mr. president, i yield the mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: in a moment democrats will ask the senate's consent to take up and pass several measures that would immediately help american workers and american families cope with the impacts of the coronavirus, including paid sick leave for workers, emergency unemployment insurance, and much-needed assistance to states overburdened by medicaid costs. these provisions are all included in legislation that will soon be passed by the house. many of these policies have already been enacted by other countries dealing more successfully with the coronavirus than our country is. these policies are targeted directly at the workers and families impacted by its spread. they are not going to the big, wealthy corporations or powerful people or wealthy people. they are going right at the workers and families, average working people who need the help. now, the republican leader this morning called these provisions, quote, an ideological wish list. president trump referred to them as goodies. if helpin

mr. president. >> mr. president? >> senator from a house. >> i watched a close them from afar centered alexander in senator murray often working together on issues like this and i absolutely centered alexander saying it's a good idea. i think it'ss what senator murry just said, that it's costing businesses all kinds of come all kinds of costs impose on businesses and result of people come to work sick. it's also more expensive public hospitals, more expense with more people getting sick and medicaid. these costs are impossible to quantify today, of our not having a sickly policy. a year from now we can look back at what the cost for the worker they will be overwhelming, and is holy, cohesive, coherent sickly policy of something modestly senator murray is calling for could really make a difference. >> mr. president, i ask unanimous consentr calendar number 439 s.j. res 56 be indefinitely postponed. >> without objection. >> mr. president, over the last weeks the world has watched closely as coronavirus has spread from

mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: i ask the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, each of us receives a report almost on an hourly basis from our home states and at the end of the day, my state of illinois sends a report on the latest situation involving this covid-19 virus. 163 new infections were announced yesterday. that's the biggest one-day jump that we've had and one additional death. governor pritzker has issued a stay at home order for the state of illinois today beginning saturday, today, at 5:00 p.m. until april 7. the city of chicago is closing its parks and libraries as well starting today. the veterans administration has reported one confirmed veterans case with the virus in the chicago area. that person is now under home quarantine. we had an exceptional situation at midway airport where two faa tower employees tested positive for the virus several days ago. we of course have to have an abundance of care and caution

mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant minority leader. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspend thed. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: i want to clarify a statement i made he willier. i stayed that because of a problem at the control tower, southwest airlines had suspended their flights. it turns out that they have substantially curtailed their the flights but have not suspended all their flights. the earlier press report has been amended by the papers. and i wanted to make my statement on the floor clear. quorum -- that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. president. thank you for presiding today and to all who are here at this moment of extreme challenge for our country and for the world, and we must rise to the occasion and unite to fight a common enemy, covid-19, also known as the coronavirus, and what we're witnessing, mr. president, is americans from all backgrounds and

mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: the eyes of the nation are on the senate. for days now we've been engaged in intense, bipartisan talks to build emergency relief legislation on an historic scale to push resources to our health care heroes and american workers and families. democrats and republicans sat down together. we crafted this version of the proposal together. this compromise package would push tens of billions of dollars to hospitals and health care providers. it would send direct checks to millions of american households, direct checks. it would massively expand unemployment insurance in this crisis. it would stabilize industries to prevent mass layoffs and, crucially, it would deliver historic relief to small businesses to help main street employees from being totally crushed -- crushed -- by this pandemic. but yesterday when the time came to vote on these urgent measures, our democratic colleagues chose to block it. so why are the american people s

mr. president, with respect -- mr. trump: if you go back -- please -- if you go back to the swine flu, it was nothing like this. they didn't do testing like this, and they lost approximately 14,000 people, and they didn't do the testing. they started thinking about testing when it was too late. what we have done and one of the reasons people are respecting what we have done, we have gotten it very early. we have kept a lot of people out. >> mr. president the last , administration said they tested one million people at this point. mr. trump: ask them how they did with the swine flu. it was a disaster. next, please. next, please. they had a very big failure with swine flu. very big failure. >> i want to ask you about the european travel ban and the exemption you have offered to the u.k. there are 17 countries that are in the so-called schengen zone that have fewer coronavirus cases than in the u.k. in the past 24 hours the u.k. has added 28 coronaviruses to their total. why do they, mr. president deserve an exemption and

