host: the house bill has passed and we know lamar alexander -- we know what lamar alexander thinks about it. what other senators in the senate should be -- should we be watching? guest: that's a great question but not when i have a great answer to. i am an expert on the economic issues, not the political issues, but i think we want to watch everyone and make sure they make the right decisions, make sure the bill gets through, and it is not the first thing we need to do -- it is the first thing we need to do but not the only thing. we need to make sure we get money in the hands of people who needed to have had these job losses and who have medical -- who need to have medical care and make sure we can continue to simulate the economy during this time. host: we would like to thank elise gould for bei "washington" continues. host: we are joined by elizabeth redden, a correspondent for inside higher ed, and we will talk about how coronavirus is affecting higher education. elizabeth, good morning. guest: good morning. host:

senate health and labor committee chair lamar alexander block the bill to coming to the floor. we will watch that next, several senators talk about the spread of the coronavirus. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to thank all of my colleagues who are coming down to speak about this today. mr. president families in my home state of washington are scared, frustrated, they are angry and so am i. new reporting makes it clear that even after researchers in seattle raised serious concerns about the possibility of community spread in washington state and tried to work with federal agency to conduct testing, the administration did not work with them to let the public know how serious the coronavirus was. you can be sure, i will get to the bottom of this and make sure u will never happen again. i am furious that instead ofid acting with urgency that they did nothing. instead of acting with transparency they kept quiet. instead of working to keep families safe, they wasted valuable time. now, in my state 24 people have died.tr over 1000 across the country are confirmed to beed infected

lamar alexander sasaid, this is alall well and good but we don't know how to pay for it.is very easy to pay for it. we just extend medicaid benefits to everybody that needs this. we expand medicare to cover everything to do with the cororonavirurus. and the federal government, yes, willll pay for it. to not opposed per se employers getting a payroll tax cut if that tax cut is then used to help cover the cost of covering paid sick leave. at the same time, the most important thing for people is to be able to get money in their pockets for that assurance and to recognize they have paid sick leave and full coverage for any kind of care that they need with the coronavirus. youan, professor pollin, as also mentioned, all of this is taking place in the context of a crisis in theic united states and the two are playing off one another from the thecrisis as well as coronavirus, which created the situation. the u.s. is on the cusp of an economic recession. could you talk about what the impact of that will be on the possible government responses to the coronavirus as we see more inf

of a bipartisan effort led by senator murray from washington in the senator from missouri and lamar alexander from tennessee what we have accomplished the last four years is increase spending at nih for medical research grants 30 million up a 39 billion it is a dramatic increase by real growth 5 percent over inflation for eight years. in fact some years even better with that standard we have a lot to show for r it when it comes to medical research to have the same goal in mind we didn't quite reach it but we've seen an increase at cdc i believe the coronavirus will open the eyes of america to be adequately properly funded for years to come so at the m outset thern focus is on those agencies of government that do the essential work of research and the prevention of the spread disease the nih and cdc need to occupy a special place when it comes to budgeting by the federal government. second we know there are practical questions we're not talking of the development of a test for those affected by the coronavirus. it is now starting to come forward it will be released in states over the next seve

carrier things on capitol hill we're just well a little sick leave our good buddy out of tennessee lamar alexander showed where his loyalties lie when it comes to the human crisis as he blocked an emergency bill that would have guaranteed all american workers 14 days of paid sick leave in the event of a public health emergency when asked why he blocked the bill alexander stated it's not a cure for the coronavirus to put a big new expensive federal mandate on employees who are struggling in the middle of this matter. yes because you know we can't have wal-mart mcdonald's and other corporate conglomerates spending their hard earned executive bonuses on things like you know paid sick leave during public health emergencies i mean what kind of animals are we out here. i tell you who we are we are the kind who want leaders to step up in times of human crisis and actually put people over profits now let's start watching the home. she wanted. on a city u. street. there so you would see prices joyce just state and see. rice graze suggests least systemic deception is the late show which is where some things

effort that was led by senator patty murray of washington, senator roy blunt of missouri, senator lamar alexander of tennessee. what we have accomplished in the last four years is to increase the spending at the national institute of health for medical research grants from $30 billion to $39 billion. it's a dramatic increase. we started off with the premise that we wanted to increase the n.i.h. budget by real growth, that's 5% over inflation each year. we held to that standard. in fact, some years even better. we've got a lot to show for it. there have been real breakthroughs when it comes to medical research. we want to continue down this line. when it came to the centers for disease control, i had the same goal in mind. and we didn't quite reach it. over the last four years we've seen a 14% increase at c.d.c. i believe that this coronavirus pandemic threat is going to open the eyes of america to the need to make sure the c.d.c. is adequately, properly funded for years to come. so at the outset, the focus of the mind is on those agencies of government which do the absolute essential work of rese

here is a portion of that hearing starting with the committee's chair senator lamar alexander. can watch the hearing in its entirety on c-span.org.

