>> thank you for coming. >> president trump and mexican president lopez obrador just signing a declaration for the usmca which took effect earlier this month. they are heading to dinner and later, they will hold a joint press conference. we will bring you live coverage of that briefing right here on c-span. reed represents the 23rd district in new york, including ithaca. joining us to talk about the federal response to the pandemic, congressman reed serves on the ways and means subcommittee and cochair of the problem solvers caucus. good to have you back with us, congressman reed. guest: great to be with you, bill. thank you. host: let me pick up on where we picked up with our callers on schools in particular.

in the 23rd district, what do you think the status is? more broadly, nationwide, what do you think the federal policy should help make happen involved for schools? -- happened in fall for schools? guest: i am a supporter of getting our schools open. there are so many direct and indirect reasons why our schools need to be in a position to take kids back in the classroom environment. there is a whole slew of issues if schools are not reopened what we are working on here locally is how to do that and have a healthy respect for the virus and make sure the environment is as safe as possible. you will never mitigate risk to zero, and that is about making sure we understand social distancing, the physical restrictions schools race, so we are trying to coordinate with all the stakeholders for a plan that will achieve a safe and open school for our children in the fall. host: congress passed $2.6

trillion worth of economic response to the pandemic. in your opinion, is that enough and what else do think needs to be done? guest: i have always lived there is going to be another package we would have to do, and that was because we just did not know exactly what was going to be needed up front and we took aggressive action. i was glad to see bipartisan support for the bills that came through the system to date, and right now, as the dust continues to settle, you start to see where in the economy additional help is needed, so i think you will have a more targeted $1.5ge in the range of trillion to $2 trillion based on conversations i am aware of, but the magnitude and the size and the details of where that money will go individually is really a

dynamic that is too early to tell you the details on that. host: so the house passed that on a partisan basis, the democratic bill, the heroes act several weeks ago. you are thinking that will be set aside and this other package will take precedence? guest: it was clear, when they went down the partisan path for the heroes act, they disengaged from the process and the democratic majority in the house. that was the political exercise that was more about campaign fodder for november in my humble opinion. what i've heard over the last 30 days is what i believe is happening. you will see a package come out of the senate and will have probably 70 to 80 votes, and i will tell you i would be hard-pressed to see the house of representatives reject such a bipartisan bill when it is negotiated by the end of the month. host: you and your colleagues do most of your work remotely. when is the next time the house

returns physically to the capitol for a debate and votes? guest: july 20 is the schedule now. it is for the last two weeks of july and the first couple of days of august. host: i mentioned in your open that you are the cochair of the problem solvers caucus. have you seen a more bipartisan effort to get some of these response measures done? guest: yeah, the problem solvers caucus is the work i'm most proud of in washington, d.c. 25 democrats and republicans and we were founded 40 years ago. we came together and said, we are organizing to get the yes. if we can get 75% consensus, we will vote as a block of members. i cochaired on the republican side and the democratic side, and these are all about governing area they are proud, kratz and republicans, but they understand compromise is not a dirty word. in america, there is much more we agree upon if we talk and listen to each other than we

disagree. we can disagree at 100% of the time on 20% of the stuff we disagree upon, but if you take the time, you can find that 80% common ground. it is not about compromising the finding things you mutually agree are the right things to do for the american people, so that is what the problem solvers caucus is all about. we were the first ones. was onesident mike pence the situation room and debbie burks met with us in the situation room to send a message that we dealt with the national emergency, we have to be united as a country. i was glad to be part of that effort in the first three and a half bills that have come through and overwhelmingly in bipartisan passion. host: congressman tom reed is with us. for democrats, (202)-748-8000. for republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents and all others, (202)-748-8002.

