. [video clip] expand our testing capabilities, i am announcing my administration -- we have this all approved. $1 billion to american states, territories, and tribes. we haven't done and completed. the money is going out. -- we have it done and completed. the money is going out. i said from the beginning that the federal government would back up the states and help them

build their testing capability and capacity. that is exactly what has happened. this partnership has flourished. we have had a very good relationship with the states and governors and other representatives within the states. has not beenp like seen in this country for many years. host: maybe you are already conducting normal activities so to speak during this coronavirus pandemic. in the mountain and pacific time (202) 748-8001. if you are a medical professional (202) 748-8002. as you are calling us, we will give you an update on methods in congress for financial relief and what is being done between the house and the senate. joining us on the phone is a

reporter from bloomberg. good morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: where are we on negotiations between the house and white house? guest: we are looking at the house producing their opening offer in all of these talks. that would be a bill that is approaching $3 trillion when it is finally drafted and released. they would not vote on it before friday. we are looking to see if it gets released from house leaders today in order to give members and 74me to review it hours to travel back to vote on it. most stores are closed. that amount for state and local governments could approach $1 trillion.

they are looking for a new round of cash payments to individuals. that would be another round of those $1200 checks. we are not clear on the amount or whether it would be recurring. democrats have called for it to be quarterly until unemployment drops below a significant level. republicans are starting to resurrect some of their earlier deficit concerns. --eady the national debt budget deficit is looking to approach $5 trillion this year. massive increase, and there is some concern. the issue is whether states and localities should be bailed out. we have members saying there is no way around it. if we don't do this, states are eirng to lay off th local employees.

this will ultimately backfire. saying some of the states have mismanaged pensions and finances. we cannot allow them to take advantage of this crisis to try to back fill these unrealistic pension guarantees. at the end of the day, we might see a compromise where there are guardrails and limits on how the state would set money. there are some proposals in the senate for $500 billion. democrats are talking about double that. the white house has been all over the place. the president has talked about the need for another package. he has demands for a payroll tax cut that is very expensive and could also be less targeted than other efforts. this would be going to people who still have their jobs as

opposed to those who have lost it or are struggling. president has also called for a $2 trillion infrastructure package. we are not seeing an appetite for that in either party. some freedom caucus and other members consulted with president trump on friday, he said there is no rush to do a bill. he has adopted this position that there is no rush. we are not sure if that is a negotiating tactic or if he really means it. timetable is friday, what has to happen between now and then? before we see the bill released, it comes down to today. i don't think they will be in a position to vote on it on

friday. there is concern from members about flying into town for a day and then going back. there may make more sense to come back the following tuesday. they will be voting on potential rules changes to allow committees to perform their duties remotely and to allow proxy voting on the floor. this is an issue for vulnerable members, elderly members, sick members who want the ability to cast their vote by proxy. another lawmaker would be able to go into the chamber and with preauthorization cast their vote. host: thank you for your time. guest: thanks so much. host: where are you as far as your comfort level on those normal activities during this pandemic? you can call us to let us know. the wall street journal

highlights illinois, saying states are allowing more businesses to reopen in limited fashion. as governors assemble teams of contact tracers to put in place the infrastructure needed to reopen safely. the first call comes from granite city, illinois. ken.is caller: am i comfortable going out? no. i'm 75 years old. i live at home. i am retired. i'm not comfortable at all. did you go out normally even before this pandemic? yes, i would go to restaurants and places. there is another factor. my son lives with me. he is 25. he is a college student. he goes to a nearby four-year university. they switched and went to online

classes. august, classes are going to start up. we are scratching her head over how they are going to do that. it is a college of 12,000 students. he will come home at night. unnerved about that kind of connection. i would feel better. they require that you wear a mask. you cannot get in the front door unless you have a mask. they are also counting in and counting out people to control how many people are in there. typically on a busy day, there are 40 or 50 people in line out front waiting to go inside. host: go ahead and finish.

that is ken in illinois giving us his perspective when it comes to comfort levels and normal activities. this is from north carolina and raleigh. caller: good evening. mostly, i feel safe doing normal activities as long as you are wearing masks and keeping a six foot difference. with places where you are making contact like nails salons and orthodontists, it is pretty risky. i feel kind of safe at that. i hope you have a great day. stay safe. from james in west virginia, go ahead. i want to thank you for taking my call. i'm not worried about this

virus. distancingave social and things like that in place. reopening, if we are doing walmart and places like that and we have to keep a distance and , it does not change a thing. if you want to go to a restaurant, ok. stay home. believe in what we are doing. our president is doing a great job. it is coming. we have got to get our country back going and get it working. everybody is doing a great job

so far. it is just like any other flu or virus or whatever. people are dying every day of suicide and things like that. you don't hear much about that. maybe some will agree and some will disagree. reopening today or next month, they are not going to be satisfied. they are going to blame our president that he went to soon or too late. and westt is james virginia giving us his perspective. that most ofsaying the commonwealth is set to reopen friday. there are exceptions being made

saying that population dense virginia, northern our next call, we will hear from bolivia. i feel safe. i think wearing masks and staying in, we are lowering our immune systems. we are not going to be able to survive the common cold if we don't stop this nonsense. let me say this about c-span, if i can. you all never talk about biden. that is how i know you all are fake. you never bring him up. host: that is not true. even a couple of weeks ago we brought up the issue of joe biden when the allegations of tara reade came out. i know that because i was sitting here. you need to have him on.

you all are fake. biden wants to come on this program, he is more than welcome to do so. one of the people commenting about the reopening of states, lessons learned in that process was new york governor andrew cuomo. one of the comments he made was the lesson learned as other states are opening. [video clip] >> new york, the cases are now on the decline. you look outside of new york, the cases are still on the incline. we took the worst situation in the nation and changed the trajectory so now we are on the decline. nation, thethe cases are still on the incline. that is because of what the people in this state did. if you had said when we started

more casese have than anyone else, yes, we had us, european virus attacked and nobody expected it. we are not only going to change our trajectory, we are going to change the trajectory more dramatically than any place else in the nation, and when you look at the nation compared to new york, you are going to see us on the decline and the rest of the nation on the decline. we did it. we have to stay smart. we have to learn from the mistakes that others have made. we are not the first to reopen. that is a good thing. you can look around and learn. other countries reopened too fast. they did not have controls in place. they reopened, and they had to slow down or stop. we don't want to do that.

reopening monitor our so that if there is any change we can immediately calibrate it. host: more of that available at c-span.org. there is another pull taking a look at guidelines. this is in usa today this morning saying three out of four americans saying they are more concerned about the government lifting social distancing restrictions too quickly. that is more than double the 29% who say they are worried restrictions are not being lifted quickly enough. you are next up.

caller: my wife was one of five people at trader joe's wearing a mask. lineaid people waiting in at the store were snickering at her. i have been going to the walmart. it is probably like 70% of the people are wearing a mask. yesterday, i wanted to go to home depot. i have been trying to start to get some of the yard work done. i will wear my mask. i went there and drove through the parking lot. out of 30 people, i saw one person wearing a mask. this does not look like a safe place to visit. i thought i would get up in the

morning. none of the employees are wearing masks at all. mulch in my load my car. i asked the person that met me out there, saying i would load my own. that person was not wearing a mask. they insisted on helping meet load the car and did not respect my social distancing at all. toaveat to that is i have work in a hospital where we have covid-19 patients. this is the part that is so frustrating to me. there don't seem to understand that i am wearing the mask for you. i am not wearing the mask for me. i am trying to prevent the amount of people that are coming in the hospital with covid-19 by

not possibly infecting you because i work in the hospital, and i occasionally take care of covid patients. it is frustrating to me when i go into public and people want to make a political statement about not wearing masks and snickering at my family members. i am not the only one in my family that works in the hospital. it is unnerving to me that people seem to be so selfish. cannot social distance and wear a mask. that was marked. marlene is in minnesota, alexandria. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i feel very safe going into my stores.

i wear my mask and take my sanitizer. anything i'm going to touch, i wipe it down. there is a coronavirus out there. i truly do. i believe it is highly contagious. i honestly believe that a lot of these numbers that are coming that they are reporting deaths on this and that and how many cases there are, i believe a lot of this is not being counted properly. are people dying of cancer and heart attacks and liver disease and everything else. i think they are all putting it down, anybody that goes into the hospital whether they have the virus or not, they are using it as a coronavirus because i believe they think they are going to get reimbursed from our federal government for every

corona virus that they have got. host: shelley is from georgia. you are next. caller: good morning. this virus is very serious. i think you should have a mask. you should not even be going to work now. be under guard because -- host: what has to change then? caller: we need to stay home until things get better. until you lose somebody from this fires, you don't know what it is like. most of these people that are talking have not lost anybody. they don't know what it is like. host: have you lost somebody? caller: i have not lost anybody that is a relative, but i have lost some friends. we need to stay quarantined

until this is over. host: when you say until this is over, what do you need to see to demonstrate that it is actually over? it is not going to be completely over for a while, but at least slow it down. sunday, all the people at the beach, like nothing is going on. there is something going on. you see people dying. it is ridiculous. you need to think twice about this. in missouri, good morning. seeer: in 1968, i went to las vegas. show, and thea maitre d'put us on the stage with this black singer. rose.ing rambling

host: tell me how that applies to what we are talking about. caller: i was delighted. he was singing rambling rose, and his saliva was going out six to seven feet in the air. i never realized that would happen. that was not king cole. you know how old i am. people wear the mask. as far as your comfort level, it sounds like you are not comfortable at all. caller: i don't go out. i am homebound. host: what has to change for you to go out? caller: people have to have respect for other people. there is a reason i'm telling you that story. singing,king cole was the saliva was going out of his mouth six to seven feet in the air.

host: andrew, you are next. caller: good morning. as far as going out, i have control so i can keep my distance and wash my hands. as far as going to a restaurant or food establishment, i don't feel very secure about that because you lose your control. you have to eat on the spot. you cannot take the food home and wash it. a lot of these young people are not wearing a mask. i don't think i feel very comfortable in restaurants. does that include ordering from a restaurant and bringing it home yourself? it is ok because you can take it out of the packaging and wash your hands. i don't think it spreads on the food itself.

i think taking at home is ok. sitting down at the restaurant, you give up that control. that is andrew giving us his perspective. usa today saying the food and drug administration announced in march that it would postpone in person inspections of food factories and canneries. the fda citations issued from unsafe conditions tumbled from hundreds per month to nearly zero in april. you can see the full breakdown of that in usa today this morning. andrew, go ahead. sorry, we are he got to you. i apologize. loretta, go ahead. i was just listening to

the show. i want to say that i think the whole world is being clean. at -- listening to governor cuomo. hello? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i'm a little nervous. i was saying i think the world is cleaner than it has ever been. we were all footloose and fancy free. subwayr cuomo was on the for hours. it has not been cleaned for decades. world ise all over the being changed. if everybody would just where their masks, everything has been cleaned. host: does that mean you are ok with going out and doing normal activities? caller: no.

