robert: president trump and congress face the test or off times. >> a fig has arrived at our shores. we did not seek it. did not want it. but now, we're going to win it. >> we're very proud of the product. the bill will be a large infusion of funds for hospitals, health systems and state and local governments. robert: congress mesorward with the $2 trillion rescue bill to address falloutrom the coronavirus pandemic. bute tensions conti as states ramble to handle a health crisis. >> the president said it's a war. it is a war. well, then act like it's a war. >>sident keeps pushing to open the enomy. but top officials are urging caution. >> you don't make the time line. the virus makes the timine.

robert: next. announcer: this is "washington week"." funding is provided by -- >> life isn't a straight line. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new fidelity is hereo help you work through the unexpected with financial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. ♪ 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. broadcasting and by public contributions to your pbs ation from viewersike you.

thank you. once again, from washington, morator robert costa robert: good evening. we begin with the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. united states is quickly becoming the new epicenter of the global outbreak and now leads the worldrmn confied cases. governors and doctors from new yorko louisiana to washington state are sounding the alarm about shortages of medical supplies. joining us is one of the reports, yasmeen abutaleb a reporter for "the washington post." thanks for being here. what is the significance of ted untates surpassing china in terms of the number of cases? yasmeen: i think it signals the epicenter of the outbreakrtas of jumped around the world. it was in china. then it was italy. then it was europe. states. eems to be the the number of confirmed deaths from coronavirus in the united states still lags behind italy

and spain. but of course, that could quickly changeexn t couplef days. i think it signals the o seriousnes which the united states is and needs to take the outbreak -- you know, this isth new epicenter and how quickly it's been able to spread all over the world. robert: as you look at the map, een, where do you see emerging hot spots in the u.s.? >>ealth experts are concerned about cities you would expect as hot spots. you know, major metropolitan cities. the death rate new orleans is the high glest the country and in the world. boston is emerging asnother potential hot spot. chicago, miami. it's making its way throughhe see this thing spreading quickly through. robert: what are the biggest problems for health professionals? we hear a lot about vtilators.

is thathe issue? yasmeen: there's a lot of panic whether there will be enough sven lay or thes to see the crush of patients that hospitals expect to see i the coming days and weeks. workers who can o them. but the that's a specialized skill. that's a big concern. and we're hearing these desperate pleas from healthcare workers about facasks, about gowns and the protective equipment they need. they keep saying they're sent to war without protection, without equipment. and equating themselves to that sort of thing. robert so so many americans are working from home trying to stop the spread. how succesul has thenited states been so far in stopping the spread? yasmeen: i thinktehe u states, the consensus is, of course, has done much better in thup last of weeks with significant social distancing. there was a polloday that 9-10

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

chloroquine. some doctors are bribing that. those drugs are in clinical trials to see i they do work for coronavirus because they're prescribed for another use, doctors can prescribe them for whatever they want. we're looking to see how the f.d.a. trials progress on the drug. anecdotalronswers doctor who are prescribing it. and there's anoth drug that's also in early clinical trials. but it's still pretty early and scant and mixed data. it's unclearer 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 stimulus package. that comes as the ecomy is shuttering due to the jobless claims are skyrocketing. but the bill was passed by voice 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 a a grandstander who should be tossed out of the g.o.p. later on friday, the president signed the bill. in brief, it will send $1200 check to many amerins and billions of dollars to small businesses. plus,250 billion to boost unemployment insurance offering $600 perr week our months for laid off workers. joining us now are four reporters whoov areing washington's response to the virus. yamiche alcinr, white house correspondent for the pbs newshour. manu raju for senior congressional correspondent for cnn. and susan beige, -- page, from "usa today." is it seen as a full sution

for this economic trouble or just a band-aid? >> it's noteen as a fullti so, but it is seeas a good solid first step. you saw the market respo very favorably this week, although we were down today but in in anticipation of this bill, we saw a big rally. investors look that as a very good step. but they acknowledge they're going to have to see more. and you heard that froml congressio leaders. it's a $24 trillion economy. this is a $2 trillion bill. the economy has gone something ose to zero. when you see these unemployment claims, 3.3pl million p applied for unemployment this week. that's the biggest ever, and the previous record was in 1982. we a way past that. we're in uncharted territories and congresss beginning to get its arms around the size that it'sealing with 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 behind the scenes to prevent that from happening. what tom massy was successful in doing g wasting half of the house to return to session. er and members not happy about that because what he wanted to do was to prevent the house from approving it simply by a voice vote when you have a voice vote in the house you can have a handful of members in the house to do that. but what he wanted was a full recorded vote. they had to cast a roll call vote. but in order for him to get a roll call vote he would need a second support about a fifth of the chamber to go that way. butn order f nancy pelosi and the republicans leader to deny that fromapning, they

