senator bill cassidy was also a doctor joins us next. >> nobody wants to send somebody to school that is unsafe. that's why congress should look at this. how can we protect when it comes to child care, the children in school, and the teacher. ♪ ♪ the open road is open again. and wherever you're headed, choice hotels is there. book direct at choicehotels.com. ♪

coming up, were going to talk to senator bill cassidy.ut the fight against the coronavirus in his state of louisiana. that is coming up on "balance of power." ♪ david: this is "balance of power." i'm david westin. fighting against coronavirus. it had made some progress, it seems to be like -- backsliding. now we turn to the senator from louisiana, though cassidy, who is also a physician and taught edison as well. -- taught medicine as well. give us a sense of where things are. your governor said he white out three weeks of progress because it has spiked in louisiana. sen. cassidy: blame it on college students in bars. [laughter] imagine that. college kids go to bars, they don't wear a mask and they crowd in. there has been a couple of super spreader events which seem to be related to social events. so far, the icu occupancy has been flat. the death rate has been flat. .ut the cases are going up so, again, young people being that. the problem is young people give it to older people, so we have to be concerned that there will be a lag with

let's ask republican senator from louisiana bill cassidy. senator, good to see you.hank you for being here. you know black lives do matter, senator and they are being lost in greater numbers in areas where police are being eliminated or being pulled back. isn't there a connection? when will people wake up to that connection? >> david the the "chop zone" should be the connection. two boys killed in a free police zone. this is ironic headline, i don't think they thought it was ironic in "the new york times," i think it was, streets have become safer, despite this police budgets grown. they didn't think maybe the streets are safer because we've given the police more support. i speak to my folks in new orleans. they say police reform costs money. police in new orleans, they have got aways to go but they have come a long way. it costs money for body cams, taser cams, cost money for information systems allow police be, if you will be police. if folks hate police don't understand that i don't understand what can prove it. we need to support police as they reform and preserv

bill cassidy of louisiana. it is great to have you back on, senator. the numbers in these 23 states, up 18% cases in long-term care facilities. nearly 20% rise because of nursing homes. what do you say? >> i say nursing home patients are particularly vulnerable. you're going to see those patients, if they get infected they will have symptoms. hats off to the trump administration. they're putting out rapid tests so whoever comes to visit or work in a nursing home can be checked and 15 minutes later have the response. and so they're going to effectively set up a moat, a fence around a nursing home. you only go in only if you're negative. they're responding quite well to a terrible situation. elizabeth: your take on what governor cuomo said? >> my take on what he says? that's a total pass the blame. no medical expert told him to put those folks back in nursing homes. that is not what medical science says. you have a hot spot of infection, with very vulnerable people, you don't put the vulnerable people in the hot spot. that is his decision. clearly he is

bill cassidy, senator good to see you. black lives do matter senator . and they are being lost in greater numbers in areas where police are being eliminated are being pulled back. isn't there a connection and when will people wake up to that connection. bill: the top zone should be the connection. two teenage boys are killed in a police free zone. winning public safety. i saw an ironic headline. but i don't think they thought of ironic in the new york times. the streets have become safer despite the police budgets have grown. they did not think, made the streets are safer because we have given the police more support. i speak to my folks in new orleans. they say police reform cost money. they have got a ways to go but they have god come a long ways pretty cost money for taser cams and body cam spring it costs money for the information system that allow the police to be if you will, police. if the folks who hate the police, don't understand that, i don't know what else can prevent . we need to support the police as they reform. and as they preserve public

readily transmit to their parents and family members that's going to be very important senator bill cassidy wants universal guidelines from the cdc on how schools should conduct testing if you have this kind of community this is what you do we are now looking at the granular level the experts told senators treatments and vaccines will also give americans more confidence to return to the classroom, they still predict multiple treatments by the fall with a vaccine in the spring. >>senator doug jones as the country's testings are admiral brett joie how he plans to distribute vaccines to the most vulnerable communities that seems to be where. >>so much is happening right now in the rural south. these are the people assuming the science works out that we want to get vaccinated first senators leaving the experts with more homework just weeks before classes began. >>in washington, i'm jessi to nor. >>the city and county of san francisco will likely be added to the states watch list because of the sharp increase in hospitalizations kron four's maureen kelly was at a news briefing by the city's heal