i'm not saying that. to be honest, i don't go anywhere. i go do my shopping. if i have to go to the store, i should not say i don't go anywhere. iat i am trying to say is just think that the world is being cleaned. running footloose and fancy free. host: you made that point. i'm interested in where you live as far as what takes place there for you to resume normal activities. what about huntsville? caller: that is the world. huntsville is part of the world. i'm including huntsville in part of my statement. host: you are seeing more cleaning and huntsville? caller: it is everywhere. not just huntsville. host: let's go to brett in

lafayette, louisiana. caller: i feel pretty safe. mask if i go in the store. that is the only time i wear it. it is mostly out of respect. i am not that worried about it. i am 61. i was in the military. i got a lot of vaccines in the military. i had to go overseas. 10 years later, i went to go give blood. they asked me if i was in the military, where i was stationed. they said we cannot take your blood. i want to know why. host: you talked about large activities. what about close contact activities like going to the doctor? caller: no. we tried to go eat at a restaurant the other day.

the poor waitress was scared to death. she was handing us the breakfast in a bag. she says i cannot refill your drink. i cannot serve you. i cannot do anything. going with these restrictions is like not going at all. we probably should not do certain things. we need to get going with some things. host: the wall street journal reports that the louisiana stay-at-home order will expire on friday. be able tosses will reopen with capacity restrictions and safety precautions. risk foro are more at severe illness are encouraged to stay at home. required employees now to wear a mask at the white house. that not applying to the president and vice president.

the white house also made smaller changes, including displaying signs encouraging social distancing at entryways. members were not required to wear a facial covering if they are appropriately social distance from their colleagues. the defense secretary on saturday sat there faced around a with mr. trump at the white house in contradiction of the policy of the pentagon where officials have been social distancing for two months and wearing masks for several weeks. this is how president trump addressed it. [video clip] >> i don't think the system broke down at all. one person tested positive

because the previous day tested negative. three people that were in relative contact who i believe have all tested relatively negative but they are going to self-isolate. it can happen. it is the hidden enemy. things happen. the three tested negative. the one of them that tested positive will be fine. to othero you say companies that may look at this and say i don't know if we are ready to open. >> we have a lot of people at the white house. we had one person. we had a lot of people that work here. this building is shocking if you look at the numbers. it is tremendous numbers of people coming in. because we are running a country, we want to keep our country running. we have a lot of people coming out. most of those people are tested the ending on what portion of

the oval office area they are going in. everybody coming into the president's office gets tested. i felt no longer ability whatsoever. the two people and three people have been tested. it is negative. they will be out of quarantine very quickly. those topics may come up at the hearing featuring dr. anthony fauci at the senate. you can find out more information on our website. rene from westchester, pennsylvania. caller: how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: do i feel like things can go back to normal? no. i go through the drive-through at the pharmacy. medical couple of

procedures that i have to put on hold for right now. know where, how it goes from one person to the next. they don't have enough testing to find out just to give us some definite answers. you see that kind of information, and you will change your practice? caller: somewhat. the numbers have to go way down as far as the deaths. they have to come out with a vaccine or something where it goes dormant or something but not now. i think the financial people in this country want to downplay it

because they want to make sure the stock market stays up, including the president. these businesses, they want to open up. if they had to sign something stating that one of their employees or one of their patrons becomes ill because they opened too soon and they had to pay for it, i bet you they would think differently. int: let's hear from tom california. i think the first thing we have to look at is the word normal. i'm here in california. we were one of the first states to shut everything down people saying the normal activity. you are going to have to redefine what normal activity is. normal activity if you go to a restaurant, only half the place is going to be full. that is a new kind of normal.

comfortable going out right now. i suffer from cancer. i have been in remission. radiation, ando, i am one of the last people that wants to go out. a definite testing system out there, copperheads of , coming up with some kind of vaccine or treatment to reduce the possibility of days in the hospital, i think as far as normal goes, for a while, the u.s. is going to have to make changes in what they considered normal. host: that is tom in california. california holding special elections.

the california contest will test whether democrats can hold onto a suburban and formerly gop seat that they captured in the 2018 blue wave. she admitted to an affair with a campaign staffer. now democrat christy smith and republican mike garcia, the top two finishers battling it out on tuesday to serve out the remainder of the term. regardless of who wins, they will face off again in november. race to look for in wisconsin is the seventh district, the matchup between the republican and democrat. next in north dakota. caller: can you hear me all

right? host: i can. callersone of the talked about 1968, going to vegas. us have to be our own journalists. looked into 1968. we had 100,000 people dead from a horrible flu pandemic. on the last of the baby boomers. i was only four years old. we did not shut anything down. i think we overcompensate. we always go to far as baby boomers. with 9/11, we overcompensated for something and created a

for onet police state action by some people who should not have been here. north dakota, everybody is different. they should have never close down anything here. we only have a couple hundred cases. 30 people have died in a population of 650,000. so you conduct yourself normally then? caller: yes. we have had some large-scale outbreaks. there is a windmill factory. they had like 100 cases. there was a big controversy. they are somali refugees. they probably either did not care or social distance or were not given enough information. they just did not learn it right. host: that is jim in grand

forks, north dakota. edm joe biden, he has an op drawing criticisms to the administration approach to covid-19. tests, sayingeed the trump administration could focus on producing and distributing adequate protocols. doing so would speed up the process significantly. is fullyistration aware of this is the right path. the president and his staff are receiving daily tests. they know how to make the oval office safe and operational. they have not put in that same work for the rest of us. the joe biden campaign taking a look at the president's approach to covid-19. [video clip] >> early january, donald trump

is first warned of the virus. >> we haven't totally under control. it is going to be just fine. >> defends the chinese government instead. 30, trumps on cabinet secretary warns of a pandemic. trump calls him an alarmist. working very are closely with china and other countries. we think it is going to have a very good ending. >> the next day, the dow plummets 600 points. desperate to protect the stock market, trump continues to deny the threat and praise the chinese government. >> we are doing great in our country. i think it is all going to work out fine. it looks like by april when it gets warmer it miraculously goes away. >> global cases more than thaned, spreading to more

24 countries. it could soon become a full-scale pandemic. children that while i did not think they were at we need to be, preparing for significant disruption of our lives. >> mr. trump was. as as he watched the stock market crash. for the last five days of february, the trump administration took to the airwaves to deny the trip. maintain this close to airtight. that's thanks to the president, this disease is contained. 27, the dow continues to plunge. trump keeps up the false message. >> it will go away. into may.urns

the virus does not disappear. there is no miracle. cases mount. the death toll grows. more than 33 million americans lose their jobs to the pandemic. unemployment reaches great depression levels. donald trump does not understand. we have an economic crisis because we have a public health crisis. we have a public health crisis because he refused to act. donald trump to not build a great economy. destroyede to lead one. host: back to your calls. this is george in montana. >> thank you for taking my call. i think donald trump does understand. he talked about the sunlight. i am a rancher and farmer in montana. i have been going around this whole time. i get a lot of sunshine.

you think about where these cases are breaking out. plantsories and packing where there is no sunlight to get into those buildings. this has allegedly come from that's. that's live in caves where there are no sunlight. i do make some observations when i'm out in public. i respect people's social distancing. i try not to invade peoples spaces, but i have to get on with my life has my animals and my family depend on me to take care of them. host: are you hesitant for close contact activities? crowds,i stay away from but i make some observations for people that are out in public. unless you are trained in body isolation, it does no good to wear those masks.

i see people touching those masks when they get out of the stores. they grab them with their hands and take them off. unless you are trained to use a in body trained substance isolations, those masks are doing no good. everybody in the media is talking we need to be wearing these masks. nobody is giving anybody any training on the proper way to use those masks. i don't think they are doing any good for the majority of the people. host: the washington post .ighlights a new course online it launched on monday on the online platform to treat each best teach americans contact tracing. that is a physician at johns

hopkins public health school. the course is available free of charge to the public. it gives you a link where you can go to. from new york, we will hear from anna. caller: good morning. topic is so divisive because it is so much emotion injected into all of the conversations. my heart goes out to families that have lost loved ones to the compounding effect on their thath of individuals already had significant health issues. saidfeel safe if they today we are opening stores and

businesses, yes, i do. the reason i say that is because the majority of the science shows this is something that is transmitted essentially the same as influenza is transmitted. during flu season, people change their behaviors to some degree. don't hug and kiss like they normally do. they avoid crowds. about if ie concerns get the flu, i'm going to get sick. we also have a vaccine for most flu strains. caller: we have a vaccine, however every year large portions of the population do not avail themselves of the vaccine, and because of the nature of influenza, the effectiveness changes because

the strain of the flu changes. it is a role of the dice whether this is the year the vaccine is going to do the most good for the most people. i don't see that scenario changing if they ever develop a vaccine for this particular strain of this particular virus. think some people will take it and some people will avoid it? caller: i think fear is a powerful motivator. i think the difference between bing fearful and being aware is what shut this country down. weekconcerned that last the statistics for new york state keep changing depending on who counts what and how and when. any numbers that come out of new york are soft at best. host: we will hear from louise in virginia. caller: so glad to hear that

lady from new york. she is absolutely right. what we have going on is conjecture. it is all conjecture. that is what science is. it is mostly conjecture and theories. with very little investment in the facts. think that we need to go ahead and carry on with your life. the guy in california, i have cancer, and i have had cancer for two years. i have been through a lot of treatment. when i go to the store, i do not wear a mask. i wash my hands. i keep my hands clean and away from my face. i do not let people get within six feet of me. if i catch it, i catch it. that is just life. host: in los angeles,

california. leukemia,live with managed cancer where you have to take drugs every day. i'm terrified to go outside. it is very scary living with cancer at such a young age and not being able to go outside. i am really terrified of surfaces and being around people that i know and love. i have been isolated for about two months now. this is one of my fears of donald trump coming president. when i first got cancer, i thought if there was an outbreak disease that he would not be able to handle it, and it has come to fruition. now we are seeing the trump

administration is trying to monetize the response packages for the covid vaccine. was testifying in front of congress that he is not going to remove the profit motive from developing a vaccine because he wanted the capital markets to get invested into the vaccine for a treatment. in loshat is stephen angeles. towant to take a human's talk about today's supreme court proceedings. you can see them live as they play out on c-span. theing us to talk about cases today, robert barnes, supreme court reporter for the washington post. good morning. guest: good morning. host: today's cases focusing around one subject. guest: the large subject is the president's tax returns and financial records of his and his

family's and some of the trump companies. the president has not turned over his tax returns as other presidents did voluntarily and other presidential candidates. there has been a long-running battle over these records. as far as the specific cases, could you highlight them? be hearingcourt will three cases divided into two different arguments. one involves three congressional committees, house committees led by democrats who have made a toe request, subpoena, financial institutions for some of these records. the other case comes from new york. that is the manhattan district attorney who says he is looking into whether state laws were

broken by some of the alleged hush money payments made to women who said they have had affairs with the president. while the information these groups are seeking is basically the same, we have two different legal issues, one about congressional subpoenas and the other about prosecutor subpoena. ist: one of the topics oversight by congress of the white house, the supremacy clause. can you talk about that and what we will here today? the president is saying these congressional committees do not have any reason to ask her all of this information. that it is a kind of law enforcement that they are trying to do and this is beyond their duty and responsibility, which is to make laws.

