ms. pelosi: good morning, everyone. thank you for being here.

a very sad time as we observe in our 000 people country dying of the coronavirus. so sad. we'll always carry them in our hearts, that big number of people. it is a scar on our nation that we could not save them. it is sad foyer their families and they are -- sad for their families and they are in our thoughts and prayers. on top of that, 1.7 million .ave been diagnosed 1.7 million people have been diagnosed. there has to be a stop to this. the answer is testing. we have in our heroes act a plan for testing. testing to open up our economy. testing to open up our schools. testing to heal. but in order to heal, we have to know the gravity of the problem. you know, we talk a great deal

about a vaccine and a cure and god willing we pray that that will be soon. but we don't have it yet. and we do have testing. and you notice in countries that have controlled the spread and the deaths from the virus, they don't have a vaccine. they don't have a cure. but they have commonsense. they have used testing, tracing , treatment and separation, isolation, where necessary. that's exactly what we should have been doing all along. on march 4, the house passed a bill, the first bill on the coronavirus. we wrote it in february, brought it to the floor march 4. it was about testing, testing, testing. throughout all of our legislation, which has all been bipartisan thus far, it's been or the me testing masking and the things that we

need to prevent the spread of the virus. the cares act, we put forth resources in the interim bill, the interim bill on p.p.p., we put forth a major $100 billion for health, for testing and for hospitals. and now in the heroes act and still we have not had from the executive branch the appropriate determination and strategy to test. people are dying. over 100,000. people are sick. there's a horrible impact in the communities of color in our country. so many of the deaths, at least 1/3, are senior citizen self-quarantine yors in nursing homes and the rest -- seniors in nursing homes and the rest. and yet we can't seem to get the executive branch, the president of the united states, to make the decision to show the example of what we can do to stop this. yesterday we came here, many of you were with us, with

representatives of the congressional black caucus, the hispanic caucus, the k-pac, congressional caucus on asian-pacific affairs, the native american -- one of the first native american women er to serve in congress, deb haaland, with our distinguished whip, mr. clyburn, mr. pallone, the chair of the energy and commerce committee. mr. pallone talked about what's in the bill, the heroes act. the energy and commerce piece. which is about a robust and rapid testing initiative. a strategy. a strategy with a timetable, benchmarks, mile stones, and the resources necessary to get the job done. and the job is to save lives. and those who are gathered here yesterday were pointing out how effective communities of color -- affected communities of color are by this. but there's not adequate

testing there. we've got to get a handle on the challenge that we face. and we can only do that if we if , if we trace and then we treat, we can reduce the number of deaths. and of course the isolation that goes with it. and wearing masks and following commonsense and good guidance. so this -- i'm here today to say to you, 100,000 -- how many more of those -- how many of those could have been saved? we have example after example after example. poor anecdote of others saying, appropriations is not data. but the fact is it's illust are ative of the fact that people are dying who don't have to die and the data is what we want them to collect and that's part of the plan too. to collect the data so we know the impact, so we can save the

lives so, we can kill and defeat this virus. as our hearts are broken, over the 100,000 deaths, we're also very sad about what happened in the case of -- in minnesota. mr. floyd -- to watch mr. floyd be murdered in a video. at a time when we're all so sad to begin with. it's always tragic, it has always been tragic. but there we saw it on tv, him being murdered on tv. so our congressional black caucus is working with the judiciary committee. there's cofse that will be going to the judiciary committee, information to share . we have a commission in the -- on social status of black men and boys that congresswoman

frederica wilson has been pushing for a while now. o there are all kinds of expressions of concern. but not just expressions of concern. plans to take action so that this stops. so this stops. again, i spent my time talking about testing because it is -- what's in the heroes act, i'll be specific. strengthens testing and contact tracing by requiring updated testing -- testing plan with clear benchmarks and time lines. providing $75 billion in grants to support testing, tracing and isolation with special focus on addressing disparities. and that money will be distributed to the states and we want the tracing to be done by those who are culturally compatible with the communities in which they are collecting data and tracing. and require, again, culturally and linguistically appropriate

strategies for increasing access. but all of this, all these deaths, and the need for us to , more that as law sprisk prescribed direction to the administration should have done this on their own, mitch mcconnell says no, we need a pause. we need a pause? tell that to the virus. the virus -- is the virus taking a pause? is hunger in america taking a pause? do you see that the children in america have food insecurity to such an extent, even though we ve passed legislation to provide more food for children who are not in school, because that's where they get their main meals, but we have to be more effective in how that is distributed, and we need more resources and that's in the heroes act as well. the heroes act is an answer. it has a strategy.

