republican senator john thune discusses the federal government's latest corus response.increasing number of americans fore critical care, r fear of entering hospitals. the c.e.o. of southwest airlines on the industry's plans to reopen travel. and, much more. >> woodruff: a closely divided supreme court considered two cases today. rte first was on the future of exceptions to a mandate in the affordable care t. the second, a challenge to a federal law banning robocalls. john yang walks us through the arguments on both side and the challenges that can come with ing them remotely. >> reporter: day three of socially distance supreme court arguments brought a big dispute over whether the trump administration may allow some employers to limit women's access to febirth control under the affordable care act. an order called little sisters of the poor is joining the administration to defendederal rules expanding the religious exemption. this exchange between justice ruth bader ginsburg speaking from a baltimore hospital room where she's being treated for a gallbladder condition an

other issues, we're joined by the second-highest ranking republic in the senate, majority whip john thunesouth dakota. senator thune, thank you very much for talking with us. there is so much on the plate of you and other membs of the senate, but i want to ask you if this aid for small businesses, so called paychec protection program, were to run out of money in coming days, would the congress be able act to do something about it? >> i think so, judy.th nk that there's broad support on both side,s republicd democrats, for that program. it's been very successful and, obviously, heavily subscribed to the tune of over, now, 65billion or more dollars. so our decision, i guess, now, will be whether, now, we can plus-up that account or whether perhaps we'll need to extd the time period fo those lons because we'll probably burn through the eight weeks pretty. fa if the economy isn't up and running, there will be hard questions about what to do next. right now, we're in the process of evaluating exactly how fast the money that's going out the door is being usd up an then trying to come to some co

john thune. and they will talk more about this bill in a moment. this is a very simple piece of legislation, it requires the kind of transparency expected from any federal program of the size. reregular public reporting on hw oland where trance and trent taxpayer dollars spent predict this is something my republican colleagues have always believed and so i hope that my republican colleagues will not object to this legislation. when ask unanimous consent in a few minutes after senators have spoken. i hope they want object to just because it comes from this side of the aisle . its good idea. and there's noer reason to objet to this idea and get this body focused on covid-19, not on extraneous matters between them seemed to be doing now. when covid-19 is the most important issue we face. we are doing quite literally nothing else in the senate today. there is no other business before his credit none whatsoever. so we are here to enforce connection, and the progress and enforced focus on covid-19 related legislation. i prefer to do this in a completely

john thune: an extraordinary crisis that required an extraordinary response. and it has been extraordinary. never in my lifetime are certainly my time in the center for that matter i would argue anybody else's time in the senate, have the united states senate done anything of that scale scope or consequence. and many of those programs that we authorized and funded, those four pieces of legislation which passed as recently as a couple of months ago, are the dollars are still being out there. they are in the pipeline right there going out to healthcare providers, hospitals, nursing homes, they're going out to small businesses. they going out to t workers, and employees, people who have been employed through the employment insurance program. there is a lot of dollars in the pipeline . a lot of resources that have been expended madame president by the united states senate . in the united states house and signed into law by the president. and so it seems logical that i would think, for us as stewards of the taxs dollars as representatives of the people of this coun

[ applause ] chair john thune and house conference chair, cathy mcmorris rodgers did they forget your john? i don't know [ laughter ] what's going on here john cornyn everybody, now, they didn't put his name up, but that's okay. that's the first time that's ever happened. >> seth: do you mean that's the first time that's never happened [ laughter ] you just said his name do you not remember? you looked right at him. [ laughter ] makes sense trump has the memory of a goldfish since he also has the mouth of one [ cheers and applause this is starting to feel like the last season of a long-running tv show where the writers decide to have the main character fall off a horse, and get amnesia. hi, i'm donald hi, donald i'm john who's donald [ laughter ] trump, of course, was there to crow about his state of the union address, and bask in the adoration of his fellow republicans. trump even suggested that after a slow first few months in office he's gone above, and beyond what he promised voters on the campaign trail. >> i was there four months, you know this paul, and they were saying he didn

here to discuss that senate majority whip senator john thune. i could see that being a real concern for business owners, big and small, because if they come back and something god forbid happens to an employee and they turn around and they sue, your business is over all after the strife and turmoil you have been through, but how would that grow? >> that's the real issue, brian. the businesses are fight to go stay afloat and if we come out of this and starting to recover and then they get hit with all of the frivolous lawsuits that end up bankrupt the company that runs counter to what we want seeing happening, creating the good paying jobs, i think the way that it would work if you're a company, small business, this is small businesses. i talked to businesses in south dakota who are concerned about this issue that's doing everything right. you're following the cdc guidelines, you're following your state health authority's guidelines and then all of a sudden somebody hits you with you a frivolous lawsuit and puts you out of business and that's wha