had to go into actual quorum to deny thomas massy the second that he needed in order to force that roll call vote. that means republican and democratic members from all over the country had to travel back to wodhington just to prevent that from happening, and that infuriated members from both sides of the aisle who are oncerned about their well-being, their family's well-being, concerned about traveling in the middle of this public health emergency, and as a result, it was a quick voice vote and that's wlttately happened. thomas massy got overruledere. and the bill went into law just hours later. robert: what aifferent scene in the senate, susan, a 96-0 vote. when you step back and look at that bipartisanship, what explains it?

based on your reporting. not only now but in previous crisis. >> i was thinking 2 about the8 experience because you remember the first effort to pass a bill bailout bill fail. and the market tanked. and it was a real sense of a crisis getting eve worse. but the republican leader in the senate at that point,ch m 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 and so we had two people who had dealt with a similar situation the past knew it had to get done. we shouldn't lose sight of how remarkable it is. we have aon dysfunc congress. but in the space of a week or two, they negotiated a $2on tril the biggest relief bill in american history and got it through almost unanimously through both houses. robert: yamiche, as much as congress has made congress on this legislation, president trump is still move forgot ward

to defend the defense production act trying to nudge general motors and other companies to make ventilators. why are they moving forward on the d.p.a.? yamiche: the president is invoking the defense production act is when the government can direct american manufactures to make what the government sa they need. in this case the government is telling ger motors we really need ventilators and you have ti prio our contract. this happened because the president and the white house says they were negotiating with general motors but they were ripping them off. hose were his words and they were trying to essentially charge the government too much speed up talks. tilators to the president did this. what's interesting that both governors, republicans and democrats have been urging him to use it. they need masks, ventilators,

gowns,re w in dire shortage. and this is the president doing it for one specific medical equipment. the president sai yesterday on fox news that he doesn't believe that some of these governors need all of the medical equipment that they've been asking for. specific clirks i don't think that nework possibly needs 30,000 ventilators. and new york governor arew cuomo has been urging the president saying i need 3000 ventilators. it's unclear even with the productionen invoking the d production act whether he beliefs and will fill the orders an coming across the country. robert: many of the requests came and governors are paying atteion to small businesses. and they're wondering will this legislationsinable the sses to get the loans as soon as possible? because the economy in their view a is knife's edge. >> yea there's an important provision here. and anybody who is a small business owner needs know this

it is expansion of the 7-a loan program. what it does is scaething ra -- radical and new in american legislation and in the economy. it's in essence free money for sml businesses ifhey agree not to lay anybody off over a period of time. yo g an eight-week loan of up to $10 million for 500 employees or less. and if you haven't laid anybody off,o 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 fasci ting moment. there are some particulars to e bill that small businesses attention to. eed to pay but this is potentially huge. it's authorized up to $350 billio or more in the bill. my suspicion is it will go much, much higher than that because a loe businesses are going to apply once they realize it's out there. theay to get ts is to go to your regular banker or lender you're used toealing with, and ask them about a 7-a loan.

they'll deaith the small business administration. small business owners don't have toneal with the government this deal with your regular banker. it's going to be an enormous strain on the banking system. but that's how it's going to work because they're the ones who are i touching talividual businesses. robert: the market dipped 900 points. today friday. industrial are we going to see if they suffer a phase four, another round o legislation? how many options are left for congress? eah, that's a -- one thing that the democrats and the house are already talking about phase four rescue package. remember, they've passed an $8.3 billion package that was passed by bipartisan majorities in both chambers o congress. and of course, there was a second major package that included mor jobless benefits as well as medicaid, spending to the s ates ands well as paid leave that was approved -- that wasse a pwo.

the biggest package in american history. and rightcyow n pelosi is talking about a phase four. i asked her today what her tnee s for that. and she said that she is -- this week she's askinall of her submit proposals for how to move forward. she's talk about funding for statement and local governments. also to insure that people are ttting tested if coronavirus to get their treatment covered as well. things like food stamps and the ke and more paid expansive paid leave policies. i think the democrats did n think -- didot get to their satisfaction in the last couple ofieces of legislation, they're pushing on this one. the qstion is if the republicans are ready to move forward, kevin more contact thy said let's see how to $2 trillion package how that is implemented first before we start talking about a phase

