i invited him to join us for a couple of minutes if he was up to it this morning. and i think he said that he was in a position to join us. and i asked him to join us by video if he's available. there he is. with his hat "cuomo prime time." there, i saw it. this young looking -- >> let's get after it. >> let's get after it. i love that saying. you're looking fit and fin. many people are asking about you. i tell you the truth, everyone i talk to is asking about you and how you're doing and how you're handling it and how you feel. cara is here, by the way. she's working with me now. she's working on supplies, so

she says hello. so how are you feeling? >> i love cara and you have great kids. there's no better way to measure what you have actually meant in the world than the kids you bring into it. your daughters are great. i'm not surprised at the help. they make me proud of the family. thank god the next generation is better. i'm doing pretty well all things considering. this is very tough. i get it now. i have now become part of this group of people who have this virus and they're reaching out to friends, new friends. they have this constant virus, constant fever, and it's tough. you know, it's not going great with my hair, i have to be honest. tough for the hair to be the way i want. you look like you've been cutting your own hair. which some people are good at,

some people are not. so i have chosen to wear a hat because i don't want to butcher my own haircut. but it's going to be a long time. and now that i learned what i'm in for, i'm more comfortable. and now i see why it takes people out, you have to rest. your body has a fever, it's fighting a virus. i have to chill. i have a wife who loves me. i have a nice place to be. we have been very smart, andrew, in getting people to think about how they can reach out and help people without contact. a lot of people are fighting this alone, and i can't imagine it. i can barely keep it together and i have everything done for me. i'm very lucky. there are a lot of people who are in a bad way and they're reaching out to me and i feel for them. we're in a real fight and we really do have to remember our connections to each other. >> you're on what, day two? >> yeah. i really believe it didn't start

until i got the diagnosis maybe because psychosomatic or whatever, that night i got hit and the rigors, r-i-g-o-r-s i'm telling you, it was out of the movies. you came to me for a briefing. you had on a very interesting l.a. outfit. and you were dancing in the dream and you were waving a wand saying, i wish i can wave my wand and make this go away. and then you spun around and you danced away. >> well, that's a lot of metaphoric reality in that one. i thank you for sharing that with us. it's kind of you. obviously -- >> i can't get that picture out of my head.

>> obviously, your fever has affected your mental capacity. >> yeah, and being alone all the time. i think everything i say is probably that way. >> so you still have a fever. do you have a fever today? >> right this instance. >> comparatively, you look good. i have to tell you, comparatively, you look good. >> first of all, i appreciate that. i must admit to your audience you were concerned how i look over the days several times, and you didn't like my hair. you thought i was giving a bad look. but i think i'm doing okay. >> good. you look good, you sound good. i know that sometimes we joke. we're not going to do that today. rule one is never hit a brother

when he's down, and you're literally in the basement, so i'm going to refrain from any rebuttal today. the -- >> oh, no, this is probably your best -- good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we have the stunning statistics exposing the scale of the dead across america and the unemployment of the workers across the nation, unemployment figures. we're approaching 5,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the u.s. that is a plurality, most of the deaths in new york city. the apex of the virus expected some time in the next 7 to 30 days, depending on how social distancing works out. in the state's capital, the update from governor new york cuomo. you have just been watching more than 19,000 positive covid cases in his state now 2,073 deaths in new york state. more than half of the state's cases are in new york city.

governor cuomo said with the current ventilator supply and given projected demand, he would use all of the state's capacity in six ways. this morning dr. anthony fauci gave savannah guthrie a grim update on what lies ahead and his personal reaction when asked about being assigned his own security because of unspecified threats. >> it's very clear that we are getting hit very hard. right now the epicenter of it in the united states is new york city, but as you see, it's not going to be confined to new york city. we're going to be seeing this kind of thing in other large cities. it's a very difficult situation as was predicted. this is going to get worse before it gets better for sure. i have chosen this life. i know what it is. there are things about it that sometimes are disturbing but you just focus on the job you have to do, and just put all of that other stuff aside and just try as best as possible not to pay attention to it and just forge ahead. >> a catastrophic impact of this

