issue. we believe this is a good place where we can find common ground. that is something we can work on now, but as we go into the new congress. but for now, two areas, the coronavirus and also to pass an omnibus bill in a bipartisan way -- i am optimistic that will happen. i have a good rapport with the appropriators and i think to -- i think to their own devices, they can get this done, as i said before. chairman shelby and i had this conversation, assuring each other that we wanted to have a bill. again, our focus in the congress now and on this lame-duck continues to be on covid relief. this is a red alert. all hands on deck.

as leader schumer and i discussed yesterday, this is an emergency of the highest magnitude, and yet our republican colleagues want to focus elsewhere instead of recognizing as the health emergency which science has given us a path to crush. again, we have worse numbers than even yesterday. the numbers speak very eloquently. 160,000 infections were reported -- a horrifying number -- following more than a week of over 100,000 infections a day. these levels are two times higher than the summer peak. more than 67,000 americans are hospitalized with covid, a new record threatening to overwhelm our hospitals.

our hospitals in rural areas, too. over 10 million people have been infected -- over 10 million people. 240,000 americans have died because of this pandemic. according to news reports, it was reported that more than 130 secret service agents are infected or quarantining. in the wake of trump's campaign schedule. 130 secret service. agents. meanwhile, on the economic front, over 20 million americans are on unemployment and america fewer teachersr and education jobs compared to a year ago, and it has an impact on our children's education. 8 million people have fallen into poverty. 17 million children are food insecure.

there is no time to waste. we must save lives and livelihoods. and yet, republicans in congress continue their tactics of delay, distort, and deny which has led to deaths. it has led to deaths. now they are trying to distract and divide the country and refuse the election results. the election is over. joe biden is the president elect, elected with the mandate of over 78 million votes. but don't take it from me. the election infrastructure government coordinating council and the election infrastructure coordinating executive committee said in their joint statement, this november 3 election was the most secure in american history. there is no evidence that any voting systems deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or in any way compromised.

it went on to say while we know we have other claims and opportunities for misinformation, in the process of our elections, we can assure you that we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections. you should too. republicans, shamefully, pretending otherwise are doing serious damage to our democracy here and around the world, making it even harder to address the massive health and economic crises facing america right now. the longer the republicans keep up this charade, the more in danger americans will be. i urge republicans to accept the facts, acknowledge the crisis

and immediately come to the table to work on covid relief. again, this takes place at the time that there is a vaccine on the horizon giving people hope, but it should also give them encouragement to listen to science on the way to a vaccine. testing, tracing, treatment, mask wearing, isolation, separation, sanitation, all of those things because the sooner we do that, and the sooner we have a vaccine, the sooner we crush the virus. i hope it would be an incentive for people to follow science all the way to the vaccine. and in that score, in our covid bill, we have a great deal of funding for the vaccine. the development, as i said yesterday, should be taken under

the defense bill. i just don't know why the president is not doing that. and then also we want to make sure that when the vaccine occurs, there will be sufficient funding to ensure we have enough vaccine to reach everyone in our country, as well as in the world because, as we know, unless we are all secure, none of us a re. >> a record number of republican women have been elected this your to congress. they are saying it is the year of republican women. is it? >> i am excited that we have more women in congress. that doesn't mean we have shared views, but hope we we can find common ground on some issues related to domestic violence or how the women in a caucus in the bipartisan way came together in

the beginning. issues that relate to teen -- issues thaten relate to teen pregnancy have been a bipartisan focus over time, reducing that. let's be optimistic and let's see. i congratulate each and every one of them. of course, we have nine or 10 new women coming into our caucus this time. we are sadly losing a few new women in the congress. but we are happy to have all these new members, and they are beautifully diverse. >> thank you, good morning. you are going to have to -- you are going to have a narrow majority here. you've always talked about knowing your power. now,is your power right with a small majority, pressure inside the caucus and your role

as a speaker? >> let me just say with that score, we are very much involved in these races. we have a number that have not been counted. we were impatiently waiting on the count of the presidential, seems like an eternity and now it's another week later. we had a very deep victory two years ago. i don't think people are quite understanding. of the 40 seats that we won, 31 were in trump districts. he was not on the ballot. right away we said, he is going to be on the ballot. with the actions we were taking, we have saved most of those seats, so we are very proud of that. we now have have a president of our party in the white house, joe biden. a majority in the house, but nonetheless a majority.