readily transmit to their parents and family members that's going to be very important senator bill cassidy wants universal guidelines from the cdc on how schools should conduct testing if you have this kind of community this is what you do we are now looking at the granular level the experts told senators treatments and vaccines will also give americans more confidence to return to the classroom, they still predict multiple treatments by the fall with a vaccine in the spring. >>senator doug jones as the country's testings are admiral brett joie how he plans to distribute vaccines to the most vulnerable communities that seems to be where. >>so much is happening right now in the rural south. these are the people assuming the science works out that we want to get vaccinated first senators leaving the experts with more homework just weeks before classes begin. >>in washington, i'm jessi turnure. 16 states are either pas in or rolling back their reopening plans after a surge in coronavirus cases. >>and in many places there's a big spike in the number of daily deaths darryl forges reports. >>cov

. >> reporter: a person in the room for the republican lunch yesterday said louisiana senator bill cassidy rhetorically asked if he was on acid when he heard that the white house was against more funding for testing in the middle of a pandemic. now, jake, there is also growing republican pushback to this white house idea of tieing federal funding to the re-opening of schools. with several republicans telling cnn today that is just not an idea that they think they are going to get behind. so that makes three pretty big issues where the white house and republicans are still not on the same page about what they want to see in this next bill. >> all right, kaitlan collins at the white house for us, thank you so much. >>> just moments ago, president trump announced he's sending more federal agents to at least one american city. he has threatened to do the same in seattle. the mayor of seattle will join me next to react. that's live and it's next. not even our competitor's best battery can match the power of energizer. because energizer ultimate lithium is the longest lasting aa battery in the w

republican senator bill cassidy of louisiana who is also a physician was asked my manu raju if he is satisfied with the level of testing in this country. his response is, quote, i don't think anybody's satisfied with it. and dr. anthony fauci who was, again, also not at the briefing is also not impressed. >> certainly we are not winning the game right now. we are not leading it. >> kaitlan collins is outfront for us live outside the white house. kaitlan, you asked the president an important question, why no doctors and medical experts were there again tonight. what did he say? >> reporter: it wasn't something he fully explained yesterday. he only said dr. birx was, quote, right outside. the question is what's the thinking now and why has that changed? before the briefings before he scrapped them in april he was appearing with the experts. the president defended the decision to appear solo. he said he is briefed by them. he cited dr. fauci and said he just had a conversation with him recently and a conversation with dr. birx and he said basically they're briefing him and he's briefing

senator bill cassidy is also a medical doctor and he joins us now. senator, good morning to you. hear, we would like to ask you a few questions about how we can get people back to work and back to school safely but first we have to stop the spread of this disease now seeing a spike in cases in some areas of the country. how do we do this? >> it was a good group out of harvard, and a good group out of louisiana, how do we do that? if you start off with this is the red zone, this is where new york was and where new orleans was, got to suppress it. we got the orange on the yellow, and finally the green. you have one case out of a hundred thousand. you have a different strategy for each but you need to have a granular strategy. if your prevalence is this much, do this. if it's that, then do that. if you could get down to zero and new zealand and iceland, think about it, zero cases. we've got to zero. we need that kind of strategy here in the united states. >> trace: you know, it's trace gallagher here. it sounds like you are not happy or satisfied with the answers you got about getti

. >> when asked by manu raju if he's satisfied with the testing situation, republican senator bill cassidy a doctor said quote, i don't think anybody is satisfied with it. except perhaps the man who can get tested whenever he wants along with all the people around him. early on in the briefing, the president under scored how deadly this pandemic has been to american seniors in nursing homes and that much is true and it's a trog agedy but we said something remarkable in light of what he had just said seconds before. >> from the beginning, we have made it our top priority to shelter our seniors. in early march, we announced guidelines suspending all medically unnecessary visits to nursing homes and prioritized resources for those facilities. and we gave it a very strong priority. >> mr. president with all due respect to the office, and ac acknowledging there is blame to go around, if protecting seniors was a priority from the beginning, why have so many seniors died? why can't people get tested? if you're so adamant about sending kids back to school, why isn't there a plan to do it safely an