virus are those stunning and historic weekly jobless claims released this morning. more than 6 million americans filing for unemployment insurance benefits, more than double the estimates. nbc's anne thompson is outside of the refrigerated morgue truck in lenox hill hospital and joins me now. first of all, the unemployment numbers so devastating, as well as the fact you're standing in front of a refrigerated truck carrying all of those poor souls. >> andrea, you know new york city very well, and i am on the upper east side. i'm about half a block from park avenue, and behind me you see that refrigerated truck. that is here because lenox hill hospital believes it is going to need this temporary morgue as the number of coronavirus victims increases. they already have 250 patients, covid-19 patients, in this

hospital. that's up 50 from yesterday. 21% of those patients are in the icu, and most of those, i'm told by an icu nurse, are on ventilators. and that's just illustrating the crucial need for ventilators as this onslaught comes new york city's way. it is a very strange sight to see. can you imagine living up in those apartments on park avenue and looking out your window and seeing a temporary morgue? i don't think it's something anybody expected to see here. but there's also more grim news today, unfortunately. and it comes from the body that oversees the emergency medical services here in new york city. and they put out a notice today saying -- telling me ems units that basically if they have cardiac patients and they cannot find a pulse on those cardiac patients, they should not take them to the city's hospitals. with few exceptions, the emts

need to find some kind of of sign of blood flow in order to take them to the hospital. why is that? the thinking is according to emergency officials, it will keep people from going to the hospitals who have no chance to be saved. that is the kind of really difficult calculation that's being made in this city as it prepares for this onslaught of coronavirus victims. >> and that is so extraordinary. we should just pause for a moment to also talk about the emts, the fire department, other personnel, the emergency responders will be seen from the nypd. the casualty rates are so astounding in the most populated city in america. this is creating huge pressures. >> it really is. and these people are absolutely on the front lines of it. that nurse i was telling you about, andrea, said to me, we

need more protective equipment. she said, we need more masks, we need more gloves, we need more gowns. we just don't have what we need to fight this. and they want to fight this but they don't have the equipment yet, no matter what the officials say. and it's very frustrating for them. you see firefighters. they go along with the call, policemen. the good thing, if there is a silver lining to it, is the city is so quiet the typical things they normally do are not needed. they're not needed in the same way because most people are paying attention and staying at home in order to stop the spread of the virus. >> anne thompson on the upper east side of manhattan, which is being transformed as the rest of the country by this pandemic, thank you, anne. so good to see you. meanwhile, dr. murphy served

as the u.s. surgeon general in the obama administration and joins me now. doctor, thank you very much. first of all, the fact that new york city, new york state are so affected as hot spots but also as we heard from dr. fauci, this is just going to spread to all parts of the country. >> that's right, andrea. unfortunately this is the first wave of covid-19 in the united states. but it's not the last one. we are already seeing states like louisiana and florida and indiana start to have surges now in cases and we can expect that this will continue. that's why it's so essential that we not simply sit back and be complacent because we're not seeing case counts in our area. we know that testing is far behind. we're not testing nearly enough. and we need to do everything possible to ensure that we have the infrastructure in place so we are not seeing the situation in new york played out all across the country in terms of lack of beds and lack of materials.

>> one of the shocking things, dr. murphy, that dr. fauci said to savannah guthrie this morning on the "today" show was that the u.s. will go the way of italy. that it's not unavoidable. >> i think several weeks ago there was a discussion about whether we would be south korea or italy, in terms of whether we would be a country that was able to very quickly flatten the curve, so to speak, and reduce the peak number of infections or whether we would see the ast astronomic rise like italy has seen. and we're going in that direction. the reason is we're still in a struggle to get up our testing, so that means we're not able to see where the virus is at all times. we were late to the game when it came to putting stay-at-home