we have 132 gavels, chairs of committees, subcommittees, and the rest. the beautiful diversity of our caucus as we go forward. we see this as a tremendous opportunity. we have to address the fact is that president trump, to his credit, turned out a big vote and in some districts, people wondered how we won them before, they were so trumpian, and with him on the ballots, we have brought in a bigger vote. getting ready for the next time. a number of our candidates has said that they will run again. i am not going to make announcements for anybody. but they have told me they were ready. they loved being in congress, they were proud to have won, and they were proud of the campaign they made. after joe biden was declared the winner on saturday, i spent most of the weekend listening to

those who did not win the election. they succeeded in their campaign in terms of putting forth their views, but will not be coming to congress right now. i have pages, in fact books, of notes of what happened in their districts and how they see and go forward and it's clear that a number of people -- there are certain issues that may have worked in one place or another, but we have to have a deep dive. we have to really have the data. so all of them gave me their view and said, when we get more data, we will have a clear picture. >> what does having a smaller majority mean further caucus in the house? speaker pelosi: let me remind you, we have a president of the united states

who will be a president of the united states. that is so very important. whether you are minority or majority, if the president is of your party, you have more power. i think that is what mitch mcconnell is going to find out now, that whether he is in the majority or the minority, not having donald trump in the white house is going to change his leverage and that dynamic. but i am very proud. i am very proud. i knew it was hard in terms of what we did. i never said we were going to -- all of these pollsters did and that's another question about the polling and the rest and the overestimation of what could be there. but the fact is, president trump got out his vote and in those districts, he made a difference. and every majority is fragile. but we are well on our way to the next election, counting still to have a running start with some of these same candidates saying they will run and others who are waiting cause of their own personal decisions to run next time.

>> thank you, madam speaker. as the president continues to falsely claim he won the election in one form or another, his allies are making unfounded claims about irregularities with voting machines. we have seen the social media companies be forced to step in and cracked down. from your perspective, have you seen big tech do enough specifically, a website like facebook, to correct the president's lies? speaker pelosi: i'm not a big fan of facebook -- i don't know what they have been doing, but i know they have been part of the problem all along. i will refer back to the election day infrastructure, coordinating executive committees and what they said. the november 3 election was the most secure in american history. there's no evidence that any voting system was deleted or lots votes -- lost votes or votes were changed or in any way compromised. this is so important because we

have had resistance from the other side of protecting the critical infrastructure of our election. the mechanics of it. this is a good report back. to your point, what is happening in the social media that is so poisonous to our system and how do we have a remedy for that? it is social media. the technology is a blessing, but it's a double-edged sword. in terms of communication, democratizing the spread of information. so i would hope that they would have some sense of responsibility, because they were very much a part of causing this problem to begin with. but i do also want to say that with the president, it is not another branch of

government, it the white house, it is a bully pulpit. joe biden knows what he is there. he has a plan to be effective for america's working families, and he will have, again, he will have the stage. so it's not as if we are trying to get a distinction made here and press is engaged in equivalence, which i think was unfair, but nonetheless, in terms of having the bully pulpit, it is not just the white house. it is not just a branch of government. it is not just appointments to jobs and a cabinet. it's the connection with the american people. president lincoln -- public sentiment is everything. with it, you can accomplish him -- almost anything and without it, practically nothing. this leapfrogs over so many other misrepresentations. i hope everyone will give joe

biden a chance to have his message out there. what i saw during the trump administration is he could say anything, and it would be two days before the news decided it had any value or not. let's hope everyone will give joe biden the chance -- he is the president. 78 million votes and still counting -- a mandate. a mandate in our country. so my confidence in my hope springs from the public -- the american people were so good. they are very clear about meeting their needs. one of the messages is the clarity. some of the fears that they had, the automation, mobilization, diverse city, climate issues and -- globalization, diversity, climate issues and the rest, we want them to know that we are all going down this path together.