it has three main pillars. honor our heroes, our health care workers, our public safety , police, fire, emergency services, food suppliers, sanitation, transportation, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers. they risk their lives, many of them, to save lives. and now they they may lose their jobs. that's why we have to support state and local government. secondly, testing, testing, testing. you want to open up the schools and the economy, you want to keep people healthy, there's an answer and it works. testing, tracing, treatment. isolation. make a decision, mr. president, to do just that. take responsibility. and third, put money in the pockets of the american people. all three of these we've done in a bipartisan way already. and we need to do more. we cannot take a pause.

again, there are many things within there, in terms of having safety in the workplace with osha, having support of our post office, a billion packages of medicine were sent through the mail. it's a health issue. 90% of our veterans' medicine comes to them through the mail. it's a health issue. vote by mail. it's a health issue. it's always been the health of our democracy and now it's a personal health issue as well. and food security. what is their response when they have turned down our request for more funding for food stamps, for snap, for emergency food services, for w.i.c., women, infant and children, for all of those initiatives? how cruel can you be to say, at a time of this economic uncertainty, that we are not going to provide more funding

for food. fortunately there are people around the country in a bipartisan way who are acting upon all of these initiatives. they're causing a drumbeat across america, an echo chamber across america, to say we can't wait, we need to get the job done. there we are on that. i want to talk to you about the -- what happened yesterday on the floor -- i'm very happy about. the uighur human rights policy act. in a very bipartisan way, overwhelmingly we voted on legislation, senator rubio has been a leader on this in the house, chris smith, mike mccaul brought the bill to the floor with eliot engel, our chairman of armed -- excuse me, foreign affairs committee. mr. sherman, mr. suozzi and others. jim mcgovern, of course, has been our champion on human rights in china and every place else in the world. so we're very pleased with that. now is the approach of the 31st

anniversary of tiananmen scare, more focus on human rights in china -- square, more focus on human rights in china, tibet, hong kong, all of china, including beijing and of course with the uighurs. the statement that was made by the secretary of state about -- under the law that we passed last fall, which was a strengthening of the hong kong democracy act, the secretary of state had to certify that china as honoring the basic law, the terms of the relationship of one country, two systems. the secretary has stated that he cannot certify that that is the case. and so we want everyone to oppose this law that the chinese are putting forth to take away that autonomy from hong kong. so much going on. so much going on. again today on the floor, we are not going to be taking up the bill that was sent over by

the senate, the fisa bill. yesterday in the morning, the republican on the committee of jurisdiction, one of the committees of jurisdiction, judiciary, mr. jordan, testified in favor of the bill. sometime after that, the president said he would veto the bill. so all of the republicans then abandoned their commitment to security and said that they were going to vote against the bill. this has always been bipartisan. mr. jordan said in the committee yesterday, i would like to thank senators lee and leahy for their amendment to the house-passed bill, which strengthened the amicus role in these proceedings by extending them to any sensitive investigative matter involving u.s. persons. this is in his testimony in support of the bill yesterday. until the president spoke and then all of a sudden the -- the commitment to national security disappeared by a tweet. twinkle of a tweet, as they

say. disappeared. so this has always been bipartisan. i don't have any intention of departing from the fact that on fisa bills, we are always going to have to go in a bipartisan way. and if the republicans were abandoning their commitment to that, because of the president, that means we could not override his veto. so he didn't want to subject everyone to something that was not consistent with what we did just about 2 1/2 months ago, when we passed a bipartisan bill, 2/3 of the democrats, 2/3 of the republicans voted for the legislation overwhelmingly, veto-proof. sent it to the senate. the senate sent back a bill with 80 republicans -- excuse me, senators voting for it. 45 republicans. 45 republicans voted for that. strengthened fisa bill. strengthening the protections for the american people in it. and then the president said he would veto it. it's no surprise because the administration, especially those in the justice department, really don't want