four. pelosi wants to push forward by mid april. 'll see if the republicans robert: you think about nancy pelosi, you're wring a biography of speaker pelosi -- she -- we've already spoken about republican massey. but you saw o cazz yo cortezt from the l 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. this debate over the role of government has been settled to somee. deg we have now accepted as a cotry in the country a bigger role in the federal government. who do you turn to to feed school kids to support small businesses to even take equity stakes in airlines, to do all the things that these series of

bills have done? people are looking to the federal government to dot with almost no debate. you think about what the a prepercussio going to be for the country, whether or not there is a fourth bill. the role of the government has shifted in a big way. robert: the ideological fault they're backing direct payments to americans, a plan that was only advocated by andrew yang. >> we'll have blowback whene w catch our breath but at the moment they have decided this is the government we want and need. robert: this weekresident trump said he is hoping to reopen the american economy and adjust social distancing guidelines by mid april. >> i wouldove toave it open by easter. >> oh, wow. ok. president trump: i will ll you that right now, i would love to have that. it's suc an important day for other reasons. but i'll make it an impytant or this too. i would love to have the country

by easter.and just rarring to go robert: but they're reluctantseo a date. >> the next day's increased dramatically. that's not when you pull back. at'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? 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. this is what i want. i want church packed on sunday. the president made it clear that that was something he felt.

his sinceixths -- his insixths d him to that date. the other thing to note is there are som republican governors especially reporting from "the washington post" shows thate thre some republican governors from mississippi and other places and say maybe it is a little time to ease the white house restriction t ando ease social distancing. healcare officials saying no. that's not what we need to do. we need to figure outwe whether e at the peak and most figure out what we can do to go forward to find treatments and vaccine in about at year. there's no one other than president trump and a couple of republican governors talking about opening up. this is going to be a big decision if he says there are parts of the country that i feel are ok to open.al he wasng about idaho and the farm belt. it's unclear whether or not the presidenl go through with that. but it's going to be a remarkable decision whenever he

decides to open the economy back up. robert: what will it mean having the economy shuttered through may? >> i mean, it's devastating. the vice president was on cnbc, he was asked about that easter timeline. he walked it back. said, you know, that was an aspirational date. it doesn't sound tt he thought that was realistic either. and for the economy, ihos ific. 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 like a light switch. ou can leave the room dark f a few weeks and turn it back on. but the analogy is better it's more like a campfire, right? it takes a while toet it going. you put the kin ling and get the fire going. andhen you're notoing to be able to turn it back on automatically. 's going to take a lot of stoking and encouraging and some time.

the longer this goes on, the more time it's going to take to get back to normal. and that's a scary thing for the millions o american who is filed for unemployment this week and who will do it next week and the week afternd that all the small business who are going under and declaring bankruptct all of t is terrifying. myat fear factor ripples through american eco everybody holds back on investing, spending. hunkers down. hat slows everything down even further. you get the opposite of a virtuous cycle. you get a real spiral that could we're in uncharted waters and nobody knows howhis is going to play out. robert: manu, what about the pressure? is the president getting phone calls? >> a lot of republicans don't want him toct prematurely. i talked to several of them this week after the president said that they should offer that easter time line is some hing

thats thinking about. and he said he needs to listen to the medical experts, people like joni ernst. she said let's not set anyci arti timeline. also doug fisher who is a republican of nebraska, advised e republican leadershi someone who is aligned with the president on virtually everytng said we have to be very, very cautious before we move forward. and even lindsey graham, the president's closest ally at the moment. he said -- he's ma sever public comments this week that the president should not act without considering the data so if the president does go this get very few people on his side. so i'm sure hese recogn that as well. so as amy was saying, this w an aspirathanal goal one tt doesn't have a lot of political support. the medical community is not behind it. robert: and the governor's finak

thought q may decide to have their own time lines. we've seen them stope the floor again and again during this crisis. >> and we've seen real friction between the governors and thebo president what the president should be doing and his criticism of governors for iticizing him. robert: thank you very much to evyone for joining us here on a tough week for the whole country. and thank you for joining us from your home. we will keep taking you as close to the news as we can every week. but in closing, l us also salute the american w are keeping us safe a our nation 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.visitcicap.org]

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"washington week" is provided by -- >>ife isn't a straight line. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a newdi ction. fidelity is here to help you work through theec uned. with financial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and y patrician through the yuen foundation, committedo bridging cultural differences i our communities, the corporaon for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> you're watching

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ruben martinez: los angeles, from the eay 20th century all the way until today, is a city defined by immigrants arriving here in wave after wave. we're a city of immigrants. it's all coming in a human migration, a human journey, ultimately. that's how food gets around the world. we carry it with us in our stomachs and our bodies and in ourre. those kinds of journey those kinds of migrations, are very those kinds of journey those