orders in place and we still don't have every state in the country that is enforcing those rules. now we're struggling to get frontline health care workers, the protection they need. andr andrea, to me this feels very personal and painful. i hear from my of my colleagues in medicine, doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, who are going to work each and every day, putting their lives on the line and families at risk, because they're doing an oath to take care of the ill and they're doing so doing they don't have the masks and gloves and gowns necessarily that they need. they're trying to make one ventilator served into two or three or four to serve multiple patients, even though we haven't done it before because it is so desperate. at this point we need the federal government to step in and take over the coordination and process of distributing personal protective equipment. it's not enough to leave this up to states and say every state will decide on their own. there are states doing a heroic

job, but there's time we are 50 states and times we are one country, and this is the time we need to be one to help our workers get their needs. >> i know there are federal restrictions we have outside of our system where governors are supposed to be in charge but you have the case of governor ron desantis in florida telling people to finally shelter at home but making a broad exception for large gatherings at religious services. that's completely contradictory. you have the mayor of teaneck, new jersey, saying we need somebody to be in charge at the national level, like you just pointed out. >> we certainly do. when it comes to pandemic response, something we have learned over and over again is half measures don't work. viruses don't operate like this and they don't say, okay, well, we will stay out of church gatherings. we will stay out of limited

gatherings at certain locations. they spread everywhere at every time. they are hard choices. nobody wants to tell schools they have to shut down. nobody wants to tell people they have to go telework. nobody wants to tell institutions we can't have gatherings like many of us have or need. but if you want to tamp down the virus, this is what we have to do. the leadership is about making these bold, difficult and sometimes unpopular choices. what we've seen is unfortunately because we have not had those bold decisions coming from a federal level, because there's been vacillation and i think deferral on making those hard choices, we had states trying to figure it out on their own and it puts states in a very difficult position. you see a patchwork response. and when pandemic responses, every day counts. every day you wait means more people will suffer and more lives are lost. i'm glad my home state of florida finally put a stay-at-home order in place. it was too late. it should have been done much

earlier. but the carve-outs are there. they're just not going to help. we need bold leadership there to make tough choices. we have to do that sooner rather than later. >> thank you very much, dr. murphy. joining us is james o'neil, former nypd police commissioner, retired commissioner, who has come back as the new senior adviser overseeing supplies and distribution of personal protective equipment. commissioner o'neill, thank you very much. thank you for your service. tell us how you envision this helping mayor de blasio and the city cope with this tragedy. >> so i spoke to the mayor yesterday morning around 8:00 on tuesday and told him i was coming back to new york city. my sons here, danny and chris. i have my mom helen's here. leeza's got an office here. i would like to thank ron kelley, ceo, for giving me the opportunity to do this. he asked the mayor if he had anything for me to do. and 8:00 yesterday morning

called me up and went over exactly what he was looking for me to do. obviously as everybody in this great country knows emergency medical supplies are a challenge. the and he needed somebody that would lead that effort to make sure we could source it, to make sure we can transport it, to make sure we can distribute it and the hospitals, especially the health care workers, are getting exactly what they need. it's going to be a challenge, as everybody knows. but i'm a new yorker for life. and i was seeing what was going on, reading about it, hearing about it. and i just wanted to have the opportunity to help. >> well, we're so grateful to you. i know new yorkers are as well. it's people around the country, the testimony from the frontline hospital workers have been so extraordinary. they make you cry literally cry when we watch the evening news. some of our colleagues, stephanie gosk reporting and some of the other reports we had. what are you hearing? you know these people so well.

>> yeah, i'm hearing the same thing. i have friends that are health care workers. my sister is a nurse over in new jersey. the situation is -- is one we haven't been faced with. these are extremely challenging times. but the united states is a great place, it's a great state new york. new york city's great. we're going to do our best to make sure people get what they need. just think about how much these health care workers have put in their heart and soul into this. 16, 17, 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. think about firefighters, ems. of course, my compadres at the nypd, state troopers, port authority, police, military. this is an all-hands-on-deck effort. if there's any time for americans to come together, now is the time. >> it does remind a lot of us after 9/11. it was different then. the tragedy was so enormous and