any bill that provides protections for the american people. they want to have all the leeway in the world to do what they do. it's most unfortunate. but we will hopefully go to conference so that we can represent and debate all of the views in our caucus and their caucuses, the republican caucus, democratic caucuses, to come up with a bipartisan legislation. because i do believe we need a bill in order to protect our security and our liberty. security and liberty, always the balance that we have. but with all the technology that's out there, we have to make extra -- take extra steps in terms of protecting privacy and the rest. so with that, i would yield to any questions you may have. i just mentioned in closing, 41 million americans out of work. 41 million americans out of

work. over 100,000 people have died. more than a million and a half people infected by this and we are not taking the strong position, robust, strong position that we must take to do what we know works. it works in other countries, it works in certain communities that abide by it. it has to -- we have to put the resources there to make sure that we do the proper outreach to define the problem, to test, trace, treat, save lives and isolate. yes, ma'am. reporter: the president is expected to sign an executive order today that will essentially make the social to a giants more reliable lawsuits as a result of -- what he says is censorship. what are your thoughts on this? ms. pelosi: it's outrageous. but it's an outrageous situation. while twitter is putting up

their fact check under what the president says about voting, they still won't take off the misrepresentations the president is putting out there by the death of a gentleman whose wife died and he's asking them to take down the president's misrepresentations. so it's, yes, we like twitter to put up their fact check the president. but it seems to be very selective. very selective. and of course you know, my view of this, and i've said it before, facebook, all of them, they're all about making money. their business model is to make money. at the expense of the truth and the facts that they know. and they defend. they defend that. i think facebook has made tens of billions of dollars during this period of time where people are so reliant on social media. and they testify that they have no responsibility for the

truth. reporter: do you think they should be further regulated? do you think -- [indiscernible] -- -- do you think they should be a publisher or a platform? ms. pelosi: what they are is someone who is avoiding taxes and regulation. and that's what they're about. when you see -- all they want is to -- not pay taxes, they got their tax break in 2017. the tax scam that gave all those advantages to the high end. and they don't want to be regulated. so they pander to the white house. you see what facebook, zuckerberg, is saying today about all of this. just panders. tax cuts, no regulation. our business model is to misrepresent the facts and to be a platform to do that. and to try to hide under freedom of speech. which is, of course, a complete violation of everything, freedom of speech stands for. freedom. and they know, they knew during the 2016 elections that the

russians were engaged in foul play. they knew. because they saw where the money was coming from. never occurred to them to check on that. again, what the president is doing is -- it's almost seeing people who have been in can hoots with each other -- cahoots with each other, is there no honor among thieves, that's what it's really come down to. they've all exploited the truth and some have made money off of it and some have made political capital off of their misrepresentations. but with the -- what the president is doing is silly. it's silly. but let's say this. it's a distraction. i opened this meeting talking about testing, how it's going to save lives, open our economy, send our kids back to school, save lives and the rest. we're talking about twitter. so, let's get back to saving lives. ok? yes, sir. reporter: on a practical level,

regarding the next steps for response to coronavirus, isn't it more likely there won't be anything, serious negotiations taking place until either the $600 u.i. add-on comes up for renewal or until the p.p.p. runs out of money again? and if so, what's -- is there an issue with that sna ms. pelosi: i think there's a drumbeat across america. our members have come back with experiences. ve of course all virtual. about what they're hearing -- hearing in their districts and the rest. the state, local, county governments are so in need because of what they have spent on the coronavirus outlays and what they have in terms of revenue lost. this is desperate need. as i said earlier, our health care workers, our first responders, so many people are risking their lives to save lives and now they'll lose their jobs because their state

and local governments and county governments, which provide some of the health care , are -- just don't have the money -- they're going to have to fire people, reduce services, raise taxes, or all of the above. and we have an answer that cost half as much as what the republicans spent on their tax scam in 2017, giving 83% of the benefits to the high end, half of that money helps states and localities stay open, honors our heroes. again, the testing thing is urgent. if they want to ignore it, then they have responsibility for the increases in infection and death. and the american people, all of the things we're talking about, whether it's state and local, whether it's unemployment insurance, as you mentioned, whether it's direct payments, whether it's food stamps, all of that are stimulus to the economy. in sharp contrast to their 2017