later, lamar alexander blocks the corona spires bill and requiring all employers to provide paid sick leave. :

here is a portion of that hearing starting with the committee's chair senator lamar alexander. you can watch the hearing in its entirety on c-span.org. >> the flu is a respiratory disease like coronavirus, correct? how do you know you have the flu as opposed to coronavirus? >> the definitive test would be a test for the flu or a test for the coronavirus. >> you need a test? >> there are overlapping systems -- symptoms. coronavirus is predominantly fever and a low respiratory infection as opposed to an upper respiratory infection starting off with and you might get a pulmonary involvement, which is flu. >> what is lower respiratory? as opposed to sneezing. when you have lung involvement, you can get that with flu, but usually it is upper respiratory. >> fever and a cough? >> fever and cough, it can be either of them. >> what should you do if you have fever and cough? >> it depends on the circumstance. if you are in the middle of flu season right now and you have fever and cough, you should see a physician, certainly if you are in a risk group. with an underlying condition, durin

host: the house bill has passed and we know lamar alexander -- we know what lamar alexander thinks aboutt. what other senators in the senate should be -- should we be watching? guest: that's a great question but not when i have a great answer to. i am an expert on the economic issues, not the political issues, but i think we want to watch everyone and make sure they make the right decisions, make sure the bill gets through, and it is not the first thing we need to do -- it is the first thing we need to do but not the only thing. we need to make sure we get money in the hands of people who needed to have had these job losses and who have medical -- who need to have medical care and make sure we can continue to simulate the economy during this time. host: we would like to thank elise gould for being here and taking us through paid sick leave. elise, thank you so much. guest: thank you for inviting me. host: coming up, elizabeth talks to us about how colleges and universities across the united states are responding to the coronavirus. coming up after that, we will take more calls. we will b

lamar alexander blocked the bill from coming to the floor. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to thank all of my colleagues coming down to speak about this today. families in my home state of washington are scared, they are frustrated, they are angry and so am i. new reporting makes it clear that even after researchers in seattle

your republican colleague senator lamar alexander says the united states in his words has a serious deficiency if testing for the virus. what needs to happen now, senator, to increase testing capacity all around the country? >> well, first, washington, one of the things that impressed me today was the difference between the speech we heard from president trump last night and the remarks we heard mid-day from former vice president biden on this topic. vice president biden was clear that if he were president, he would be posting results every single day, about how many tests have happened, what the results are, where they're available. and making sure that every american has access to a free test without co-pays, without expense, and the president even though he was reading his speech last night failed to speak directly and correctly to these issues. he announced a travel ban, blocking people coming here from europe. but he didn't make it clear how we were going to expand the quality and number of tests around the country. if the fda acts more quickly and state laboratories and university health

lamar alexander, he was shocked. let me it will you something, when susan collins is outraged and lamar alexander is shocked what's going on around here, that tells you something. you can discount what i'm saying here and many republican senators and democratic senators, but those two senators are viewed as some of the most bipartisan senators here. and when they're outraged and shocked, it tells you what's going on the low levels of partisanship we've achieved in the u.s. senate over the last couple of days. this obstruction will create a devastating impact on americans workers, families and small businesses, and they're pushing for things that have nothing to do with the public health and the economic crisis we're facing today. the issues they're pushing have nothing to do with overcoming this pandemic. and in the global pandemic, some have tossed aside bipartisanship to push for airline emissions standards. i was told there's no such thing as a house bill. that's false. here is nancy pelosi's house bill. she's par

joining him today is governor bill lee and senators lamar alexander and michelle blackburn. we will keep an eye on the president's visit throughout the hour. >> another fox news alert. president trump will be heading to the cdc headquarters in atlanta today after signing an $8.3 billion coronavirus emergency spending bill in washington this morning. the bill includes $3 billion for vaccine research. $2 billion to help state and local federal governments to respond. here is the president of. >> we have very low numbers compared to major countries throughout the world. our numbers are lower than just about anybody. in terms of death, i don't know what the con is today. is it 11? 11 people. in terms of cases, it's very few. if you look at other countries we are a tiny fraction because we are of strong at the borders. >> right now there are at least 149 cases in the u.s. and the death toll stands at 11. in washington state, the number of confirmed cases jump from 39 to 70 yesterday. about 2500 people remain quarantined on a cruise ship off san francisco after a passenger on the