there is a heightened requirement before you can ask the president for these sorts of records. one thing that is unusual is the president does not have to do congress or the district attorney to get these records. they have gone to his longtime accounting firm and to some of the financial institutions with the trump companies. he does not have to physically turn over anything. that is part of the argument the other side is making. host: have previous presidents made this argument and how successful were the? guest: previous presidents have not been very successful at the spring court. there are two cases that stand out involving richard nixon and bill clinton. richard nixon try to stop from

having to turn over the white house tapes. unanimous that those subpoena tapes had to be turned over. bill clinton went to the courts lawsuithis civil involving alleged harassment should not be going on while he was president. sayingrt was unanimous it does not harm the president from doing his job to at least participate in a small manner in a civil lawsuit and that he cannot wait until he is out of office. robert barnes, your story people can find online at the washington post.

one of the things you wanted to highlight is the perception of the chief justice john roberts. the court is very nervous about getting involved in political fights during the presidential election year. this decision will likely come down this summer in the heart of a big election. whenourt is always nervous it pulls into these political battles. court asked the parties in this case is this a political question? there is a rule that the courts do not have a role in that. all the parties said this is something the supreme court needs to decide on its merits. court in these previous cases were unanimous. the nominees to the court by

those presidents voted against the president in those cases. the court will be looking for some way to make their decision not look political. we have been inviting people to listen along as the supreme court has been airing these hearings. what are you looking for? guest: it is interesting this new format the court has adopted , which is that the chief justice asks the first question of the advocate. then it moves by seniority through the court. every justice gets a chance to ask questions. that is different from the free-for-all you normally here in the supreme court arguments. it makes them a little more difficult to see which way the justices might come down. you can sometimes tell by the tone of their question or what concerns them.

in this new format, the justices ask questions for both sides. sometimes it is difficult to tell how the court is going to come out on a case. will the solicitor general be making the case? guest: the private lawyers of the president will be making case in each of these arguments. they will be making the case for a very broad, almost absolute immunity from any investigation while the president is in office. the solicitor general representing the department of justice is supporting the president but not going as far as his private lawyers are going. they are saying there has to be a heightened requirement for subpoenas involving the president. far are not going quite as

as the president would go. they will argue on one side. on the other side willargumentsa representative, the general counsel of the house of representatives, defending congress' need for this information, and then a lawyer for the new york strict attorney, explaining why it is proper for that office to subpoena these records. host: robert barnes reports on the supreme court for the "washington post." as always, thank you for your time. guest: thank you for having me. host: coming up, we take a look at efforts to reopen states and also take a look at the example that sweden has offered in its efforts against covid-19. joining us for that discussion avik roy of the conservative foundation for research on equal opportunity. later on, we talked to leslie sarasin of the food industry association on when grocery

stores may return to normal and issues grocery stores are facing during this time. first, during a press conference yesterday, virginia's governor talked about several updates in opening the commonwealth's services and other things. here is a portion. [video clip] oure continue to increase testing capacity, as you are seeing. i expect to have some exciting announcements about testing partnerships in the coming days, so stay tuned for that. what we will talk about is the ability to work with some of the retail stores across virginia, to have a lot more community testing, not only in metropolitan areas but throughout virginia and all of our zip codes. i think that is something we will really be able to look over to. last week, we talked about the fact that petersburg has some residents whose water had been shut off.

that wasen unacceptable to have residents without access to running water when protection against this virus relies heavily on the ability to wash hands and other services. yesterday, our health commissioner, issued a public health certification that prevents the city of petersburg from shutting off water service to any occupied dwelling and requires the city to restore service to 46 homes. restoring water service will help protect those households as the community. closed ourhe dmv, we public facing dmv early in this pandemic. i am extending that closure for at least the next week. online services remain open. i would remind virginians that this is a difficult time for our

graduating seniors. they are not being able to enjoy a lot of the things that a lot of us have enjoyed. there are also some high school students who have met all of the requirements to obtain their driver's licenses, and i remember how much i looked forward to getting my drivers license when i was 16, so i would ask all of you to be patient. we are working through this, we will get our dmv's up and running as soon as we can and be able to get your drivers licenses to you. i appreciate your patience. finally, more than 50 of our localities have local elections coming up may 19. 12, is the last day for voters to request an absentee ballot be mailed to you. i strongly encourage everyone to vote absentee by mail. you can mark reason 2a.

on the myso decided disability or illness on the form. mail in is the safest way to vote at this time. thatntinue to make sure poll workers are as safe as possible for those who go out to vote in person. >> today, the supreme court continues hearing oral argument the teleconference. first, consolidated case dealing with the president's financial records and whether his personal records prior to becoming president can be subpoenaed. then, a look at whether the president has immunity to subpoenas for financial records to his dutiested as president of the united states. the supreme court live today on c-span, on demand on c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span radio app.

joiniately following, jeffrey rosen of the national constitution center leading a live discussion with scholars. today, four ector witnesses on the coronavirus pandemic, anthony fauci, robert redfield, aephen hahn testify before senate committee about returning to work and school. each witness, part of the president's task force, is self-quarantining after three were potentially exposed to the virus. live coverage begins at 10:00 on. c-span3, on demand c-span.org, and on the go with the free c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. joins us first guest from austin, texas, avik roy the foundation for research on equal opportunity. good morning.

can you tell us about your organization? who backs eight and the point of view you take? nonpartisan, a nonprofit think tank. our focus is on market-based ideas that expand economic opportunity to those who leased have it. our big thing -- we were founded in 2016 -- is how you get republicans and democrats to work together, particularly in congress and washington. it is not just about splitting the difference. it is trying to find ideas that enhance or advance both progressive values and conservative values at the same time. that means things that actually increase social mobility, help those on the bottom half of the deployedladder, but techniques like market-based policy to achieve that. host: along the relative those ideas that states and the white house and the federal government are dealing with is the reopening of states.

what do you think about the general approach being taken? there is a loty, of diversity and how states are approaching this. in our view, in general, we are more on the reopening end of the spectrum. if you actually look at what we inrted doing inmate -- mid-to-late march and look at the evidence piled up about how the novel coronavirus is -19 is, whatw covid it actually does in people and how it transmits itself, we have a lot more evidence. before, we were operating on old playbooks we derived from battling the flu. but covid-19 is a very different disease. that means we can approach reopening in a more targeted way. now, that covid-19 is a disease that disproportionately, much more so than influenza, affects the elderly, which means younger children and workers are able to go back to school and work with

the right precautions. and, in that way, reopen the economy in a graduated fashion. our approach is let's not compromise public health. there is a sweet spot where you can maximize the ability to reopen the economy while still ensuring that as few people as possible are hospitalized and die from this terrible disease. those that argue that to find that sweet spot it depends on the testing being done. then, looking at other data there. do you need that kind of information before you can make these decisions, in your mind? guest: our argument -- and we talk about this at length, is the conventional wisdom about testing is somewhat wrong. first of all, not all tests are equally accurate or measure the same thing. there are certain tests that measure active infections from genetica, the viral

material. those tests are very accurate at testing who has active infections, but they are cumbersome to administer. it involves a six inch nasal swab that goes up your nostril and gets to the back of your head, and then they pull it out and wait two days, and you get a result. that is a very accurate test, but the idea that 2 million americans a day will submit that some -- submit themselves to that kind of test is unrealistic. on the other hand, you have antibody tests, which are much easier to administer in a home setting as opposed to a hospital or doctor's office, but they do not actually measure active infections. often, you get infected with the coronavirus, and it takes three weeks to four weeks for your body to develop antibodies against that virus. you may be running around and infecting a lot of people but test negative in the antibody test. i could go on and on about this topic, but the point i am trying

to make is that purely the number of tests -- we have this many tests available -- that does not mean anything. what really matters is the kind and accuracy of the tests. it is our view that testing, widespread, population level testing, is unrealistic. what we have to focus on is the much more accurate pcr intrusive tests for the most at risk populations. at my responders, people working in emergency rooms, and people in nursing homes. we just published a paper on this a couple days ago that 40% of all people in the u.s. who have died of covid-19 live in nursing homes or residential care homes that are about caring for seniors. 40%. only 1.6 that even if percent of americans live in those facilities. that is an area we need to do a lot more. that is a tragedy that we have allowed that problems have fester and get worse. the silver live in -- lining is

the rest of that 90% of the population, we can do more to reopen the economy, because they are at relatively lower list -- risk. host: you can guess -- ask our guest questions by calling (202) 748-8000 for those in eastern and central time zones. guest: -- in2) 748-8001 for those mountain and pacific time zones. what is the necessity of a vaccine before we can return things to normal? guest: there is a good chance we never succeed at developing an effective vaccine for sars-cov-2. you hear this -- it is like making a cake to develop a vaccine for a new virus -- of

the fact is there is no guarantee we can develop a vaccine. their brightest minds around the world have been trying to develop a vaccine for hiv, the virus that causes aids, for over 35 years and we still do not have one. we do not have a vaccine for hepatitis c. antivirale effective drugs to treat those once you have been infected, but we do not have a vaccine that prevents you from getting infected. we cannot assume that we will for sars cov 2. even if, in the near term, we cannot develop a truly effective treatment of the disease. from avik roy, our guest the foundation for research on equal opportunity. you can find the work of the organization at freopp.org.

