robert: president trump and congress face the test or off times. >> fight has arrived at our shores. we did not seek it. we did not want it. but now, we'reoing to w it. >> we're very proud of the product. the bill will be a large infusion of funds for hospitals, alth systems and state and local governments. robert congress moves forward with the $2 trillion rescue bill to addre fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. sbut tension continue as states scramble to hdle a health crisis. >> the president said it's a war. it is a w. well, then act like it's a war. >> the president keeps pushing to on the economy. but top officials are urging caution. >> you don't make the timin the virus makes the time line.

robert: next. annocer: this is "washington week"." funding is provided by -- >> life isn't a straight line. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through thexp uted with financial planning and advice for today andro tom ♪ announcer: additional funding is provided by -- the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public ouoadcasng and by contributions to pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. once again, from washington, er moderator r costa. robert: good evening. we begin with the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. united states is quickly becoming the new epicenter ofl the glo outbreak and now leads the world in confirmed cases. governors and doctors from new york to louisiana to washington state areth sounding e alarm about shortages of medical supplies. joining us is one of the reporters, yasmeen abutaleb a post."er for "the washington for being here. what is the significance of the in terms of the number of cases? yasmeen: i think it signals the epicenter of the outbreak has sort of jumped around the worldi it w china. then it was italy. then it was europe. now it seems to be the united states. the number of confirmedth d from coronavirus in the united

states still lags behind italy d spain. but of course, that could quickly change in the next couplef days. ihinkt signals the seriousness of which the united states is and needs ttake the outbreak -- you know, this is the new epicenter and how b quickly it'n able to spread all over the world. obert: as you look at the map, yasmeen, where do you see emerging hot spots in the u.s.? >> so health experts are concernedbout citie you would expect as hot spots. you know, major metropolitan cities. the death rate in new orleans is the high glest he country a in the world. boston is emerging as another h potentia spot. chicago, miami. it's making its way through the country and you would expect to through. thing spreading quickly rt: what are the biggest problems for health professionals? we hear a lot about ventilators.

is thathessue? yasmeen: there's a lot of panic ether there will be enough sven lay or thes to see the crush of patients that hospitals expect to see in the coming days and weeks. not justhe ventilators but the workers who can operate them. that's a specialized skill. that's a big cone'rn. and hearing these desperate pleas from healthcare rkers about facemasks, about gowns and the protective uipment they need. they keep sing they're sent to war without protection, without equipment. and equating themselves to that sort of thing. robert: so so many americans are rking from home tryin to stop the spread. how successful has the united states been so far in stoing the spread? yasmeen: i think the united states, the connsus is, of course, has done much better in the last couple of weeks with significant social distancing. there was a poll today that 9-10

amerans are practicing social distancing. so that's a great thing. there is some concern that the u.s. has taken a patchwork approach to it. there hasn't been a nationwide two-week shutdown like you've seen in italy and in spain. you know, there are certain states that have full-on lockdowns and other states that much. enforcing it quite as so it's still not consistent across the country. the fear is in the places where there's not a stringentre irements that you're going to see the seeds of a big outbreak being planted. robert: when you look at the food and drug administration that has final approval over any drugs to combat covid-19, what are the issues you're looking at? what matters in youreporting there? yasmeen: one thing we've observed coming up a lot, the two drugs called hydro

chloroquine. some doctors are bribing that. ose drugs are in clinical for coronavirus because they're prescribed for another use, doctorsan prescribe them for whatever they want. we're looking to s how the f.d.a. trials progress on the drug. anecdotal answers from doctor whare prescribing it. and there's another drug that's al in early clinical trials. but it's still pretty early and scant and mixed data. it's unclear whether they work or not. robert: thank you, yasmeen for your time and for your reporting. let us turn to capitol hill. the house approved a $2 trillion economic stimulusge pac that comes as the economy is shuttering due to the jobless aims are skyrocketing. but the bill was passed by voic vote following hours of contention sparked by kentucky

republican tom massy who tried and failed to force a roll call vote. president trump derided him as a grandstander who should be tossed out of the g.o.p. later ony, fri the president signed the bill. in brief, it will send $1200 check to many americans and billions of dollars to small businesses. plus, $250 billion to boost unemployment insurance offering $600 per week for four months for laid o workers. joining us now are four reporters w are covering washington's response to the virus. yamichese alcindor, white h correspondent for the pbs newsur. eamon javers for cnbc. manu raju for senior congressional correspondent for cnn. and susan beige, -- page, from "usa today." eeis itas a full solution

for this economic trouble or just a band-aid? solution, but it is seeas a good solid first step. you saw the market respond very favorably this week, although we were down today. but in in anticipation of thisl we saw a big rally. investors look that as a very od step. but they acknowledge they're going to have to see more. and you heard that from ngressional leaders. it's a $24 trillion economy. i tha $2 trillion bill. the economy has gone something close to zero. when you see these unemployment claims,on 3.3 mil people applied for unemployment this week. that's the biggest ever, and the previous record was in 1982. we are way past that. we're in uncharted territories d congress is beginning to get its arms around the size that it's dealing wit here. robert: manu, how close was the