that was confirmed yesterday by an aide to lamar alexander, the republican senator of the relevant committee who said, no such change was made. again, underscoring that americans need clear information from their president, and right now they're not getting it from president trump. >> sanjay, let's talk about the facts. because bad information is dangerous in its own right. based on -- you've been covering this closely, you've asked the president direct questions about this, based on what you know, has the president stood in the way of steps early on in the response to this crisis, to this outbreak, that made a difference, a negative difference early on? >> i think there has been sort of two paths. one path was, you know, we saw things like this quarantine of 195 americans that came out of wuhan. we haven't seen a quarantine in decades, since the smallpox in the '60s. we developed a test really quickly in this country and then that test, going out to start doing surveillance around the h. >> why? >> that's the question. was it -- was the criteria around the tests purposefully made too narrow

of course, lamar alexander and frank colon, and people that are going to deal with coronavirus, all of a sudden these expenses will be through the roof. stopping surprise billing, do you think that's what's going to happen? >> that would need to happen but there are so many problems we are seeing in situations like that, people have a really difficult time trying to get -- sign up for unemployment insurance. that's an important backstop. danny meyer, the restaurant tour here in new york shuttered his restaurants late last weekend laid off about 2,000 people yesterday so they could collect unemployment. but you are seeing problems at the state level of people getting through and signing up for those really critical businesses. and benefits. >> dana: we will have the benefit of learning more from you when i see you on "the five" in a couple of hours. fox news alert, ron desantis is giving an update on that state. >> you hit the vice president talking about the new way to test where you do mass volumes, that supposed to start on friday. if that does then we will use our labs here but we c

refuted not just by critics of this white house but also an aid to a republican, tennessee senator lamar alexander he said the fda under obama did propose regulating new lab tests but the never went through. >>> tonight a cnn global town hall event coronavirus, the fears, the facts. join a whole host of cnn folks including me tonight live 10:00 eastern only on cnn. >> i'll ternly look forward to seeing you on that. >>> cleanup has begun in tennessee. a long rebuild ahead for communities after devastating tornados. cnn is on the ground in nashville. e it takes to brew a cup, we'll tell you why green mountain coffee roasters nantucket blend is so smooth. let's go to one of the places the coffee comes from... honduras. this is mario. and his wife, sheyla. mario grows coffee that helps make nantucket blend taste phenomenal. so we support his recycling of nutrient rich water. to help make his soil rich. his coffee delicious. and his land stunningly beautiful. it's the second most stunning thing in his life. number one being sheyla. all, for a smoother tasting cup. green mountain coffee roasters. packed

lamar alexander republican from tennessee, what do we think corporations are? corporations employ millions of average americans. that is what a corporation does. melissa: right. >> but nonetheless the democrats seem insist extent a corporation is basically 50 guys in top hats and tuxes running america. i think the average person watching this can see this is simply not what is at stake right now. melissa: all right. just a pox on all your houses, i guess that is a bad analogy right now, republicans and democrats seem like they're not helping. >> i think they will start making some political distinctions after watching this fiasco in congress this week, melissa. not a good look for democrats. melissa: dan henninger, thank you so much. no. thank you. connell: let's go to some numbers we're putting together, trying on a daily basis. more than 372,000 cases worldwide coronavirus. 41,000 of those right here in the united states. then we get to testing. we look at u.s. public health labs testing more than 67,000 people as of yesterday. the white house is promising 27

an aide to republican senator lamar alexander tells cnn that the obama administration never made a change to rules regarding testing. now, it's times like this it is imperative that the president be explicit, specific, and accurate. one could use the word honest. kaitlan collins is "out front" live outside the white house. so, kaitlan, the president made that claim which isn't true and the white house is not even explaining what the president meant or why he said this tonight? >> reporter: no. we reached out to them multiple times looking into this trying to figure out what rule it is, what decision the president was talking about. when we went back to them and said there was no obama era decision about this, they have not given us a statement about why it is the president made this claim and of course he later relied on the vice president and the cdc commissioner to try to really back him up on what he was saying when reporters asked him for clarification. we are being told tonight there was no change like this made. during the obama administration, they did propose a rule that would giv

sometimes i look to people like susan collins and lamar alexander and moments like this. i think few americans -- few senators would claim that either lamar or susan are humaner partisan senators. they have got a pretty good temperature of the senate. they have got a pretty good sense of finding ways to make things work. when you hear senator susan collins down here outraged at what happened when senator schumer and speaker pelosi basically put the brakes on the discussions, we lost another day, maybe two, by demanding this bill include an ideological wish list. susan collins is outraged. lamar alexander, he was shocked. let me tell you something. when susan collins is outraged and lamar alexander is shocked about what's going on around here, that tells you something. you can discount what i am saying here, many republican and democrat senators, but those two senators are viewed as some of the most bipartisan senators here. and when they are outraged and shocked, that tells you what's going on in terms of the one of the low levels of partisanship that we have achieved here