he is here to take your questions and comments. one of the things we have seen as far as other countries have handle this is sweden's approach. withou familiarize those the approach that country takes and what is right or wrong about it? guest: it is an interesting case study. did a basically never total lockdown the way that we have gotten used to in the u.s. that is not to say they did nothing. they shut down sporting events, prohibited bars where you have ,ig crowds in front of the bar prohibited that. they primitive crowded gatherings. but they did not prevent restaurants from continuing to serve customers, did not close down retail shops or businesses. part of their theory was we might be with this disease, or

this disease may be with us, for a long time, and we have to do things that the population of sweden is willing to accept for a longer-term, so let's do this more graduated or careful or limited approach. yes, the virus will spread to more people in sweden, but not and diesgets sick from covid-19, and if we can allow the younger people to reenter the workforce or stay employed, we will have less economic destruction. we may have more infections but not this apocalyptic scenario. that is what has happened. the one thing where sweden has not done as well -- or i should say have done as badly as other people -- is the nursing home question. across europe and australia and new zealand come a lot of countries are having this problem where 40% to 50% from debts of covid-19 are taking place in nursing homes. that is one area where you could

look to sweden and say they have more room for improvement. but, overall, of the western countries we look at, sweden appears to have found the sweet spot in terms of not shutting down the economy but having an acceptable public health outcome. host: is there a connection for sweden's approach and the type of health care that country provides? guest: i think the answer is no. sweden has a single-payer health care system, but that is something people may point to and say that is the reason sweden is doing so well. italy also has a single-payer health care system, and they are the country that has than the worst in the western world. the u.k. has a single-payer health care system, and they have not done that great. -- also hashouse so a single-payer health care system and have done reasonably well. markets like germany with a multi-payer health care system have done reasonably well. so we have not seen the correlation. what we have found is that the countries that have really done

the best job of responding to covid-19 are the ones that had direct experience with the original size coronavirus in coronavirus in 2003. that virus is similar to the one we have now, which is called sars-cov-2. the countries that dealt with the original sars epidemic like hong kong, taiwan, south korea, other pacific rim countries, they were the ones, in terms of the everyday people and their response and the government's response, they took this very seriously from the start, as soon as the new started coming out of wuhan, china. they started to aggressively act. the everyday citizens wore masks on the subway. they tried to be careful they took care to wash hands and engage in social distancing. that early response and those asian countries, gardens of a kind of health-care systems they have, really matters. singapore has one of the most

free-market health care systems in the world, one of the most free-market countries in the world, and they have done pretty well. south korea has a single-payer health care system and they have done pretty well. it is more about prior experience. host: our first call is from kansas city, kansas. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. what i was wanting to ask is, -- if our government does not start doing something with people coming into our you cannotegally, vet them or see if they have been vaccinated for anything. we still have measles pop up in spots. we have tuberculosis.

nobody knows who is bringing it in. alwaysuntry has almost done away with stuff like that. host: you want to take that? sure thatten, making people are not bringing chemical diseases into the united states is important. it is also important to remember a lot of how this sars-cov-2 virus got into the united states was not through illegal immigration. it was through legal travel between china and the united states and between europe and the united states. some of the strains on the west coast came from people traveling back and forth to china, whether it was chinese nationals or americans who had business in china. on the east coast, it appears that most of the way the virus came here was europe, where -- of course, also

came from china, but whether americans or europeans or chinese nationals were traveling through europe to the united states got here, that is how the disease got to the united states. to the degree that illegal immigration or immigration in general is relevant to this situation, and it may be, to a degree, it is also true that legitimate or illegal immigration or business travel among americans is also a big part of how these pandemics spread, particularly these days. host: from florida, this is david. caller: good morning. i have a family member in an assisted care living facility. they have been in lockdown since the end of january, i want to say, where they were not allowed to leave the rooms or anything. the people that work in those facilities are from our community. as we open back up, how will this affect the people who work

and those facilities and keep them from infecting our loved ones? guest: a great question and a very important question. about what he percent of all the people who have died of covid-19 in the united states live in assisted living facilities or work there. outside of new york state, which has some quirks to the way they report the data, it is actually 50%. about half the people outside of new york state who have died of covid-19 are living in these assisted of ink facilities. florida is one of the states that has action performed relatively well on this metric compared to other states. what are the reason why is that governor desantis did not lock down the whole state the way a lot of people asked or demanded aggressivehe was about restricting visitation to nursing homes. that appears to have made a difference in the performance of florida on some of these health outcomes. one of the key things with

assisted living facilities is, as you have suggested, the workers, the staff who work at these facilities, often live off-site. sometimes, they work and multiple nursing homes or multiple facilities. in onee is an outbreak facility and a staffer works there, and then that same staffer works in another facility, they are than the carrier of that virus to another facility. what will be important is to aggressively test the staff that work at these facilities. it will be really important that, wherever possible, staff are not working at multiple facilities but are sticking to a single facility. ideally, staffers live at that facility or nearby at a hotel that the nursing home operators or the state can rent out. hotels are pretty cheap these days because nobody is traveling, so there is a lot of empty hotel space, and that may be a way to kill two birds with one stone -- run. hotel rooms for staffers, so they are not getting exposed to this virus to

the community or transiting it themselves. host: this is margie from newark, delaware. caller: i have a few questions. the "new york post" every day. there are two big articles that say young babies are getting it -- as a matter of fact, 65 babies were verified, and it is almost related to kawasaki's, but it is through the virus. 40,then the age group 30 to they get caught when they got the virus. for him to just say it is elderly people mostly -- it is too confusing. i can understand people are confused. everybody is saying something different. i would like him to clarify.

guest: a great and very important question. and the caller is right. there is a lot of confusion about this, because there are -- if you are younger, it is not that you are completely immune from covid-19 or that it is not possible for you to get sick. it is possible for you to get sick. there are cases of younger people who die of covid-19. but, statistically speaking, if you actually look at numbers across the country and across the world, the percentage of people who are dying in their 30's or 20's or teens or shareen is very low as a of the population, as a share of those infected, whereas, among the elderly, it is very high. if you are older than 65 -- particularly if you're older than 85 -- the chance that you die if you get infected of covid-19 is very high. i do not have the numbers in front of me -- i can pull up the chart if you like -- let's call

it 10%. whereas for people who are under 40, particularly under 30 or 20, less.more like 0.1% or it is not that nobody gets sick or dies from covid-19 if you are younger. it is that the risk of dying from covid-19 if you are younger is much, much lower. comparable, in many cases, to your chances of getting sick from the flu if you are younger. again, that is not true if you are older. that covid-19 is less dangerous or equally dangerous to the flu. it is more dangerous, but it is particularly dangerous to the elderly. the risk of dying and of being hospitalized from covid-19 is much lower if you are younger. dr. fauci, or at least he is reported to say for a senate committee today, that when it comes to opening the country prematurely, he has great concerns, saying if we

skip over the checkpoints and guidelines, we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks occurring. when he says those kinds of messages, compared to what you have been expressing, how do you square those two? guest: a very important question. i think dr. fauci is being overly cautious. that is understandable. he is a virologist, a public health official. his concern is about infection rates, which is very important. but it is not the only concern. there are other concerns that matter. the fact that 20 million people are out of work right now because we have shut down the economy is incredibly important. the people who are not seeking every day care for heart attacks, the people who are not getting mammograms, war not getting checkups for a high blood pressure or cholesterol, those things have public how the facts as well. a lot of research shows when you have chronically high unemployment, there are increasing deaths of despair my people who die because of poverty.

there are other issues. the fact that schools are closed means that people who even can work today -- let's say you are a single mom who works as a pharmacist, and you cannot go to work because you cannot leave your 3-year-old at home alone, because normally your child is in school -- or think about the fact that, and a lot of low income communities, it is not just about childcare, it is about nutrition. a lot of low income families depend on the federal school lunch program to feed their kids. and they do not have access to that right now because schools are closed. there are a lot of considerations that matter as well as infection rates. my concern, and where we disagree, me and my co-authors, with dr. fauci is i think a single-minded focus purely on infection rates does not take into account the trade-offs that come from the economic disruption and physical disruption -- we spent $4

trillion trying to resuscitate the economy or prop it up while all of this is going on. we would have to spend more if we keep the economy shut down for longer. what is really important is to find that sweet spot where we are careful about reopening the economy in the lower -- lowest risk possible way, similar to what sweden and florida have done. what we will see, as time goes those states that have gone carefully will not see the apocalypse that apocalypse -- the apocalyptic vision that dr. fauci sees -- host: go ahead with your comment. toler: in regards to sweden, my understanding, the finance minister said they were still looking at a possible 10% gdp 50% as well as 14% to unemployment, even with this structure of letting people go

about their normal business lives. including the exponential growth rate of this, considering germany has got it down to 1.1% it closer to hours of 2.0%, will they not be dealing with a surge of hospital stays over the long term, causing more disruption to their economy? guest: great question. a couple of different points, so i will try to go through them. first of all, germany did not completely locked down its economy either. there was a great story in the " wall street journal" about how multiple factories had stayed open through the pandemic and come as a result, the economic lower in germany has been than what would otherwise be expected. by the way, germany is now reopening their economy. they reopened their schools or are planning to.

off.undesliga is kicking germany is actually coming out of lockdown in ways that active algae, for example, would otherwise complain about or be concerned about. you mentioned the sweetest situation. the sweetest gdp has gone down -- out of the reason why is that sweden is a small country that trades with every other country. if you are a manufacturer of saab cars or ericsson cell phones in sweden, you sell those around the world, or volvos, than the global shutdown affects your economy as well. even if you lift yourselves out of lockdown, you are still dependent on trade the rest of the world. same with the united states. but because the u.s. is a bigger country and less dependent on foreign trade compared to a smaller country like sweden, our ability to resuscitate our economy, in that sense, is greater. the caller mentioned that the

sweetest gdp is down 10%. the congressional budget office forecasts that u.s. gdp will be down up to 40%. i would take that 10% rather than 40%. host: from montana, kevin. caller: how are you doing today? host: fine, thank you. caller: i was wondering when you would do an apology week for dragging trump through the mud for three years on the russia collusion deal. i think that would be a pretty important topic -- host: we will let the coverage we had for that stand for itself. what is your question for the guest? caller: you will let that stand. host: what is your question for the guest? caller: nothing -- host: ok, we'll go to joey. that theike, was

economy has to reopened due to the fact that we cannot do too long -- when we were younger, we were taught to wash her hands and that there are germs and bacteria that will be out there. i feel like people everywhere have to be responsible, making sure they are not coming into contact with the bacteria. and if they practice natural hygiene, the governors should be able to decide if we clean the ,reas everywhere people are at they should be able to come out. there should not be a mandatory lockdown, because that will not help our economy. just keep stepping back and not go forward. guest: i completely agree. that is the point of this big proposal we put out at freopp.org on how to bring americans back to work even as covid-19 enters or during

covid-19, as we call it. reopening thet economy after covid-19, it is about reopening the economy during covid-19, because the economic destruction has been so hard. by the way, it has been hardest for the most vulnerable workers in our economy. 60% of 70% of hourly wage earners, people who work hour to hour, 70% of those jobs are on right now. 70%. if you work at a tech company or at an investment bank and you can work from home, things are manageable for you. maybe you need a babysitter and that is your challenge. but if you are an hourly wage earner, you do not have a livelihood right now. that is a huge problem, especially when you consider the fact that these 20 euros and 30-year-olds are at slow -- are at very low risk of dying or being hospitalized from covid-19. , 50% outside of new york state, our seniors who live in

assisted living facilities. i pulled up the chart. in terms of the deaths per million people, based on the centers for disease control statistics, if you are over 85 -- this is as of mid april, so the numbers will increase but the ratio should stay the same -- if you are over 85, 564 americans per million have died from covid-19. between the ages of 25 and 34, prime working age, 2.5 people per million have died from covid-19. that is a ratio of about 200. the risk of dying from covid-19 is about 200 times for an 85-year-old what it is for a 35-year-old. that matters in terms of the policy response. we have to look at the evidence from this disease, from what is accumulating and piling up from covid-19, and not merely plot a fromook that we dusted off