so unprecedented but there was an end and we began the recovery, not realizing, of course, the toll on your guys and firefighters who were working on the pile until much later tragically. but now there is no end date. this can come back. how does new york cope with this going forward when it is so uncertain? >> yes, and that is truly, truly the challenge here. there's nothing worse than facing uncertainty, but think about the strength of new yorkers. everybody can contribute to this cause here, whether it's just simply staying at home, which sometimes isn't that simple. everybody's got to do their part. think about all of the essential workers out there keeping us fed, driving our trains, buses. there are some especially courageous people in the city. that's how we're going to get through it. everybody's got to support each other. now is not, again, to reiterate, now is not the time to squabble. now is the time to get down to

work. there's been a ton of great work done so far. and i'm looking forward to having the opportunity to help in that effort. >> commissioner, do you agree with those who are calling on some federal general, somebody in charge at fema or someplace else, to distribute this to the hot spots, distribute the needed equipment so you don't have states and cities bidding against each other? >> andrea, i've got -- my time as police commissioner, i made it a habit not to speculate. i'm not even 24 hours into this job. if i talk to you a couple days from now, i might be in a better position to answer that question. >> you got it. thank you so much, commissioner. thanks for coming back and doing service. thank you for the service to your sister in new jersey and your sons and your whole family. wishing you well. and this just in, we have new word from the democratic national convention, the dnc has

been pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. this was predictable. we saw what joe biden told brian williams the other night, the convention will be held the week of august 17th, again in milwaukee, wisconsin. it was scheduled mid-july. of course, wisconsin still has not postponed next tuesday's primary election. there's a federal judge supposed to oversee whether or not that -- at a hearing i think today whether or not the democratic -- democratically controlled election board can get the appeal to postpone that. but there's mail-in balloting as long as they're postmarked as of next tuesday. coming up, the unemployment rate soaring at an unprecedented rate. this is extraordinary. two week total reaching 10 million claims. can the government keep up? what more is needed to help the unemployed? stay with us. we'll have more including we believe speaker pelosi will be joining me later in the show.

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welcome back. another brutal reminder of just how the coronavirus is taking its toll around the country. a record 6.6 million americans who filed for unemployment last week, and that number, of course, could in fact be much higher as many people had trouble filing their claims because, of course, state labor departments have been completely overwhelmed with requests. joining us now is nbc's white

house correspondent, kristen welker, of course, co-anchor of "weekend today." we were watching last night when the president brought out the entire military command, joint chiefs chairman and secretary to announce unexpectedly before they went into their coronavirus daily briefing that they were launching a big effort, air and ground effort against the drug cartels. we understand from our pentagon correspondent that had been planned all the way back in february. it's not really new and it seemed from your reporting last night they were searching for a big headline to bring out. what is your reporting telling you? >> andrea, based on my conversations with allies to president trump, there's a sense he's been coming out to the briefing room every day, that that has allowed him to make the

case to the american people that he is the person in charge of this crisis, at the same time he is coming to the briefing room, a podium that is usually for the press secretary. so there's a real sense inside the president's inner circle that he needs to be making an announcement every time he steps into that briefing room. of course, yesterday's briefing came on the heels of the robust briefing we got just a day earlier in which his top medical advisers and officials laid out the stark data and the stark projections that we could be looking at because of the coronavirus over the next several weeks and months if the united states doesn't take serious action, and doesn't take the social distancing guidelines very seriously. so coming on the heels of that, the white house clearly felt as though they're needed to be another big announcement. so they went in that direction. but as you and i have discussed, of course, the key questions

yesterday were not necessarily about the counter narcotics effort the white house was putting forward. the white house wanted to say look, we're all hands on deck here dealing with this crisis. but among the big questions at the forefront, of course, the unemployment rate, andrea, which we all woke up to today, and what happens to all of the unemployed people who don't have insurance? the trump administration recently said it was not going to renew the obama care exchanges. there's a lot of pressure, a lot of questions about how exactly they're going to do that. yesterday in the briefing the president indicated, look, they might need to take another hard look at how they're going to ensure all of these people who are uninsured and dealing with this mounting health crisis, andrea. >> kristen welker, of course, they're still fighting in court to kill obamacare entirely. and that's a case rooting through the court systems as well. thank you very much, kristen.