i will take a look at an article from the "times herald." as new york nursing homes report gop renews calls for the probe, a picture of the state's governor, andrew cuomo, and you, congressman reed. what are your concerns over the way nursing her were handled -- nursing homes are handled in new york? guest: history will tell this was one of the most terrific decisions made by a public official during these times. in march, our governor ordered ,hat covid-19 positive people seniors, our parents and grandparents, had to be "into nursing homes." nursing homes could not reject those covid-19 positive patients. what happened is you through gasoline onto the fire. nursing homes are the homes of our parents and grandparents, the most susceptible people to the virus, and the governor ordered they could not deny

admission into the nursing homes and those patients they knew were covid-19 positive, so you sent coronavirus right smack into the nursing home facilities and that ignited a fire and there is a lot more to be done here and two of the iceberg moment. i believe the number is going to be 12,000 to 50,000 at the end of the day of our parents and grandparents that died in the nursing homes because of that order. host: congressman tom reed with us until a little past 8:30 or so. let's get to your college comments. doug is in fairfax, south dakota. caller: good morning. i would like to start out and say i can stand to listen to you talk, tom. i think he has some common sense. i'm not sure if you have drink

the trump kool-aid yet or not, but a couple of questions. the republicans are trying to downplay the virus. same? trump do the and explain the difference, please. number two, if you take obamacare away from the poor, who pays for their covert care bills? or do you just let them die on the street? number three real quick, trump says bubba owes an apology. do you think trump owes an apology to central park five? host: several items, tom reed. any of them you like to respond to. guest: when it comes to china, and it was amazing, i was in japan meeting with the prime minister back in january. there obviously very close to the chinese situation in the first virus went off in china and came through in america and they were not even talking about

the virus. when you look i can history, i think there will be culpability all the way around. i think there will always be the armchair quarterback affect where could we have done things better? could china have done things better? the fundamental difference between america and china is china is a government based on a policy where information is not shared. it is not a democratic country. it is not about sharing information freely and openly. i think that is the fundamental flaw that china embraced as a result of this crisis and the virus that went off, in my humble opinion, without a doubt in its country, and they could have been much open and transparent, but the government itself is designed not to do that. putting billions of people at risk. go to theis going to next level and be one of the world superpowers that it has come, and it must adhere to new

policies and government standards and philosophies. i do not think it has the capability to do that. that is where this conflict between u.s. and china is going to be rooted for the foreseeable future, and it is a challenge and it is going to be an issue that we have to confront as a nation because the threats of china is something we have to recognize. it is a threat. good or bad, it is a threat to our future as a nation. on that issue, i will let history be the judge. but there were two other issues on there. host: if you would like to respond, or otherwise we will hear from mary lou in maple shade, new jersey. caller: good morning, bill and congressman reed. i wish that president trump was able to do more about these democratic governors and mayors who are crippling their states all across the country. i live in the state of new jersey, congressman.

i would not want to tell you what i had to go through last week to get my car inspected it, what i had to go through yesterday just to vote in my primary in person because i do not believe in mail-in voting. these governors have gone way out of trouble. and all i am asking is for the american people to use their common sense when it comes to these issues involving coronavirus. we are being told a lot of things that are not true. they not really explaining the performance of this virus in terms of hospitalizations and deaths. they are frightening people. people are walking around like sheep being led to the slaughter. please, people, use the brain god gave you because if we do not careful, we are going to lose our country. host: mary lou, thank you. congressman reed? guest: well said. i agree wholeheartedly with the

heart of what you are saying in that we have to member we are americans. in america, freedom is one of our core beliefs and court structures as a nation. what we are talking about is people kind of giving up freedom and not standing up for that freedom. you see government than potentially creeping in and doing things that become excessive and unreasonable. i do believe there is a role for government. i do believe there is a -- reasonableness that they should exercise in these times. i trust people and believe in the collective wisdom. once they are given the information and warmth, people want to do the right thing. we should trust people more rather than this idea that some government leader is going to be able to wave a magic wand and keep everybody safe and mitigate the risk of the virus to zero. that is not the reality.