each those like lamar alexander and ben sasse who said the evidence is overwhelming, yes, he did it, but it's not um peach bl. that's a ridiculous argument. for them to say not guilty, that was so painful to me that i was screaming at the television. it was beyond with -- beyond horrible. >> jill, we've focused a lot on the impeachment process, but there was a special prosecutor like you were part of the special prosecutor. what's your view of mueller, and did he fail or did he do his job? >> well, and that question is from a law school classmate of mine and friend of my former the husband's. [laughter] but my -- no, he's my friend now. my friend. >> you got hum in the divorce. [laughter] >> yes, they're my friends. and, actually, i think at least two or three of my law school classmates are here. are you here, guys? michael, naomi, lois? who's here from my law school class? stand up, i want to say hello. hello, lois. [applause] hi, hi. okay. so it's very exciting for me to see them. mueller, first of all, it's a shame that he was allowed to testify. first of all, each if he had been

president trump was here and with marsha blackburn and lamar alexander, our two senators and governore and mayor john cooper have been very busy and you know, john rich has had a-- all the proceeds from his nightclub or going to relief and billy graham's organization called samaritan's purse, is here in town. and cfmt which stands for community fund of middle tennessee, and the address is cfmt.org, they are accepting donations. and i want to say that my cabaret showroom here in nashville, thank goodness we weren't hit, but people around us were hit and we're having our opening for the 2020 season this coming thursday, the 12th of march and the proceeds from that night are going to go to cfmt.org. so come on out, folks and see the show and help nashville recover. >> charles: there's no doubt about it, 24 reported deaths so far, again, you're right the volunteer state living up to the moniker. what else can other people do if they're not in tennessee or the nashville area to so some support here, ray? >> well, like i said, cfmt.org is the place to send donations and it's real easy to do

>> you know when the first case happened in washington state way back in january, senator lamar alexander with the agencies pack here to say what are you doing? and it was, well, we're going to take care of it. we'll have tests when we have them. in a couple weeks. the test didn't really happen. now we are seeing the number of cases grow. well, we'll have a million. we'll have a million-and-a-half. never accurate. when you are in a place when are you sick or your family member is sick and you want to know if this is a coronavirus or how you should deal with it. you hear that, it's a million-and-a-half, i'll get one. that's not happening. so people are making decisions, whether it's about closing their business or their school or keeping their family home based on wrong members and that is creating lot of havoc. it's also creating an unsafe place for people. they need to get a handle on this. the message from washington, d.c. and the planning from washington, d.c. has to be what's happening on the ground and they're not needing that. >> what do you think the president should be doing at th

senate health and labor committee chair lamar alexander block the bill to coming to the floor. we will watch that next, several senators talk about the spread of the coronavirus. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to thank all of my colleagues who are coming down to speak about this today. mr. president families in my home state of washington are scared, frustrated, they are angry and so am i. new reporting makes it clear that even after researchers in seattle

deals with infectious disease telling the senate health committee in discussion with senator lamar alexanderf tennessee between the differences of the flu and coronavirus. >> how many americans who have to estimate have the flu this year? probably 30 plus million infections. in the united states. >> how many americans die every year from what we call the flu? to 20,000es from 15 to the high year we had in 2018 which is 70 plus thousand people. >> about 70,000 people. the flu is a respiratory disease like coronavirus, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> how do you know if you have the flu as opposed to coronavirus? >> the definitive test would be to get a test for the flu or a test for the coronavirus. >> so you would need a test. >> there are overlapping symptoms. the situation was coronavirus is aedominantly fever and respiratory infection as opposed to an upper respiratory infection starting off. you might get a preliminary involvement which is flu. >> what is a lower respiratory? >> your lungs as opposed to north road and sneezing -- snort -- torso and sneezing. when you have a long v

joining him today is governor bill lee and senators lamar alexander and michelle blackburn. eye on the president's visit throughout the hour. >> another fox news alert. president trump will be heading to the cdc headquarters in atlanta today after signing an $8.3 billion coronavirus emergency spending bill in washin

effort that was led by senator patty murray of washington, senator roy blunt of missouri, senator lamar alexander of tennessee. what we have accomplished in the last four years is to increase the spending at the national institute of health for medical research grants from $30 billion to $39 billion. it's a dramatic increase. we started off with the premise that we wanted to increase the n.i.h. budget by real growth, that's 5% over inflation each year. we held to that standard. in fact, some years even better. we've got a lot to show for it. there have been real breakthroughs when it comes to medical research. we want to continue down this line. when it came to the centers for disease control, i had the same goal in mind. and we didn't quite reach it. over the last four years we've seen a 14% increase at c.d.c. i believe that this coronavirus pandemic threat is going to open the eyes of america to the need to make sure the c.d.c. is adequately, properly funded for years to come. so at the outset, the focus of the mind is on those agencies of government which do the absolute essential work of rese