koxticoming up next, we wilk about georgia's lockdown. was it too little too late? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

after mounting pressure, georgia's governor brian cundiff finally issued a shelter-in-place order for his state starting friday. he cited what he called new information from the cdc. >> the cdc has announced that individuals can be infected and

begin to spread coronavirus earlier than previously thought, even if they have no symptoms. from a public health standpoint, this is a revelation and a game-changer. >> joining me now is nbc's blayne alexander in atlanta. joining us from georgia today. you were there yesterday as well because of the rule cases expanding there. tell us what's happening in georgia? and i don't know governor kemp could not have known because it's been all over the airwaves and all over communications from washington for weeks now to stay in place. >> and it's something that -- absolutely, andrea, something health officials have been saying for weeks. wee reached out to the governor's office and state health department to get more classification about where the governor is coming from and what he said yesterday but as far as georgia numbers, they are

continuing to rise. right now more than 5,300 statewide and 160 deaths. yes, he talked about the county doherty county, the area where the highest numbers of cases are. that area has more cases of death of anywhere in the state but fewer resources to deal with them, andrea. >> and blayne alexander, when we talk about what's happening in georgia, this is, of course, what could be happening in other parts of the south and southwest and rest of the country as well. thank you very much for your reporting. up next -- a new test to see if the drug president trump is touting for the treatment of coronavirus can actually work.

♪ ♪ ♪ there will be parties and family gatherings. there will be parades and sporting events and concerts. to help our communities when they come back together, respond to the 2020 census now.

spend a few minutes online today to impact the next 10 years of healthcare, infrastructure and education. go to 2020census.gov and respond today to make america's tomorrow brighter. it's time to shape our future. as the number of people are dyeing from covid-19 in the u.s., now it's approaching 5,000 people, potentially groundbreaking clinical trials into whether an anti-malarial drug can prevent further spread by protecting people exposed to the virus from infection. it is now being used by some doctors, including some in michigan, say the benefits outweigh those risk u.s., whatever risks there may be. joining us is the doctor from johns hopkins school of public health. good to see you again. tell us about the new drug and groundbreaking study to see if

it can actually prevent future infection for those exposed. >> the important thing is it's an existing drug. so one thing people are looking to it's actually on the shelf and actually may work. it's important to figure that out. not a text to see if it works generally but when might it work the best? does it work early or middle of illness? if you try it too late, is it too late? and the result from these and other studies will be very important to figure out how treatment can improve. >> dr. sharfstein, you've also been talking about how testing is the first step but you need a first step of isolation, quarantine going forward to make this work. >> yes. people are very focused on how many tests there are. what actually controls an infectious disease like the coronavirus is stopping the transmission from one person to

another. so once somebody is found have the coronavirus, it's really important they're isolated, they can stay by themselves. that we're able to find their contacts and tell them to quarantine themselves. that's been the key in countries like singapore and south korea. it's not just they're doing more tests but following them up very aggressively. and that's the capacity in this country we really need to build quickly. >> dr. sharfstein, thank you very much for touching base with us today. coming up next -- 10 million americans out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic. calls for another round of stimulus are getting louder but senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said that idea is a no-go. we will talk to speaker of the house nancy pelosi, what she thinks about that, when she joins us next. live right here on "andrea mitchell reports." proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis...

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after blaming the impeachment for diverting

congress's attention from the threat of covid-19, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says that speaker nancy pelosi should stand down on the next phase of a relief bill. now speaker pelosi today is announcing a new bipartisan select committee to oversee the federal response. joining me now is the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. welcome, madam speaker. thank you very much for being with us today. >> thank you. >> first, tell us about the new select committee you're announcing today. what do you see the purpose? is this the after-action report adam schiff was talking about, which would be similar to a 9/11 commission of nonelected, or is this the ongoing federal response that needs to be overseen, as you analyze it? >> well, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to be with you today, a day that has grown over 200,000 cases, over 6 million unemployment insurance applications. this is a very big assault on the livelihood and the lives of