the 1918 spanish flu. you are seeing a lot of public health types say this is how we dealt with the food -- flu pandemic from this or that year. covid-19 is not the flu. it has a different effect on different populations. we should take that knowledge and use it to maximize our ability to reopen the economy. host: we have seen the federal government extend financial help to individuals and businesses going beyond that. is that an appropriate role for the government? guest: it is appropriate philosophically that governments are saying shut down your business, so the government tells you to shut down your business and is not letting you work, then the government has a role in trying to provide you relief. the problem is twofold. one we have overshot. the lockdown has been too aggressive. the second problem is the actual paycheck protection program that congress passed to help those

small businesses stay afloat has a lot of problems. first of all, it is limited -- it defines small businesses as any business with fewer than 500 employees. i do not know about you, but i know a lot of businesses with 500 employees. i do not think of them as a small business. they are often national or international companies. to me, a small business has , may bean 50 employees smaller than 100 employees. those small businesses with fewer than 10 employees or just an individual freelancer, those are the ones that struggle to access the funding from congress, because they did not have lobbyists, lawyers, the people to get them access to the money before it ran out. the other thing is the way the paycheck attention program is designed is it says if you keep your workers employed, then you

qualify for the loan forgiveness , which makes sense. you do not want to give companies an incentive to lay off their workers and then collect any from taxpayers. the flipside is if you are a restaurant or retail establishment that has been forcibly closed by the government, you cannot employ anybody. because there are no jobs. you can pay people, but you basically cannot operate. so you're telling these small businesses to operate at a loss, hemorrhage money, and if you do that, maybe you are eligible for aid. worked for some companies but has failed a lot of others. host: from indiana, good morning. caller: thanks for c-span and thank you for being on. you think the defense production act put in, like,

yesterday to help our country with the testing? a lot of other countries are able to open not because they are testing the people to go out and do their jobs every day instead of just not doing that. i do not understand why this is not being done for our country? and for the president to get on -- well, yesterday, in a way, and just makeup things are not true to the american people is pretty outrageous. i think something needs to be done now about the defense production act. host: we will let our guests respond. guest: in terms of the performance of the president and other leaders, we have an

election, and voters will be able to register their views at that point as to how things have gone. in terms of the defense production act, i do not actually think the defense production act will make that much of a difference here. as we talked about earlier in the show, one of the big elements of our policy proposal at the foundation for research for equal opportunity is the conventional wisdom is overly simplistic about the role and need for testing, because not all tests are equally accurate, and not all tests look for and can detect an active infection of sars-cov-2, or the covid-19 disease. merelyt to say that looking at the number of tests does not tell the story. if you look at the number of tests, we are doing fine. on a per capita level, the united states is on par with other countries. the problem is it is not practical to test every american for covid-19 or for the

sars-cov-2 virus. what we can and should and need to do more aggressively is aggressively test people who work in emergency rooms and other health care facilities or first responders, and we need to do a better job of testing people who live and work in nursing homes. fromy half of the deaths covid-19 are taking place in assisted living facilities. we have to focus our aggressive testing regimens on the higher risk populations. in terms of the average person going to work every day, sticking a six inch nasal swab of your nostrils to get tested every couple of days is not going to be practicable -- practical. what you will see more of in the everyday setting is temperature checks. they are not as active as pcr tests, the kind we are talking about, but just checking your

temperature to make sure you do not have a fever can be a good way of figuring out whether you may be at risk of covid-19, and it is easier. you can stick a little probe in your ear or on your forehead, and there are these lasers that can detect your temperature -- there are a lot of ways to detect a person's temperature that are not as intrusive and are easier at the practical population level. that is where we will see more action. airlines and airports are thinking about if lamenting temperature testing to make sure they have a first pass screen passengers who may be at risk of covid-19. host: from samuel in wisconsin. caller: good morning. i was wondering if you could comment about the concerns of business about liability claims. is there anything congress will from protect businesses the slip and fall lawyers? guest: i've been hearing this a

lot from business owners, of all types, all sectors of the economy, who are concerned about if we do what those of us are advocating for reopening suggest and reopen your business and bring people back to work, are you going to put yourself at risk of millions or billions of dollars in lawsuits? cannotse, you necessarily prove where that got infected. that makes it even harder in terms of these plans. the answer is yes, congress is looking at this. members of congress have heard from the businesses in their congressional fissures and states about this very problem, loud and clear. i think the next time congress thinks about or considers covid-19 relief legislation, the issue of liability protection will be front and center in that conversation. host: matthew joins us. he is in connecticut. caller: how are you?

thank you for accepting my call. i want to say that i cannot help but agree with the guest. onust want you to comment how this pandemic is creating a mental health crisis in our country. i believe the "washington post" reported on this on may 4. i do agree with you, but more so because of the impact that this pandemic is having on everyday fundamental health of everyday americans. guest: and before i get to that, i want to say the call is from connecticut, and connecticut is one of the states that has one of the worst situations on the nursing home front. the percentage of the nursing home population that has died in connecticut is second or third highest in the country. the highest is new jersey, as a share of the assisted living population.

connecticut has a real problem, and the more connecticut can adjust that, the better. in terms of your question on the mental-health side of things, it is another huge problem. it is something that is hard to measure. there are polls and surveys where americans say my mental health has declined or deteriorated as a result of the pandemic. but again, this is one of the reasons why i push back, from a thoughtirological process about economic policy. you have to think about the incredible strain that the lockdown has had on people. people who do not particularly have childcare but also people who are unemployed, people who are not able to leave their home and need that companionship. older people who may be living alone, single parents -- and they are all sorts of people, let alone those who already have mental health challenges on top of that, that are dealing with the strain. across the entire country, every

single cohort of people, you are seeing this kind of strain. some of it is necessary, particularly in the short term. we all said, when the lockdown started, if we need to do this for a short period of time to flatten the curve, that is ok. but we have to remember something that is really important. why were the lockdowns implement it? they were not fomented to squash the curve. they were not -- they were not implemented to squash the curve. they were implemented to flatten the curve. what flatten the curve means is not actually reducing the number of people infected but slowing the pace of how quickly people are infected, so that hospitals and icus do not get overwhelmed with patients in severe respiratory distress. we have done that. even in new york city, we never reached a point where the icus and hospitals were overwhelmed.

and the rest of the country, congress spent $100 billion to help hospitals losing money because their beds are empty. that is another thing that points to why we need to reopen the economy. the original rationale was to protect our hospitals from being overrun. our hospitals are not being overrun. we should take advantage of that to gradually and strategically reopen the economy and help people get back to work and give people less strain in their lives as well. foundationroy of the for research on equal opportunity. he serves as their president. guest: thanks for having me. host: coming up, we will take more of your phone calls. and we will include in that an update on how the covid response is taking place in new york. to lesliewill talk

sarasin from the food industry association on whether grocery stores may return to normal. wewill revisit the question started with about your level of comfort, your level of safety resuming normal activities. let us know what you think on what you are doing these days and if your practices have changed. (202) 748-8000 if you live in eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. first, a little bit of the press conference that took place with louisiana's werner john bel edwards. -- governor john bel edwards. he said that his state is expected to move into phase one by the end of the week. [video clip] >> after discussing the data with public health experts and with epidemiologists and the resilient louisiana commission and reviewing the data we have been accumulating over the last couple of weeks, we will be

moving to phase one on friday, may 15, this friday. we will be lifting the stay-at-home order. the next proclamation will likely be issued thursday and be effective friday. we intend to leave it in place for 21 days, which i think is june 5. so the next time we anticipate having an announcement like today will be monday, june 1, and obviously, we will not know what that looks like until we get there and have the most recent data to look at. like all decisions, this took a lot of time and work, and i want to thank the department of health -- we wanted to make absolute sure that we were following the cdc-vetted plan issued by the white house coronavirus task force and the

president's phased approach to reopening the country. i believe we are striking the right balance with this plan, public health on one hand and this public health emergency, and re-engaging more of our economy, getting more of our business is open, employers back to work, customers in our stores, and restaurants and so forth. in aill get more data moment that is broken down in can tell ways, but i you that, statewide, we meet the threshold criteria established by the white house based on declining covid-19-like illnesses being presented to the hospital emergency rooms, based on cases. that is particularly true with specks of cases as a percentage of test administered, one of the

white house criteria, and with her spec to hospitalizations -- with respect to hospitalizations. and as we outlined friday, we now have more testing capacity in the state. in fact, in the first week of may, the federal government fully met their commitment to resourcing the state with collections kits that will allow us to get to 200,000 tests per week -- sorry, per month. that would be a tall order. per month. so we feel much better about that as well. >> "washington journal" continues. level ofin, your comfort, do you feel safe about those normal activities during this covid-19 response? we showed you this from gallup at the beginning of the program, where people were as far as what they needed to see before resuming normal activities, with

80% saying it was a mandatory quarantine they were looking for, anyone tested positive with covid-19. that is followed by improved medical therapies, significant reduction in the number of new cases or deaths, and a vaccine to prevent covid-19. and then a topic top of mind for the white house, testing, widespread testing to identify and monitor the coronavirus infections. maybe you use those as factors of determining what you do as far as the pandemic and how you conduct your life. let us know. (202) 748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. perhaps you are a medical professional and want to give thoughts to this, it is (202) 748-8002. many people are texting us and posting earlier on. max texting saying perhaps people would feel more safe to

return to normal activities of all of these reopening states followed the guidelines from the white house that they issued several weeks ago. cliff in the u.s. virgin islands saying that businesses are required to post signs at the entry, "no mask, no service." it is reassuring. sometimes, you may see someone not using a mask, but, for the most part, in stores, people are protecting each other. i do not feeling safe yet. however, my company president is allowing employees to telework for the end of may, so that helps. i pray we do not jumpstart the second wave of this. steve was tweeting us -- you can do the same at @cspanwj. text us at (202) 748-8003. you can also post on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. texas, good

morning. caller: i feel pretty safe going back to work. i think the government did a pretty good job at this. one thing i cannot understand is the man who called a bit ago would not apologize to the american people for what you did to donald trump every day -- i am not sure why you hung up on him. you should have just apologized to him. host: what i said is i will let what we did stand for itself and continue on. we will go to john, in san diego, california. , i'm in state heights, california. if you do not have your health, you not have anything. there is too much push on the for-profit sector.

the real tell is churches. all the churches have been closed. until the churches reopen, i will not feel safe. because they do not have a profit motive, and all of these businesses that want to open tomorrow do. let's not be fooled by profits. host: from michigan, laura is next. she's in mendon, i believe. caller: good morning. i am calling with a question. i have a lot of background in immunology and microbiology. really gottenhas me concerned, especially here in michigan, where the governor extended it until may 28. from my understanding, with immunology and microbiology, this lockdown, people are

breaching their homes, staying away from everybody, is that not lowering our immune system? so if there is a second wave to it will make this one looked minor? host: we will go next to sam, in seattle, washington. caller: how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. go ahead. caller: what do you want to ask me? host: you called in, assuming late to answer about your level of safety and resume activities under the pandemic. he's gone. so you can continue on. we will take a few more calls. if you live in the eastern and central time zones, it is (202) 748-8000. in the mountain and pacific time zones, it is (202) 748-8001. if you are a medical professional, it is (202) 748-8002.