congressman of kentucky to scuttling this entire bill? >> well, he was close to delaying this a little bit further. nancy pelosi, the house speaker and the house republican leader, kevin mccarthy worked behi the scenes to prevent that from happening. what tom massy was successful in doing was getting half of theus to return to session. and members were not happythbout . because what he wanted to do was to prevent the house from approving it simply by a vce vote. when you have a voice vote in the house you canave a handful of members in the house to do that. but what he wanted was a full recorded vote. they had to cast aoll call vote. but in order for him to get a roll call vote h would need a second support about a fifth of the chamber to go that way. but in order for nancy pelosi and the republicans leader to deny that from happening, they

had to goac intal quorum to deny thomas massy theatecond he needed in order to forceol thatcall vote. that means republican and democratic members from all over the country hado travel ba to washington today just to preventhat f happening, and that infuriated members from both sides of the aisle who are concerd about their well-being, their family's well-being, concerned about traveling in ohe middle this public health emergency, and as a result, it was quick voice vote and that's what ultimately happened. thomas massy got overruled here. and the bill went intoaw just hours later. robert: what a different scene in the senate, susan, a 96-0 vote. when you step back and look at thatipartisanship, what

explains it? based on your reporting. crisis. now but in previous >> i was thinking about the 2008 experience because you remember e first effort to pass a bill bailout bill fail. and the market tanked. and it was a real sense of a croris getting even. t the republican leader in the senate at that point, mitch mcconnell, the speaker of the house was nancy pelosi, they got a deal put back together and passed through the house. that was a critical vote that time around because they had to. and so we had two people who had dealt with a similar situation in the past knew it had toet done. we shouldn't lose sight of how remarkable it is. we have a dysfunctional congress. but in the space of a week or trillion, the biggest relief bill in american history and got it through alm unanimously through both houses. robert: yamiche, a as muchs congress has made congress on this legislation president trump is still move forgot ward

to defend the defense production act trying to nge general motors and other companies toke ventilators. why are they moving forward on the d.p.a.? yache: the preside is invoking the defense production act is when the government can direct america manufactures to make what the government says they need. in thinm case the govt is telling gener motors we really prioritize our contract. have to this happened because the president and the white house says they wereegotiating with general motors but they were ripping them off. those were his wordsnd they were trying to essentially charge the government too much to make these ventilators to speed up those talks. the president did this. what's interesting that both r governorublicans and democrats have been urging him to use it. they need masks, vtilators,

gowns, we're in dire shortage. and this is the president doing it for onepecific medical equipment. the president said yesterday on fox news that he doesn't believo that som these governors need all of the medical equipment that they've been asspng for. ific clirks i don't think that new york possibly needs 30,000 ventilators. and new york governor andrew cuomo has been urging the president saying i need 30,000 ventilators. it's unclear even with the productionnving the defense production act whether he beliefs and will fill the orders and" coming across the country. robert: many of the requests came and governors are paying attention to small businesses. and they're wondering will this legislation enable th businesses to get the loans as soon as possible? because the economy in their view is on a knife's edge. >> yeah, there's an important provision here. and anybody who is a small

business owner needs know this it is an expansion of the p 7-a logram. what it does is somethi radical -- radical and new in american legislation and in the economy. it's in essence free money for b smallinesses if they agree not to lay anybody off over a period of time. you get an eight-week loan of up to $10 million for 500 employees or less. i andyou haven't laid anybody off, you go get keep the money. that's free money. we've never seen anything like that before in american economics. it's going to be a fascinating moment. there are some particulars to the bill that small businesses are going to need to paynt atn to. but this is potentially huge. it's authorized up to0 $ billion or more in the bill. my suspicion ist will g much, much higher than that because a apply once realize it's outng to there. the way to get ts is to go to your regular banker or lender you're used to dealing with, and

ask them about a 7-a loan. ey'll deal with the small business administration. small business owners don't have to deal withovernment on this deal with your regular banker. it's going to be an enormou strain on the banking system. but that's how it's going to work because they're the ones who are touching tall individual businesses. robert: the market dipped 900 points. the dow jones industrial average today friday. are we going to see if they suffer a phase four, another round of legislation? how many options are left forss cong >> yeah, that's a -- one thing that the democrats and the house are alrea talking about phase four rescue package. remeer, they've passed an $8.3 passed package that was by bipartisan majorities in both chambers of congress. an of course, there was a second major package that cluded more jobless benefits as well as medicaid, spending to the states and as well as paid leave that was approved -- that was a phase two.