tax scam, which only benefited the high end and had no benefit to the general public. while at the same time adding $2 trillion to the national debt for our children to pay. so, no, i think that they'll catch the spark. their tone is changing, as i think you probably noticed. [indiscernible] ms. pelosi: i'm sorry. [indiscernible question] ms. pelosi: what the administration is going to do, there is an array of options. it passed the house and senate last year in the fall and it is,

s certain -- an array of options for the president to use. we'll see what he does. i'm sad that the conclusion is that there's no other conclusion to come to if china is going to pass this security act. we should be speaking out against that security act, not just the united states and e.u. and people around the world should be speaking out against it. it's a brazen move on the part of the chinese government. it's a brazen move. and hong kong is part of the vitality of trade and commerce that goes into mainland china. you would think they would want that vitality to continue. president xi is oppressive

as you know. we passed the uyghur bill yesterday. millions of people -- i don't know the exact number, but you would say at least one mill people in education cam presidents and he says they like it there. culture, destroying the and religion and culture of tibet. they are taking brutal actions and hong kong. it's really tragic. i was disappointed to hear the secretary's proclamation, statement, however, in terms of the bill that we passed that we cannot certify that hong kong is able to function awe ton mousely with the actions that the chinese government is taking and the bill has an array of possibilities for the president to take action.

there are sanctions against individuals and see where they go from here. >> senator kaine announced he was sick back in march and april. in light of that, i'm wondering, have you ever been tested by for coronavirus? anti-body test? ms. pelosi: no. at the time when congresswoman velazquez, we had all been here for the unanimous consent, the second p.p.e. and so when you are taking pictures, people are closer than you are. people say you were in her company. and we were signing the bill. and i you said to the doctor, should i be having a test? he said no. and your proximity is such that

we don't have to test -- there was a scarcity of tests and longt want to be searching and wide for people who had symptoms. i wanted many, many more tests. and i don't think just as you said that example of senator kaine that should have to have storms because you could be ea symptomatic and contagious. we would like to see in our bill where there's massive testing, tracing, treatment, saving of lives with isolation. the doctor said no. you don't need to and putting yourself ahead of other people

in line. > last question. reporter: you mentioned the tragedy in minnesota and wilson's bill. what are you looking to do legislatively. what are the tools you have at your disposal. wasn't that longer that you did a comprehensive criminal justice reform bill. is that enough? ms. pelosi: jerry nadler on behalf of the democrats on the judiciary committee, i don't know if it's bipartisan, but the letter i have is jerry nadler's signature. awe bring ing to the case, tralingdy. to attorney general barr and

and ant attorney general it has an array of questions and the rest. but we are working with our congressional black caucus. aring the hereo' act, i spent lot of time with them on conference calls and the rest, participation of many people including some instances with the press to talk about criminal justice and how disproportionately it was affecting the coronavirus that was affecting people in prison and the rest and stories that went with that. just one piece of the attention that they had paid to civil rights, to what happens in prisons, the health issue, how they all connect. so we take our guide from them on these particular issues and

the judiciary committee has that commission as one option but only one option. people just want to get the facts in both of the cases. they want to see federal investigation and action. we saw a murder took place before our very eyes and the fact that the police officers were fired, that's one thing. but there has to be some justice in all of this. so, again, you heard mr. clyburn speak about this yesterday, about justice. it's a larger issue, but not anything new and it has been happening for a while. and sadly, at the same time that so many other deaths are so unnecessary. i don't know if you saw his brother and sister talking about him in such a beautiful way and

how sad it was and how unbelievable it was to them that their brother suffered that fate and so counter to who he was and how much they mess him and how much they love him. and hopefully some comfort that so many people share their grief and pray for them at this sad time. [indiscernible question] ms. pelosi: let's take our lead from them of how these things are sequenced, but we did see a murder on tv and it wasn't self-defense. thank you. captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org

mr. mccarthy: before i begin this weekly press