the american people. and requires extraordinary action. and our first bill, the first two bills, we addressed the emergency of it all testing, testing, testing. not that it was all heated but nonetheless, that was advanced. in the third bill that was signed by the president last week, we talked about mitigation. certainly continuing our emergency emphasis but mitigation for the damage to the health and well being to the american people and to our economy. and next we want to move to recovery. and you mentioned the senate didn't seem to be ready for that but the american people have needs that maybe are not well known to the leader that are well known at every community across our country. so the reason i announced this committee, this house select committee to address the coronavirus crisis, so we can in the here and now address as we go forward with transparency and

accountability. others are suggesting after-action review unthat's for after action and there are plenty of reasons why we need lessons learned, as dr. fauci referenced them the other day. lessons learned and perhaps new therapies, if we have another round of this, god willing we don't, but if we do. there's an after-action so we're prepared for the future. this is about the here and now. it's modeled after a select committee proposed by then senator truman in 1941. he proposed a committee, a select committee to address the defense spending at the time. he basically said, after world war i, there were 116 committees after the fact investigating the cost and all of the rest in world war i. and contracting in world war i. he said i think it's better rather than have 116 after the fact to have one now that

watches how we go forward. and he was right. it only cost under $1 million to save $15 billion in many lives. he said that's what it was intended to do and it did just that. so we think it would be very important, with transparency, bipartisan, accountability, that we proceed all together in a way that unifies our country, addresses the concerns that we have about the health and well being of the american people, the safety of our workers who are meeting their needs as well as the impact on our economy. i'm very excited about it. as a good model from the truman era during world war ii, fit to watch out for the contracting u.s. then. i think it's something that should be welcomed by the republicans and the administration as we deal with elements in our economy as we go

forward. >> how do you feel about the signing statement that the president signed after your last giant package indicating he would not even appoint the inspector general to oversee the $500 billion that has been approved? >> i thought it was completely inappropriate. but,ing again, rather than dwelling on some of the thing the president does, we want to take action for transparency and accountability. the american people are very concerned about three things right now, at least three things right now. one, how are we protecting our first responders, our health care providers who are risking their lives to save other people's lives? they need their personal protective equipment. they need ventilators to help save lives. so we're calling upon the president to do the defense production act full throttle so that these needs are being met. and none of us are worthy to pay respect to these workers unless

we're doing everything in our power to protect them. we call them our heroes, we pray for them, we thank them but we can do that all better by giving them the equipment that they need. mr. president, the president should do the defense production act to meet those needs. secondly, they're concerned about their own well-being, and we want to be sure the provisions in the c.a.r.e.s. act which we're proud of, as i've said before, from their corporate america down bill -- trickle down to ours which was american workers bubble up, putting america's workers and families first. so this bill needs to be enforced. people want to know how soon can they get their small business back. how soon can they get their unemployment insurance. in addition to that, they have very serious conditions about big money going to big industries in our country without the conditions to be met that that money will be used to benefit the workers and not buybacks, bonuses, dividends, ceo pay and the rest.

we want to make sure the money goes where it's designed to go. again, when truman did this all those many 80 years ago almost, he visited the plants and all the rest to see how this contracting was done for the benefit of the american people, for the war effort and again in a way that was the most cost effective to save lives, as well as to save money. >> madam speaker, the president has not extended the enrollment period for obamacare. and that closed on march 31st. does that need to be extended so that the uninsured now who need it more than ever can be included? >> well, it's really so sad that the president would not extend the enrollment period. so many people are uninsured. some because in the republican tax scam that they put forth, they stripped the individual mandate from that. so some people thought, well, i don't have to sign up for health insurance. they're going to be free riders.