the biggest package in arican history. and right now nancy pelosi is talkin about a phase four. i asked her today what her time line is for that. and shehe said thats -- this week she's asking all of her chairmen of the key economies to submit proposals for how to move forward. she's talk about fundingstor ement and local governments. also to insure that people are getting tested ifer the coronavirus to get their things like food stamps and the like and more paid expansive id leave policies. i think the democrats did not think -- didot get to their satisfaction in the last couple of pieces of legislation, they're pushing on this one. the question is if the republicans are ready to moveev forward, more contact thy said let's see how to2 trillion package how that isem imted first before we start talking about a phase

four. lo wants to push forward by mid april. we'll see if the republicans wanto join. robert: you think about nancy pelosi, you're writing a biography of speaker pelosi -- she -- we've already spoken about republican massey. but you saw o cazz yo corte om the left criticize this deal. wondering if it has enough oversight. is she prepared to deal with that kind of critsfrism -- criticism from the left? >> she's had that from the beginning. one of the remarkable thing is this debate over the role of government has been settled to some degree. we have nowccepted as a country in the country a bigger role in the federal government. who do you turn to to feed school kids to support small businees to even take equity stakes in airlines, to do all

the things that s theseies of bills have done? people are looking to the federal government to do it with almost nou debate. hink about what the prepercussions are going to be for the country, whether or not there is a fourth bill. the role of the government has shifted in a b way. robert: the ideological fault lines are scrambled. they're backing direct payments to americans, a plan that was only advocated by andrew yang. >> we'll have bwback when we catch our breath but at the moment they have decided t gs is thernment we want and need. robert: this week president trump said he is hoping to reopen the american economynd adjust social distancing guidelin by mid april. t i would love have it open by easter. >> oh, wow. ok.id prt trump: i will ll you that right now, i would love to have that. it's such an important day for other reasons. but i'll make it an important day for this too. i would love to have the country

opened up and just rarring to go by easter. robert: but they're relucnt to set a date. >> the next day's increased dramatically. at's not when you pull back. that's when you have to hunker down. mitigate, mitigate. you have to go with the data. robert: yamiche, is the decision about when to reopen the american economy perhaps t biggest decision of his presidency? yamiche: i think so, bob. the president has been focused on making up this date in his own mind this easter sunday date that he's been talking about and urging. w this it i want. i want church packed on sunday. the president me it clear that that was something he felt.

s since sixths -- hiss insix led him to that date. the other thing to note is there are some repn governors especially reporting from "the washington post" shows that there were some republican governors from mississippi and otherlaces and say maybe it is a little time to ease the white house restrictions a to ease social distancing. but for the most part you hear healthcare officials saying no. that's not what we need to do. we need to figure whether we're at the peak and most health experts say we're not o d figu what we can do to go forward to find treatments and vaccine in about a year. but there's no one other than president trump and a couple of republican governors t oking abouning up. this is going to be a big decision if he says there are parts of the country that i feel are o to open. he was talking about idaho and the farm belt. it's unclear whether or not the president will go through with that. but it's going be a remarkable decision whenever he

des to open the economy back up. robert: what willt mean having the economy shuttered through may? >> i mean, it' devastating. the vice president was on cnbc, he was asked about that easter timeline. he walked it back. he said, you know, that was an . aspirational d it doesn't sound that he thought th was realistic either. and for the economy, it's horrific. we're in the red zone in the economy. we've never seen a decision like this a lot of policymakers are assuming that the economy is light switch. you can leave the room dark for a few weeks and turn it back on. but the analogy is better it's more like a campfire, right? it takes a while to get it going. you put the kin a ling get the fire going. and then you're not going to be able to turn it back on automatically. it's going to take a lot of oustoking and eging and some time.

the longer this goes on, the more time it's going to take to get back to normal.th an's a scary thing for the millions of american who is filed for unemployment wis week an will do it next week and the week after that and all the small business who are going under and declaring bankruptcy. all of that is terrifying. that fear factor ripples through american economy. everybody holds back investing, spending. hunkers down. that slows everything down en further. you get the opposite of a virtuous cycle. you get a real spiralt t could be a real pblem. we're in uncharteder w and .obody knows how this is going to play o robert: manu, what about the pressure? is the president getting phone calls? >> a lot of republicans don't i talked to s of them thisy. week after the president said that they should offer that easter time line is something

that he was thinking about. and he sd he needs toisten to the medical experts, people like joni ernst. she said let's not set any artificial timeline. al doug fisher who is a republican of nebraska, advised the republican leadership, someone who is aligned with the president on virtually everything said we have to be ou very, very cau before we move forward. and even g lindsham, the president's closest ally at the moment. he said -- he's made several public comments this week that theresident should not act without considering the datahe . so if the president does go this route, he's probably going to get very few people on his side. so i'm sure he recognizes that as well. so amy was saying, this was gan aspirationall one that doesn't have a lot of political sut. the medical community is not behind it.

robert: and the governor's final thought quickly may decide to haveheir own time lines. we've seen them stope the floor again and again during this crisis. >> and we'ven seen real frict between the governors and the president about what the president should be doing and his criticism of governors for robert: thank you very much to everyone for joining us here one a tough for the whole country. that's all the time we have. and thank you for joining us from your home. we will keep takinglo you as to the news as we can every week. but in closing, let us also salute the arican w are keeping us safe and ouratn functioning during this crisis. i'm robert costa. good night from washington. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.visit ncicap.org]

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"washington week" is provided by -- >> lifesn't a straight line. and sometimesou can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected. with financial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. additidial f is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging culturald erences in our communities, the p corporation forlic broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from vie like you. thank you. >> you're watching

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