the front page of the "washington" saying the president, as far as the events heard yesterday, offering up to $1 billion to states and their conducting of tests throughout the united states. one of the other things he talked about was a milestone reached in the covid-19 pandemic. [video clip] a testing developed capacity unmatched and unrivaled anywhere in the world, and it is not even close. this is a core element of our plan to safely and gradually reopen america. we are opening and there is enthusiasm like we have not seen for a long time. every american should be proud of the amazing array of talent and skill and enterprise our nation has brought to this challenge. in three months, the fda has authorized more than 92 different tests. over 9 million have been performed here in the united states. three weeks ago, we were conducting roughly 150,000 test

per day. now, we are doing approximately hundred thousand tests per day, a one hundred percent increase, and it will go up substantially from that number. this week, the united states will pass 10 million tests conducted, nearly double the number of any other country. we are testing more people per capita than south korea, the united kingdom, france, finland, and many other countries, and, in some cases, combined. host: you can see the full event at the c-span.org website. this coming in from cnn, saying that the vice president is taking some precautions but stopping short of the recommended self-quarantine in the wake of his press secretary testing positive from the coronavirus, his quote saying he will maintain distance from the president. it is not yet clear how long the

vice president will stay away from the president. from oregon, kathy. hi. caller: i just wanted to say that, as far as the whole coronavirus thing is concerned, my entire family has continued to work -- apparently, we are essential, although i think everyone is essential when it comes to their jobs. and infamily in wyoming california and my family here in oregon. all of us have continued to work. and yet none of us have gotten sick. we go out, do what we need to do as far as resuming our normal activities -- we have pretty much been doing that the entire time. the only thing i have not been able to do is my bowling league. and church. expect to do you resume either of those activities? --ler: ira governor has not

put in ano application to resume our normal activities, apparently. we have a restaurant here that opens this weekend. i'm not afraid to go into with. host: are you a good bowler. caller: yes, actually. i do miss my friends there. host: what is your average score ? caller: 170. host: yeah, you're a good bowler. thanks for calling. john from new jersey. caller: thanks for taking my call. an interesting cross-section of the country. in regards to the prior caller'' comments, that is irrelevant point to start from. country can how the feel safe until we have true facts and science to guide our decisions.

we are all for opening the economy, but it has to be done intelligently. there is too much political nonsense from the white house that is confusing people and making a dangerous for everyone. there are part of the country where it is not as dangerous. the front-line workers are who are most at risk. as well as calling other profit grabbing, including the hedge fund managers, the wealthy who tookdevelopment money that is intended for small businesses. i hope to god the supreme court will do the right thing and tell trump he is not a king and he has a turn in his taxes so we can see all the things -- host: that is john in new jersey. by the way, those hearings taking place about the president's tax returns and the supreme court, you can listen for that live beginning at

10:00. former vice president joe biden appeared on "good morning america" this morning. one of the topics tweeted out by the show was a question asked to knewnd him to about moves to investigate michael flynn. "i tweet includes the quote, am aware they asked for an investigation, but that is all i know about it." here's a portion of that interview. [video clip] >> i do want to ask you about michael flynn, and the move to dismiss the case against him for lying to the fbi. the president said that move is justified because president obama targeted flynn. he called it the biggest crime in u.s. history. charles grassley said flynn was entrapped and asked on the senate floor what did obama and biden know and when did they know it. the did you know about moves to investigate michael

flynn, and was anything improper done? >> this is a game this guy plays all the time. the country is in an economic, health crisis. we are in real trouble. he should stop trying to divert attention from the real concerns of the american people. the american people are worried for a good reason. he has acted irresponsibly from the beginning and continues to act responsibly. this is all about diverting attention from the horrible way in which he has acted. we don't have coronavirus because of him, but we have the devastating impact because of his lack of policy and action. it is all about diversion. there was reported to be a january 5 two thousand five meeting where you and obama were briefed on the plan to question

michael flynn over the questions he had with the russian ambassador kislyak. >> i thought you asked me whether or not i had anything to do with him being prosecuted. i'm sorry, aware they asked for an investigation, but that's all i know. think about this, can you imagine any other president of the united states focusing on this at the moment the country is absolutely concerned about their health, the health of their children, the health of their families, the health of -- this is an economic crisis, a health crisis. this is all about diverting attention. focus on what is in front of us. get us out of this, mr. president. host: that full interview is available on the "good america" website. caller: often when i watch c-span i often see callers call

in and they are critical or not so polite towards the moderators of c-span. last week there was a phone call, and today you got a phone call. i watched you for at least 30 years and have marveled at the ability of the c-span people to bring so much -- i mean there is a barrage of information coming your way. each day you sit here for 365 days a year bringing all the stuff to us. you guys, i'm sure your days are hard. they start early in the morning, not to mention your homework prior to interviews and the books you read. in your defense, you guys do a remarkable job, and i'm so thankful to have this channel, all three channels. you have book tv, you have all this information that you allow us to make our own decisions with, and you allow us to call in. host: appreciate your

sentiments. what you think about normal activities and things like that? caller: i don't know. that is a topic for another day for me. i would say it is up to the people who know better. i would love if the c-span people could bring on or interview someone like a snowden or a julian assange, or take the c-span bus where these people are to interview them, or discuss topics such as benghazi or people having private servers. host: gotcha. thank you for those suggestions. if those people want to be interviewed by us, i'm sure we could accommodate. from florida, this is guy. hello. caller: i would like to mention -- i am from the orange medical group in south florida. what we noticed was a disaster unfolding. there is but the bungling of

keeping testing from the public for seven weeks by the cdc. perfect storm was enforcing a lockdown quarantine of 97% of the population of families not knowing who is detected or not and they spread the disease 300% to 400% faster. the cycle of the disease, two to three weeks from the point of contraction to peak infection -- it is always two or three weeks -- if you take the published justr nationwide will we conducted a study of the top 10. there were three deaths on the the weekk, 3-15, before new york issued a stay-at-home order. three weeks after there were

9300. then we did this across the country, and it is uniform. the stay-at-home orders were woefully, woefully wrong. they didn't consider they are sending people into a perfect toubation center, a 1200 1500 average square-foot home not knowing who is infected. host: another floridian from west palm beach. hello. caller: thank you for taking my call and thank you for c-span. i am undecided if i feel normal returning to everything. i was working in a daycare. we closed the day care of march 13. i have been home since march 14, basically. i was concerned regarding the guest you had a little while ago when he said 40% of the deaths are in nursing homes, nursing home deaths are the cause of 40% of the deaths. i feel like what is the other 60%? are we chopped liver?

that didn't really get addressed. that gentleman was talking about under a certain set of conditions 40% to 50% of the deaths were nursing home people, but those conditions were conditions where a lot of the country was closed down. situation, notat all things remain constant. we are changing the conditions to the point where people are mixing around more, and god willing they all wear masks and wash their hands, but we can't assume people are following directions. host: albany, kentucky. hi. caller: m.r.i. on tv? -- am i on tv? i'm not talking to that man? host: you're talking to him, if that's who you are referring to. caller: why does everyone on the cbc, cbs,, msnbc,

abc, why are they giving poor old trump a hard time? worldt understand why the -- host: go ahead. caller, go ahead and finish your thought. caller: i think, by george, it's time for the united states people to stay with each other and try to get this country back together again. if we don't, i think something bad is going to happen, and we don't deserve that in this united states. host: kenneth in albany, antucky calling on not related topic, but a topic some of you have called on as far as a level of safety you are feeling during these resuming of normal activities. you can let us know your

thoughts in the last couple of minutes in this segment. we have referenced a couple of different things to point you to. at 10:00 after this program, if you have been listening to the supreme court cases done by telephone, we have been airing them live, the supreme court is letting us airing them live. today's case is looking at president trump, his financial issues, taxes, the like. you can see that after 10:00 -- this program. senator found she will be in a hearing on the senate talking about his concerns regarding reopening the state. c-span3 is how you can listen on. you can also do so at c-span.org . we had the opportunity to talk with members of congress about covid response, particularly in the places they live. joining us from new york is democrat yvette clarke, a member

of the energy and commerce committee. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me. can you talk about the area you live and represent? caller: i am in brooklyn, new york. central and south central is the district i represent.we are the epicenter of the epicenter of the covid outbreak and crisis in new york city. it has been very traumatic here. lots of loss-of-life. we have a very densely populated area with a number of individuals who serve on the frontlines. testing is the critical thing. we have to get ubiquitous testing because we live in a densely populated area. the crisis is not over here. host: from where you live do you see the numbers of cases flattening, rising, staying the same?

guest: throughout the city we are flattening the curve. i have to take my hat off to all new yorkers, my constituents included, who have maintained social distancing. those who can stay home or staying home. but that doesng, not eliminate the fact that so many of our central workers live in densely populated areas. our families live very closely together. we still have to shop with one another for the essentials in life. we won'thave testing, have a good sense of how we are flattening the curve, and whether in fact we are just facing another wave coming. that is the important thing we are concerned about in central brooklyn. contact tracing, isolation, and treatment.

the same things you have been hearing from the democratic caucus has to go into full effect here. host: we are seeing the governor of the state contemplating opening certain areas of the state. the mayor of the city saying it could be quite a while before things returned to normal. how do you deal with those perspectives on returning to normal activity? guest: new york state is a very diverse state. new york city is unique among cities, not only in the state but across the globe in that we have over 8 million, close to 9 million people living here. we are accustomed to living very closely to each other. we are densely populated by nature. what may happen in the finger lakes region of the state can't happen in the city of new york. we don't have the capacity, the bandwidth in terms of distancing

to enable those types of activities to occur at this stage. one of the efforts you have been personally making is to the topics of rent and mortgages. can you talk about those efforts? not only from the renters' perspectives, but people who rent out the properties concerning your efforts? guest: it has to be a very comprehensive proposal in terms of rent and mortgages. i definitely am recognizing that we have asked people to stay home by the necessity to deal with this public health crisis. that means many people are not getting paid, are being laid off, are being furloughed. as a result their ability to address their rent, particularly in the city like new york, has been cut off at its knees. likewise, the landlords who want

to be compliant, who recognize, but the rent makes the difference in their mortgages, we have to deal with both as a couple. we don't want to see people lose their property those who are housing many new yorkers, many brooklynites, because then it becomes a compounded crisis. work i am doing in washington, and working with the cares act 2, is specifically focused on our small mom-and-pop landlords and renters renting from them. some of our buildings are owner occupied. we want to make sure we are working to give them forbearance that we are providing direct e individual so they can weather this storm. ont: have you been given any

when congress will be working on this cares package? guest: we are on-call. we don't know exactly when we will be coming back. we are currently on-call and notice toven 72-hours begin mobilizing to get back to washington. host: one of the things you have been doing personally is delivering personal protective equipment to various sectors. talk about that effort, and where is the equipment coming from? guest: a lot of charitable donations. i have to think new yorkers who are stepping up. we have medical professionals. we have a host of charitable ppe fortions procuring their neighbor. we are making sure communities that are densely populated communities that may be enclaves are having that distribution. we have a lot of talent in brooklyn.