some just couldn't afford to do it. in any event, we should have an open enrollment to give people another chance to sign up in light of the coronavirus crisis that we have. but it's no surprise because this is a president who is in court right now to overturn the affordable care act. right now. he should withdraw that case that his support for that case because that will take away any pre-existing condition benefit. it will take away the -- all of the issues that relate to the cost as well as the access and affordability and accessibility to health care. if you have children who are under 26 or under, they're on your program. no longer being a woman is a pre-existing medical condition. there are essential benefits that are guaranteed. all of it necessary, never more so than right now in light of this virus. so instead of saying no to an open -- a new enrollment period,

he should be saying no to his case before the supreme court which is very, very harmful in normal times, and in these extraordinary times very destructive. >> do you think it's fair for mitch mcconnell to suggest that impeachment slowed down the federal response? >> that's sad. they can't handle their jobs, i guess, because what are they saying? we ignored it? it was self-evident. most people knew about it and certainly those of responsibility. so i say of that, either you can't handle your job, but don't blame impeachment on that. just blame it on the fact that you didn't want to face the reality. that denial and that delay cost lives. >> do you think that more needs to be done in the next package now that we've seen these appalling, historic unemployment numbers already just today? >> yes. yes indeed. and not only do i think so. you can just ask the democratic and republican governors.

democratic and republican mayors, hospitals across the country. we need more resources for our state and city governments, our municipalities. they are bearing a tremendous burden here, and they have their other responsibilities that did not go away. so i'm in conversation with them as to the extent of the need. let's take inventory. what do we need? and let's get that. and then in addition to that, more money, funding for hospitals which cannot take in other kinds of cases which usually funds their operations. now they need it not only for the coronavirus, covid-19 patients, but also just to sustain their operations in general. the list goes on. some of which the distinguished leader said he'd do in the next bill. for example, language that our -- which the president supported but mitch wouldn't do. he said we'll save it for the next bill. the next bill is here. there's a long list of things.

the osha ruling that would protect our workers in the workplace. family and medical leave more broadly interpreted to include your mom, if she never was sick, but is sick now, you could help her. that's not the way the bill is written but those we said, free testing. if you have free testing you shouldn't have to incur a cost because you had to go to the doctor to get tested. that's not free. issues that relate to the district of columbia, very, very cruelly discriminated against in the last bill. we need to address that. the list goes on and on. but the leverage that we have is that in a bipartisan way, across the country, governors and mayors are saying we need more resources. you see i'm very proud of my governor, governor gavin newsom in california. you see the work of governor cuomo just crying out for help. what is it that these people don't see or they don't know

that they're thinking? by the way, we did three bills in like three weeks. our first bill, the testing, testing, testing bill was march 4th. and the president signed, what was that, march 28th, the third bill. so in a little more than three weeks, we had three bills that passed the congress and were signed by the president. so to say it's -- we can't even do anything for a few weeks anyway because we're not here but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be getting ready and listening to the needs that are out there to save lives, to grow our economy. and that's why in this bill we want to include some infrastructure that directly relates to the coronavirus crisis. for example, clean water. clean water is a very important part of our infrastructure proposal. community health centers. funding for additional money for construction, rehabilitation, et cetera, of community health

centers. internet. broadband. look at how we're all dependent on our work, on our -- the education of our children, on telemedicine, on people just relating to each other while they're sheltered in place. relying on the internet, and we need to have the strong -- making sure that everyone in our country has that access. and rural america especially but in urban deserts and other underserved areas. and that takes some resources to do -- does anybody need to be explained as to why that would be related to the coronavirus? and then the grid that makes so much of that possible as part of that. and then, of course, mobility. you have to have mobility for every reason. essential workers to work. produce to market. product to market. all that the -- that is happening through the mail and all the rest, we need money for the postal service as well. that's not in our infrastructure

bill but it's in our list of other things we want to do in the bill. so we see this as part of recovery. emergency, mitigation, recovery. and recovery that directly helps us fight the coronavirus crisis. >> thank you, madam speaker. a long to-do list. >> excuse me? >> sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt. no, i'm sorry. >> i'm just saying, i don't know how much more the leader needs to know about the challenges facing our country. and that further delay just exacerbates the problem. we're just continuing to work. we hope we can work in a bipartisan way to do that. i always like the four corners, house and senate, democrats and republicans, bringing together their priorities, stipulating to the need, the resources that are available, and attracting a presidential signature. >> thank you very much, madam

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