bill cassidy, republican senator from louisiana, he was saying after the last jobs report, maybe we don't have to look at another round of direct payments if the jobs report is good. if this negotiation bleeds into august which is very possible, they get a bad jobs report, you can see republicans might run to the door, hey, we have to have the extra unemployment insurance in there. keep in mind these vulnerable republican senators from the swing states, joni ernst from iowa, susan collins from maine, thom tillis of north carolina, they will be looking at this very closely to see how this impacts their re-election chances later this fall. connell: that is how it always plays especially a year like this. great stuff as always. he is all over it. chad pergram on capitol hill. melissa. melissa: promising results on a vaccine. executive of pharmaceutical firms updating members of congress today on their progress towards finding an effective truck for covid-19. edward lawrence is in washington with the details. edward? reporter: melissa, the market or at least the dow is up on the positive news

louisiana senator bill cassidy is a republican on the house education labor and finance committee.l doctor and if i could start there because i know one of the big contentions is whether or not kids are going back to school as a parent of three myself, very concerned about this. on one hand, you have this new research coming out of south korea that says children younger than ten transmit to others much less often than adults, but those between the ages of ten and 19 seem to spread the virus at least as well as adults do. on the other hand, when you don't send kids to school, they risk food insecurity. a lot of kids get their meals at school, and there's a huge disparity in the damage that is being done to kids. we are actively expanding the divide between rich and poor in the sense that in some districts, 20 to 50% aren't logging into remote learning and those are along economic lines. what is the best for their health for your opinion? >> you nailed the essence of the argument. it's not because they have an increased risk of complications is because they don't want to spread it to

mca, neil cavuto on the market rallying senator bill cassidy from louisiana and more and charlie hurtto detate we'll begin a brand new america's news room top of the hour. a performe. -always have been. -and always will be. never letting anything get in my way. not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis. new voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. and it can help you too. feel the joy of movement with voltaren. ainsley: more than three decades since clint black made his country music debut and now he's releasing his 12th studio album called out of sane, with a patriotic lead single, and this weekend he's teaming up with uso to support our troops as the organization marks the tenth anniversary of their t-shirt campaign and he joins us now with more. welcome, clint black. >> good morning, ainsley. how are you? ainsley: i've been listening to your music forever i can't believe i'm interviewing you that's amazing. my best friend had a huge poster the size of a full body of you. okay anyway, uso kicking off the tenth annu

bill sitting in the senate, waiting. the smart act is $5 billion led by bob menendez and cassidy in the senate. i helped to lead with others, tom reed. it's got to get done. >> you and tom reed, you and tom are two key members of the problems solvers caucus. if there was ever a time to come together, it would be now. do you have any real faith that you and your colleagues are going to get something passed before the august recess? >> yes. i'll be more optimistic about this one. i think that july 31st deadline is looming over. you see what's going on. this is no longer a problem where the senators in other states can say that's just a jersey, new york, california problem. it's not our problem. you see what's happening in red parts of the country, which is

cassidy. >> the bipartisan bill provides the statfor state and local relt me ask do you agree it is related to the pandemic we have been working seven days a week since march and i am aware being shut down has an impact. >> seminar menendez will follow up. >> regarding the conservation they've been revitalized and i know there's been a review of conservation needs a -- historic preservation caught up which is a fraction it doesn't seem like it's drawn the distinction between the property in the land conservation with respect to issues like that that is where the effort is and will continue to be. with a little bit of a catch-22 you don't do well if you do put it so that is a concern but there's also an issue i'm trying to follow up with one computer right now so i apologize for the delay. could you give your insight on the attack credit we are contemplating other legislation and the safety space and we would love your thoughts on this. >> we are doing our best to administer these provisions for the businesses in this end individuals. we are doing our best. >> how's the program gone a while?

. >>> today, lawmakers are introducing the bill to create a california state bank geared towards expanding the cassidy of the state to direct billions of dollars in economic relief to local governments and small businesses hit hard by the pandemic. this is one of the authors. >>> another 1.3 million americans filed for unemployment during this week. jason brooks, good morning. >> good morning, the numbers continue to be staggeringly a week. unemployment claims in the millions. the one good piece of news and this is the trend has continued to move lower since peaking in april and initial claims were down about 100 thousand from the prior week. people are registering 18 million and went all state and federal assistance programs are added together on top of that, the number of claims rose to 32.9 million at the end of june 20th. other groups include continuing claims as we have seen a number of americans hired back in may and june as the economy was reopening. the stock markets are off to a mixed start. apple an amazon each client to record highs. the dow dropped about 115 points and the nasdaq continued