food insecurity has set it. the need for many of our immigrant population to be extended a lifeline and safety net. we have had to pull together, because cares act 1 did not make provisions for those families. we are one community. we are one district, and we are doing everything we can through charitable donations, believe it or not, to meet the needs of the people of our communities. our city and our state are also chipping in, particularly where we are feeding families and schools and making sure that we cover every community. host: representative yvette clarke, democrat from new york, serves brooklyn, a member of the energy and commerce committee. thank you for your time. guest: thank you for having me. host: on the topic of food we will be joined by the food

industry association's leslie sarasin to talk about what is going on in those industries in the light of the pandemic. how the state is working with tribes to set up check winds to prevent visitors who might spread the coronavirus within those sectors and from coming onto tribal land. here's a portion of that event from yesterday. [video clip] >> i had conversations with them and i am concerned about those who would be in the vulnerable population. we have helped them prepare. we have helped their facilities get supplies and testing equipment that would be necessary to make sure they have adequate personnel to respond. and trained worked our national guard to respond should that be necessary, and communicated openly with all of them and held weekly tribal them, makingith

sure we heard with their needs were and responded getting them ppe and other resources they might need to prepare their communities. it is a big concern for me, and always has been. the checkpoints, i understand the spirit behind them and communicated if they wanted to do that activity on uib roads it would be less of a jurisdictional issue. on u.s. and state highways it is different. we need to have clarity on that situation. for me it's a priority that if someone needs an ambulance on a reservation someone can get to them. i'm not sure they can with the checkpoints operating the way they are in the stories we've heard. i want to make sure we can get groceries to families and communities on reservations. i'm not sure that can happen in some of the checkpoints people are running into. making sure his central services can go through and individuals who have property, cattle, or

live on tribal lands can get home into their belongings is important. that we continue to make sure that is facilitated. while you are seeing the conversations and letters in the hope that -- that is why you're seeing the conversations and letters in the hope that we can have resolution soon. >> a consolidated case dealing with president trump's financial records and if the presidents personal financial records prior to being president can be subpoenaed. a look at if the president has immunity for subpoenas against financial records, including president trump's tax returns, unrelated to his duties as president of the united states. the supreme court live on c-span, on demand on c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span app.immediately following the live supreme court session join jeffrey rosen of the national constitution center

leading a live discussion with scholars. expert witnesses on the coronavirus pandemic. they testify before the senate health education and pensions committee about returning to work and school. each witness, part of president trump's task force, is self-quarantining after three were potentially exposed to the virus. live coverage begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3, on c-span.org demand on c-span.org, and on the go with the free c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: this is leslie sarasin here to talk about food safety issues during the coronavirus pandemic. good morning. guest: good morning. thank you for having me. host: can you talk about the food sectors your organization represents? guest: we represent the breath of the food industry.

our histories in the retail and wholesale sector, but we represent companies that provide products for sale in our stores as well as services that support the industry. host: are we talking localized grocery stores, big-box-type markets? what do you cover? from: we cover everything a single store operator in bend, oregon to the largest brochures in the world. edth is significant. host: when it comes to food supplies for the vendors you represent, what is your area of concern. the concern is making sure we have the ability to take care of our associates in the stories and that our customers are safe when they are shopping in our stores. resourcesent time and

on doing everything we can to ensure the safety of our associates and customers. as examples, what are you recommending to those vendors? guest: we have done a lot of things in store to protect our customers when they are shopping. in some areas stores are limiting the number of people who can go into the store at the same time. once they get into the store, they will see a lot of changes, differences then before covid-19. theyey go into the aisles, may find their groceries are doing one way aisles so there is less opportunity for interaction to assistpers, and with maintaining the social distancing protocols that have been recommended by the centers for disease control. they will find when they check out of the store that perhaps there is a plexiglas shield

between them and the cashier. that is to protect the cashier and the customer. they will see most associates and stores are wearing protective equipment, masks and in some cases gloves if it seems appropriate. there's a lot going on in the store specifically making it safer. we are doing things by closing our stores earlier than we normally do. but that has been able to allow us to do is much deeper sanitizing and cleaning in the evening, so that when we reopen the next morning our shoppers will be in a cleaner environment. i would say it is helpful that many stores have created certain shopping times for our more vulnerable populations. those typically tend to be early in the morning. so only those more vulnerable people in our populations are shopping at that time.

and: the idea of masks gloves, would your organization go as far as mandating the wearing of those someone wants to go grocery shopping? guest: i don't know that there are rod mandates for that kind of thing. there are some communities -- broad mandates for that kind of thing. there are communities that have perhaps mandated people in public where masks while they are shopping. everythingowing being recommended by the centers and inease control, areas where local governments have imposed restrictions and recommendations we are doing everything we can to follow those as well. host: our guest will be with us until the end of the program. if you want to ask russians about food issues and supplies when it comes to -- ask questions about food issues and supplies when it comes to

.rocery stores to what level is the organization recommending how to protect those employees at the grocery store? guest: we are working closely companies, making sure they understand with the recommendations are from the centers for disease control, helping them keep up with local land state regulation -- and state regulation, so we can help companies ensure they are meeting the most current advice and recommendations on meeting the safety needs for our customers and associates. host: specifically, how? guest: we have daily phone calls every afternoon at 4:30 with representatives of our member companies where we exchange information and share ideas on

new things that people are hearing, ways that companies are engaging in ensuring the safety of their employees and customers. a very important information sharing repository for our members will stop we have been engaged in working with the federal government, and to some extent state and local government to help them understand how our industry functions so when they are making some of these decisions they will understand what the real-life ramifications are for some of them. host: what is something you had people as the federal far as things they may not understand? guest: it is perhaps not that they don't understand, but in the midst of the pandemic they are not aware of. when the cdcsues

began to recommend the use of in retailother ppe environments. one of the challenges we had was gaining access to that ppe. we all then this country have been very concerned with making sure the medical community had the best and most immediate access to personal protective equipment. we certainly didn't want to interfere with that, but to make sure we could find access and help our companies understand where they could gain access to those materials has been particularly helpful, i think. host: one of the things we have seen advocated, particularly for front-line workers, is more paid during this time. is that something your organization is advocating for? guest: we have not been engaged

as an organization. there has been a great deal of media coverage of decisions individual companies are making in that regard. as in argan's asian we don't -- as an organization we don't get involved in individual companies decisions. host: owen is calling from grand junction, colorado. our guest leslie sarasin from the food industry association. caller: i was wondering -- thanks for taking my call -- i was wondering, wouldn't it be a good idea to support our local farmers around us to get the supply chain between the people and local farmers? i've got one more question. washer have a pressure by the cart corral to clean off the carts? if so, i mean, how come they wind into the equation for the distancing?

host: go ahead. guest: the work with local farmers, the fact is that is happening quite widely in addition to the usual sourcing our retailers are doing. they are alsoces sourcing products from local farmers. that is for a lot of reasons. they want to support their local farmers. they believe it's important to do that. second of all, as resilient as and asply chain is beautifully as it has operated during this time, when there has been a shortage of certain products, going directly to local farmers has been a tremendous opportunity for wholesalers. i think those relationships are strong and continuing to grow all the time. regarding the cleaning of carts, that is happening in a widespread way.

there are lots of different ways that companies are cleaning carts. your idea of using pressure washers is one i think being used extensively. among the things retailers are sure places that are high-touch within the stores are cleaned as frequently as possible. in many occasions after one use by one customer. carts are one of those high-touch places. any other hard surfaces that exist within the store are of tremendous concern and making sure they are clean. host: what is the organization's recommendations, including the food products themselves? do you think they need to be wiped down before they are put away in people's homes? guest: i think that's a matter

of personal preference. what we understand from cdc is it isn't necessary to do that. i know a lot of people are concerned and do it. it isn't going to hurt anything, but our best recommendation is it isn't necessary, and that is based on what we are hearing from the cdc end fda. host: peyton from north carolina. caller: i have one question. you said you provide food to grocers around the world. places aroundwhat the world experiencing extreme poverty should do to combat coronavirus. , i am not atunately public health expert so i'm not sure i can give you a lot of advice. obviously, the things being recommended in the u.s. i think as well,ly there particularly related to social distancing, remaining home rather than being out in public. my suspicion is public health

officials would recommend the same kinds of things in those areas as well. host: lee is from waldorf, maryland. caller: good morning, guys. how are y'all doing? i am a proper -- i am a prepper, or as liberals say a hoarder. they use that word to hide their shame that they are not taking care of themselves. one of the food handlers saidiation bigwigs stop hoarding people. the food system isn't going to run out. it is resilient. you have to pay attention to what people don't tell you. he didn't say that the food system wouldn't become infected as time goes by. for my fellow americans -- i'm not sure what this young lady has said this morning -- but for my fellow americans hoard plenty, hoard a lot, take care

of yourselves. that's the responsibility of americans. the government tells you what they want you to hear. hoard, hoard plenty. it's the right thing to do. host: do you want to respond? guest: absolutely. let me say thank you for referring to me as a young lady. that's probably the best thing i've heard all morning. regarding the purchasing of products, from my perspective and where i sit, i'm not sure who he is referring to as having heard someone else speak on this topic, but from what i understand through many years of experience in this industry, we in this country have a tremendously resilient food supply. what we've been through in the last 60 days, for anyone who had any doubt about that, we would be affirmed completely and how resilient our supply chain is.

what we have experienced in the last 60 days has been a tremendous demand challenge rather than a supply challenge. that isn't to say there hasn't been experiences where there have been shortages on certain products, but by and large what we have been dealing with is -- imagine it is the day before thanksgiving or the day before christmas eve, or some other major family holiday where a lot of cooking is going on and shopping is going on. our companies can prepare for that because they know it's coming. in this case we didn't just have one day. we've had about 60 days like that in a row. and not just in one part of the country, but every part of the country. naturally there has been pressure on the supply chain that is unprecedented in this country. i think sometimes what we end up become a-- it has

self-fulfilling prophecy. the more we talk about supply shortages, the more we are incited to buy more, which feeds into more shortages. my best recommendation -- this is what i'm doing in my own home and would recommend to your , go to the grocery store and buy what you need for your family. by what you need for the next week or so, but perhaps not what you might need or want six months from now. if we all shop in that manner, and if we are responsible and how we shop, i think there will be plenty to go around for all of us. when we are shopping we may not find exactly the kind of product we have been accustomed to buying. perhaps we won't find the product in a particular flavor or in exactly the size or packaging we are accustomed to. that is because of this

tremendous demand we have been dealing with. i guess my message is there will be products that will meet your needs. they may not be exactly what you are accustomed to buying, but it is a good opportunity to try new things. been i'm sure you have asked the question, why couldn't you find toilet paper? guest: the toilet paper thing is one of those things that has astounded all of us. what happened with toilet paper i think is symptomatic of what happened with a lot of other products. people got concerned early on that there might not be enough of it and bought it in very large quantities. unprecedented demand led to shortages in many areas of the country full that the manufacturers of those products are working 24/7 to do it they can to get the stocks re-shelved. host: we have seen the president

order meet packaging organizations to keep working -- meat packaging organizations to keep working. i think the president was concerned about making sure that we had an uninterrupted meat supply. i think what we were experiencing and continue to experience to some degree are periodic and regional challenges in some of our meat processing facilities. what i understand is that the president wanted to make sure that companies could get their facilities cleaned up. they had incidences of covid-19. get any of their employees who needed to be cared for medically taken care of. keep the supply chain moving. i think there are a lot of meates going on in how our

facilities are functioning. they've done a lot of things that we have done in retail stores to achieve social distancing among workers in the facilities. that slows down the process. most of the facilities that have had to close have reopened. we will be continuing to monitor what goes on in that segment of the business. oft: this is leslie sarasin the food industry association, there president and ceo. you are next up. go ahead. i had general concerns about the open items in the fruit and produce section the pepper's, the apples, the grapes will stop when you recommend and i go shopping to feel safe to consume? should i soak them in bath water and vinegar?