that is not how mother nature works. that is not how it works in the real world. mary lou, i applaud your effort. i applaud your belief structure, and i stand with it. host: on government regulation, melissa asked, does the congressman believe all cdc guidelines should be followed or is it ok to pick and choose? guest: cdc guidelines are just that, the best information we have and they should be followed because that is the best science , in my humble opinion, that is out there, but you also need common sense. view,ry lou's point of when you see guidance, when i see guidance such as when i saw with governor cuomo ordering covid-19 positive grandparents in nursing homes, in real time, our office was screaming from the mountaintops, you are going to kill people. he had a written letter from the national association representing the nursing homes. the day he signed the letter,

they wrote him a letter saying you are going to kill people if you do this. that was a government edict and order, a guidance document, if you would, from the governor of new york. are you just supposed to follow that blindly? many of us rejected it, but most followed it. now you have 10,000 seniors that died as a result of it. that is the kind of common sense the american people have

and communities with 500,000 .eople or more got relief any community lower than 500,000 did not. i'm a big proponent and what the smart act as an the next package. we make sure there is direct local government aid to those smaller municipalities in particular and make sure that the impact of the virus plus the loss of revenue that comes from

things like the sales tax not coming in, the room tax at your hotel's not coming in, all of this, there's some assistance from these local governments to make sure that they can continue to employ police officers, firefighters, and continue to function, if they don't get direct assistance, we will be in a crisis mode as they put the budgets together going into fall and next year season. that is what this component of the next phase four packages all about and i'm a big believer. it is $500 billion with local government aid, with state assistance, and making sure we do the best to make sure the state governors don't take the money away that is meant to go to the local governments like we have seen to a large degree with $150 billion that the states already got. host: we will get a call or two more. caller: good morning, bill. , representative.

my question is when the pandemic , you areork state representing the state, why is it that trump decided not to do so much for new york state? he was kind of reserved in giving us the help we needed. texasen when florida and were in their demise, he was rushing pence down there to help them quicker than he would help along the northern porter where he is supposedly a guy who lived in the northeast. i'm not understanding how trump is doing this. this is ridiculous. the federal government when you have mcconnell and trump not doing enough, it is boggling to me. i can tell you during the middle of the crisis, and i was doing daily calls with our

hospitals, our health networks for seven days a week, we were talking to federal officials, delivering personal protective equipment and we were right in the middle of delivering these resources to the front line. the administration, trump administration was working hand-in-hand with us. we were delivering these resources. i think the best example of where the president stepped up for new york is you look at the uss comfort, you look at what we did at the jacobs center with the corps of engineer. they retrofitted both of those facilities, delivered at that make sure thatto there was health resources and health care facilities for new york to address whatever it needed to have done. i don't know exactly what it -- where you are referring to where the administration cut off support. i even think the governor has publicly said he recognized what the president did in response to communications that they had. i will tell you what i hear out of the governor now is that

originally, he needed $6 billion in assistance from the federal government to take care of this crisis. then went to $13 billion. then, it is up to $61 billion of federal-aid. i'm not going to pay the game with the governor. i'm going to hold the governor accountable and say you cannot move the gold post -- goalpost not much and say this is what the federal government needs to do for the state of new york. when you go to 61 billion dollars, from $6 billion seven days before. that doesn't make any sense to me. that tells me what the governor is doing is trying to take care of problems they have created in albany for a long-term duration because of the extremism that has taken over our state and put our budget into a situation of dire consequences where the day of reckoning has come today.

when you do those calculations in the formula that we drafted, that would result in making sure that the citizens of new york were protected. host: congressman tom reed from upstate new york, thanks for being with us, stay safe. guest: thank you so much. announcer: we go live to the white house for today's briefing with press secretary kayleigh mcenany.

sec. mcenany: hello, everyone. good afternoon. today, president trump welcomed to the white house president lopez of mexico. the meeting reaffirmed the incredibly strong ties between and presidentdor trump. the leaders noted that many have that it against their ability to work together in a strong and productive fashion. they work together and they work together well. u.s.-mexico relationship has never been stronger or more productive thanks to the leadership of president trump. the usmca in particular is a