a bill introduced on july 2 by senators cain and cassidy would cost somewhat less because it would also eliminate the small increase for beneficiaries working in 2020 but will not be eligible for social security until after 2022. i should mention as chairman larsson did that his bill includes a number of additional provisions that would provide help to people in the year 2020. because the implications -- the implications of the covid-19 pandemic were not reflected in the 2020 report released in april, we have developed a simple illustrative scenario to analyze the potential effects of the current recession, this is only one of a wide range of possible paths forward to work between now and april with the trustees and their staffs to fully address the effects of the pandemic recession in the 2021 trustees report and as mentioned by everybody who has spoken so far, as yet we know not nearly enough and we are quite uncertain. so thank you again for the opportunity to talk to you today. i look forward to attempting to answer any questions that you may have. thank you very much. >> thank you

cassidy, and good afternoon, gentlemen. great to see all three of you. >> hi, thanks a lot, great to be with you. >> bill: i am interested indoing an old-school space reentry. you used parachutes to -- a water landing hasn't happened since 1975. bob behnken, how are you getting ready? >> right now what we are doing is wrapping up our mission on board the international space station and we have turned into long-duration crewmembers here in about three weeks we will get a good solid review of the procedures we need to be familiar with prior to entry. just to cover those things you discussed, make sure that we understand how the sequence of events would be, we slow down and reenter the earths atmosphere. we can monitor the performance to make sure it's doing well. same thing on the parachute side should we need to intervene and put the parachutes out manually, we have to understand exactly when the right time to do it is. i think right now the biggest focus is taking care of ourselves so that we are ready, like any astronauts coming home, to be in the best physical condition that we can be in. splash down like he referred to a

cassidy: thank you for being on. a couple of things off the back. senator menendez will ask you a couple more questions. to say our bipartisan bill attempts to revise the state and local relief. let me ask you to set the stage for that. with -- related to the pandemic because revenues could fall off the cliff, not mismanagement by that local city? haveettig: i personally not analyzed that. we have worked seven days a week, 12, 15 hours a week since march. i am aware with the private sector and the government sector being shut down that there has been a big impact. sen. cassidy:. conservation, the neighborhoods in downtown new orleans, like baton rouge, which has been revitalized, i know there has been a review of conservation and it seems that the historic preservation got caught up in that, which are a fraction of the conservation. it doesn't seem like the irs evaluation of conservation has drawn a distinction between historic property and the land conservation. with the irs be willing to create a safe harbor for those -- the preservationists who wish to use the program, which is the way congress intended. with respect to policy

the finance committee's bill, the prescription drug pricing reduction act, which i'm proud to cosponsor, would make crucial improvements. as senator cassidy just ably explained, one of the most important improvements is to medicare part d. it would protect our seniors with an out-of-pocket spending limit. it would also include cost control measures such as an inflationary cap to limit price hikes. now, mr. president, we have made some progress in this area. i brought up legislation that's making a difference for patients. one of the laws that i authored bans gag clauses that had prohibited pharmacists from informing their customers if there were a less expensive way to purchase their prescription drug. and amazingly enough, sometimes it's cheaper to pay out of pocket than to use your insurance card. not something that most consumers would ever realize unless the pharmacist informed him or her. my bill also updates a 2003 law requiring drug manufacturers to notify the federal trade commission of patent settlement agreements, giving the agency greater visibility into whether they include tactics such as anticompetitive reverse payments that

heinrich, cassidy, wyden, barrasso, hirono, risch and sanders who sent a letter expressing opposition to these provisions. in a letter that stated if these provisions would have remained in the bill, they would have, quote, impeded the accountability of congressional oversight as well as imperil the future funding of other critical d.o.d. d.o.d. responsibilities, promoting since and technology work that's done at our national laboratories. so basically it went on to say and ensuring cleanup of our nation's nuclear weapons complex, end quote, of that letter. so i want to make sure -- i ask unanimous consent that that letter -- the cantwell letter and the letter -- cantwell-alexander, be entered into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: and i especially ask that the members of this year's ndaa conference committee -- i am assuming that will be one -- that they consider these issues as they go to conference. this is not just a bureaucratic budget dispute or some interagency accounting measure. this is, i believe, a very important issue, as it relates to civilian oversight of our nuclear weapons complex and as written in the original bill would have req