what with those products? question is an important one. there have been concerns about this from consumers around the country. we understand his covid-19 is not a foodborne illness. it is not typically something you would get from eating a food product. that said, any time you buy a product in an open container in a grocery store, if it is possible i would recommend washing it. that is what i do in my home. for the types of products you are concerned about, grapes, cherries, or products in open bins, take them home and wash them before you eat them. frankly, you ought to be doing that anyway. host: a lot of the grocery stores have delicatessens attached. what are the recommendations? guest: a lot of those facilities have been closed for some time.

some of them are beginning to reopen with new types of products. perhaps products that are more packaged than previously. islow the directions of what going on in your local store and what they are recommending you do. be assured that your local store is doing everything they can to make sure that the food products they are selling for you are as safe as they can possibly be. host: alicia from columbia, maryland. caller: good morning, pedro and leslie. can i do a shout out before i asked the question? for helping much the navajo tribe, and i want morningsay top of the

to our irish brothers and sisters who sent some money to the indian tribes and the navajos. i really, really do appreciate it. i think you are all beautiful. to ask if any meats -- i think he partially answered part of my question -- but the meats where the workers had been infected, are the meats safe? i know you said to wash the fruits and vegetables. should we wash our meats before we use them? host: thank you, alicia. guest: i don't think it is necessary to wash your meat before you cook it. i'm assuming you're talking about products he would cook before you eat them. i think the cooking process itself will take care of any issues that might exist in the

meat. as i said before, the concern would not be that you might get covid-19 from the meat. we do not believe it is a foodborne illness. there are other food safety concerns you would want to make sure you are addressing by cooking. host: from connecticut, hello. lori from connecticut. good morning. let's try deborah. deborah from dunn, north carolina. caller: i am an employee of the iga. i was told if i did not want -- i told my manager i did not want to work on the register because the cashiers and the customers from the line behind us, that is

not the six feet rule. i said i don't want to get on register 3 can i get on 5? he said if you don't want to work on register 3 you need to go home and assume you are quitting. i said, i quit. i wonder what can i do? there has to be someone i can go to to get this taken care of. safe workingsuper back to back to customers. host: we've got your point. we will let our guest take the question. guest: thank you, deborah. i'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience in dealing with a grocery employer. one of the things we have done since the beginning of the pandemic is work closely with our companies to help them

understand what their responsibilities are in keeping their employees safe, and hopefully that will be the case going forward with the employer you referenced. host: is there some type of recourse for the grocery store workers who doesn't want to put themselves in the position like the previous caller was talking about? guest: it is my understanding from talking to member companies that if someone is uncomfortable working in a particular place they would be redeployed to another area of the store. host: are grocery stores -scalezed on a large level? guest: in our membership we are about 50%. 50% union and 50% nonunion. host: as far as the stores themselves, do you think practices will change after we eventually resolve the large issues of the pandemic? do you think grocery shopping in the future will change?

guest: i do. i think it will change. if you think about some of the changes that were already going on in the grocery industry, if we take e-commerce, for example. sincew 25% of shoppers the beginning of the pandemic have shopped for groceries online for the first time ever. we are assuming that some percentage of those people will have had good enough experiences doing that that they may continue to want to shop online. industrylready as an moving in that direction to be clicked for the growth in and collect store pickup and home delivery, where it is available. we had projections over what would happen in our next fiveion over the years. the coronavirus has had a

tremendous impact on how we relate to online shopping. some of the things we were anticipating we would be working towards over the next five years, we are there now. in five months we have realized things we thought we would work towards over the next five years. i think there will be changes as it relates to how we shop. observing shopping behavior. we have been tracking shopping behavior for 40 years. since the pandemic started rather than relying on our annual shopping survey, we have been doing it -- we started in the first month doing it every week, and we have gone to every other week in surveys of how shopper behavior is changing. what we are finding is that there is a tremendous amount of change. we know people are shopping less frequently. when they go to the stores they

are buying more products then they would normally shop for -- than they would normally shop for. what we don't know going forward is the extent to which that will continue or people will revert back to their previous habits. we know consumers are shopping at fewer stores than they used to. our data for last year showed us that on average in a month every consumer who went grocery shopping would visit 4.4 stores per month. what we know now based on the data from the last month or so is that is down to one or two stores per month. we will have to see how this therience has influenced way our shoppers will behave going forward. host: marilyn from illinois. caller: thank you for taking my call. , i don'tike to ask

drive. i am in my 70's and go once every two weeks to my local walmart. i am very cautious and i wear my mask and gloves will i would like to ask her about fresh vegetables. i am a big vegetable eater and i have been afraid to buy them because i feel like i can't wash everything with soap and water. i rinse them, but i am concerned if i should buy them or not. thet: what we know is importance from a nutritional and health standpoint of consuming vegetables and fruit. i believe you should continue to enjoy your favorite fruits and vegetable. i think it's perfectly safe to enjoy them from the produce department. i think you should wash them, but i would tell you that if we were in the middle of the pandemic or not.

i think you should wash them. if you're not comfortable doing that, you have other options. they may not be once you're accustomed to, but good options. those would be in the frozen section where we have many frozen vegetables available. you can store them in your freezer so you don't have a problem of worrying about them going bad before you eat them. the same is true for canned products. those are readily available in the store and you can have access to fruits and vegetables that way if it makes you more comfortable. host: sofia in sterling, virginia. caller: can you hear me? host: you are on. caller: i just wanted you to clarify. i know there have been a couple of callers who say they wash their products with vinegar or soap and water. there was a doctor saying that you should wash your produce with soap and water.

is that safe? will it penetrate the fruit? or should we just use water? not a food scientist. i will tell you that upfront. in my house i wash it with water, thoroughly with water, but i don't use soap or vinegar or anything else. i think you need to do whatever makes you most comfortable. in my house, water is sufficient. host: if we are at the place where states are reopening and things are assuming some sort of normality, and i'm using that in a broad sense, what are you watching for? what are you keeping an eye on? guest: we are keeping an eye on the supply chain and making sure that as people return to whatever our next normal is going to be, that we will be able to meet their needs and our grocery stores and throughout

the industry. we are doing a lot of things in the industry to shore up our supply chain. i referenced earlier that one of the things that you may find when you go into the store is you won't find exactly the flavor or package sizing you are accustomed to. one of the reasons is many of our suppliers have reduced the number of sku's they are producing because every time they change from one type of product to another, it requires them to shut down the machinery, clean it, and run the next product. the fewer times they do that, the more products they can get out of the facility in a day's time. we will be watching to see how our suppliers are able to broaden the number of products they are producing, and making sure we could meet our customers' needs.

i think we will see a number of the safety types of provisions we have employed in our stores stay with us for some time to come. i don't know if it will be forever, but we are getting more accustomed to having sneeze guards between us and the cashiers. that is probably not a bad thing for everyone. host: have there been drops in foods from other countries? what about those supply chains? guest: we have had no issues from products coming in from other countries. one of the things we have been concerned about is making sure that the pandemic had as little impact on trade as it possibly can have. i think trade continues to happen. it is probably not at the levels we are accustomed to, but trade is something we are focused on and making sure we can continue to function in this issue. host: jersey city, new jersey. caller: hello, good morning.

about on myed orders. where i live in jersey city i can get all of my food through the computer and have it delivered to me. i have family members in the rural areas in the south, south carolina, georgia, and a lot of those areas don't have delivery. i want to know what the food industry is going to do about that, because they can't access food if they don't want to go to the store. guest: that is an interesting question. it is something that i mentioned earlier we are focusing more on then we have been historically. it is interesting the evolution. if you go back to the early days of our history as an industry, home delivery was the way to shop.

you go back several generations, that is the way it was done. we moved away from that because people wanted to go into the supermarkets themselves and choose their own products, and by what they want, and see what's available. i think we were beginning to move more towards home delivery and lots of areas of the country already even before the issue of mostly as an convenience. it's sometimes hard to get to the store. people are busy, they don't have time, and it's a convenience to have it delivered. we will see how this pandemic affects that going forward. i think for many of us going to the store is the only place we all.o go at i think there are a lot of who want to go to the store because they want to get out of their homes, and they feel safe when they get there because of all of them.ings done to protect

i think as far as home delivery is concerned, that will be a regional and local decision stores will have to make based on what their customers would like them to do to serve their needs. host: we have a little bit of time. susan from hamburg, new york. we are short on time, jump in with your question or comment. caller: good morning. my question is, i am disabled and have a difficult time getting to the grocery store, especially during the pandemic. i am on food stamps. to use home delivery you are not able to use food stamps, so that's no help to elderly or disabled people. is anything going to be done in the future to rectify that? fact, as a matter of there is an effort underway. we are working closely with u.s. who manage the snap program, the food stamp program you referenced.

in many areas of the country they are applying to be able to do use snap dollars in an electronic format so you could order online and use your food stamp dollars. i think that is something that may be coming your way very soon, and i hope you will take advantage of it. fmi, leslie sarasin with their president and ceo. fmi.org is the website. we thank you for your time today. at 10:00 anthony fauci on c-span3 if you want to see comments from him and members of the task force when it comes to reopening. shortly, supreme court coverage as the supreme court conducts oral arguments by teleconference, a historic first due to the coronavirus pandemic. the audio is available live. caseses will hear

involving subpoenas for some of the presidents pre-presidential financial records. don't forget after the arguments on c-span you can stick around for discussion with experts of the national constitution center. all of that is available online and live at c-span.org. the oral arguments are set to start shortly.

>> the chief justice and the associate justices of the supreme court of the united states. all persons having business before the honorable the supreme court of the united states are admonished to give their attention for the court is now sitting. god save the united states and this honorable court. >> the first case we will argue , donald case 19715 usa. versus masar's mr. strawbridge?