this is not a zero-sum game. if one person wins, the other person loses. no. there is a place in the future for every person in our country and how we use the automation and globalization and those issues in a way to give them that assurance and those jobs. i said yesterday, is a four letter word. i say it all the time. jobs, jobs, jobs, which contribute not only to the economic health of families, but the health and well-being of america's families -- yes - >> the smaller majority, are they going to have to compromise more? are there bills you will not be able to put on the floor? speaker pelosi: no not at all. , we have a president of the united states. remember, we have the opportunity to have bills signed into law. i am very proud of our caucus. we are beautifully diverse. as i always say, our diversity is our strength.

our unity is our power. and our unity springs from our commitment to america's working families. and that is what we will be talking about. putting together a jobs bill involves building the infrastructure of america, that is resilient, doing so in a bipartisan way so everyone in our country benefits with jobs, workforce development and with services, housing, and it does not have much effect at all, no. [indiscernible] how do you shift your approach on coronavirus? speaker pelosi: i think you're making more of a -- as i said, we had a very big win in the last election. it is smaller than now, but we

still have the power of the majority. but on top of that, our leverage and our power is greatly enhanced by having a democratic president in the white house, especially joe biden who is the man, he is the one who will put forth an agenda and will work together as we did with president obama and joe biden as vice president of the united states. i don't see that is any challenge at all. i see it as an opportunity. thank you, madam speaker. on what you said about leader mcconnell, can you expand on that? you said he is going to find out. what do you mean? speaker pelosi: he has been known to come to my office and say, i'm not doing anything that donald trump does

not want. to me, that is an abdication of your first branch of government responsibilities. you're just going to do whatever the president wants? no. this is a separation of powers. something very important. the genius of our constitution. this is the separation of powers. and if we are saying we do not -- if we are just saying that we are going to do ever the president wants. and if we are saying we do not have the influence, the scrutiny as to what the best way to go is, listening to the beautiful diversity of our caucuses, the reflection of the american people. there's no question when the president is a president of your party, your leverage is greatly increased. you must know that. you must know that. so again, for the good of the country, i am so overjoyed that joe biden is resident of the

united states. -- president of the united states. his decency. his vision, his values, his authenticity. and this connection with america's working families. so i could not be more thrilled. so i also know he respects the legislative branch, and it is a collaboration and we are working together to put legislation together that will hopefully be bipartisan and signed into law. but again, the big partner in all of this is the public, the american people. they want access to health care. especially during a pandemic. they want good paying jobs. they want clean government. that was our agenda in 2018. it continues to be. it for the people, lower health care costs, bigger paychecks by building the infrastructure of america in a green, resilient

way. for the people, cleaner government, hr one, which will be a sure one again. again. money in politics also will end -- a lot of the voter suppression that is out there. we couldn't be more thrilled. we are sad to have lost some of our members. many are ready to come back. some in the biden administration. all of them proud of their campaign. universally, thrilled that joe biden is president of the united states. thank you all.

>> both chambers of commerce are -- congress are in session next week. the house starts to consider a number of veteran-related bills. later in the week, a measure to strengthen faa oversight involving crashes of the boeing 737 max airplanes. and a resolution condemning china for violating human rights in hong kong. off the floor, both parties select their leadership, with all top positions running unopposed. the senate is back at 3:00 p.m. eastern on monday to consider a judicial nomination for the southern district of mississippi, with a vote to

advance the nomination scheduled for 5:30 p.m. eastern. also on their agenda, the nomination of judy shelton to serve on the federal reserve order governors. watch the house live on c-span and the senate live on c-span 2. tuesday morning, facebook ceo mark zuckerberg and twitter ceo jack dorsey answer questions about censorship. they will testify before the senate judiciary committee, live at 10:00 a.m. eastern, on c-span3. or listenc-span.org, on the free c-span radio app. >> sunday night on q&a, sarah brain talks about the use of big

data and new surveillance technologies by law enforcement. >> the police have long been collecting their own data and information, but what's happening now in the digital age is that police are increasingly collecting information on all these folks who have no direct criminal justice contacts. part of that has to do with this data,y component of big that they are increasingly purchasing information from privately collected companies. they are using tools like automatic license plate readers, where you do not have to get pulled over by the police read data into your system. >> shortly after 10:00 a.m., president trump's motorcade left the white house and drove down pennsylvania avenue. past cheering crowds at