diagnostics this thank you thank you very much thank you mr president so as mentioned we recalled the leadership of the vice president last week to come together as an industry and we took advantage of that opportunity work with the f.d.a. to work with the center for disease control and we are up and running with the test in a number of our facilities as the president mentioned we now have capabilities and roche diagnostics that we will bring into our facilities this weekend and i know myself and us my colleague will be doing the same so the capacity available to american public to support this action with consumers will be considerably increased the next few weeks thank you mr president next year we should. and matt sauce please have rush. thank you ma'am. thank you mr president. so from roche we want to thank the f.d.a. for their rapid approval of our coronavirus tast. we really appreciate the partnership with the c.d.c. and the f.d.a. to get that to market as fast as possible because it's critical for us to make that available to help patients in need and working with laboratories

mr. president. the white house coronavirus task force met this morning, and now that we have cases in all 50 states, we're continuing to move out on the president's call to bring the full resources of the federal government, the full partnership with every state and territory, the full power of the american economy, to support businesses and families. as the president says to us and every day, we'll do what it takes, we're all in this together. yesterday, the president met with the tourism industry executives and also had an engaging discussion with all the top companies in our industrial and medical supply chain. now, the president, as you all are aware, also announced today that by mutual consent, the northern border to canada will be closed to non-essential travel. this does not include essential travel or the transit of goods, but it was through mutual discussion that took place this morning between the president and prime minister trudeau and the department of homeland security will be effectuat

mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i withdraw amendment number 1419. the presiding officer: the senator has that right. the amendment is withdrawn. the senator for alaska. ms. murkowski: i modify the amendment amendment number 1407 with the chaplains at the desk. this modification includes, among other things, acceptance of amendment number 1419 offered by the senator from kentucky, mr. mcconnell, for the senator from iowa, ms. ernst. the presiding officer: the senator has that right. the amendment is so modified. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the deck for the substitute amendment number 1407, as modified. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on amendment number 1407 as modified. to calendar number 357, s. 2657, a bill to support innovation in advanced geothermal research. mr. mcconnell: i as

mr. president. we appreciate the leadership and collaboration and coordination and certainly the industry wants to do everything that we can to keep americans safe and certainly our employees and our customers. we stepped up our efforts to make sure your planes are clean and disinfected. and we worked very closely with the c.d.c. and the c.d.c. and i think that's gone very, very well. we have the proper protocols in place whenever there is a suspected illness. i think all that's working very well. i think everybody's doing a great job and all we can. president trump: we appreciate that. thank you very much. >> we appreciate the efforts, mr. president. i think like all of the folks around the table the focus of the leadership teams is the safety of our employees and customers. i think all of us have made a lot of changes to our cleaning procedures, changes to our onboard procedures, gloves,ance tation, the service our flight attendants are providing and trying to do what we can to help everyone contai

mr. president. again, we appreciate the leadership, i appreciate the collaboration and coordination and certainly the industry wants to do everything that we can to keep americans safe and certainly our employees and our customers. we've stepped up our efforts to make sure the airplanes are clean and disinfected, and we work very closely with the cdc, that's gone very, very well, so we've got the proper protocols in place when people have suspended illness. everybody is doing all they can. >> we appreciate the job you're doing, thank you very much. >> brad tillman of alaska airlines. we appreciate the efforts, mr. president. i think like all the folks around the table, the focus of the airline leadership team is the safety of our employees and the safety of our customers. all of us have made a lot of changes to our cleaning procedures, changes to our onboard procedures to gloves, sanitation, the service that our flight attendants provide our customers. we're trying to do everything we can to help ev

mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: mr. president, i see that the senator from maryland is on the floor, and i think he arrived a minute or two before me, so if he'd like to go first, i would want to give him that opportunity. mr. van hollen: i'm grateful. thank you, senator from maine. but i'm happy to have you go first. ms. collins: thank you. mr. president, all across the country americans are stepping up in response to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping our nation. doctors and nurses are working endless hours and putting themselves at risk to care for the surge in patients. manufacturers, including many companies in my state, are working overtime and retooling their product lines to produce medical testing swabs, ventilators, and personal protective equipment. all of which are vitally needed. truckers are going above and beyond, missing time with their families so that they can d

mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. rounds: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. rounds: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session for the consideration of executive calendar 632, that the nomination be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rounds: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following nominations, executive calendar 238, 451, 453, 571, and 630. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the nominations en bloc. mr. rounds: mr. president, i ask consent that the senate vote on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate, that if confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table en bloc, the president be immediately notified of the

mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator for west virginia. mr. manchin: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is. mr. manchin: wish to vitiate the quorum call. i will -- i am doing so because i believe he is well qualified for the job. he has been the commission's general counsel for the past two and a half years. he understands the complex legal issues that come before the commission. i voted to report mr. danly's nomination both last november and last week on the strength of his qualifications, not on politics. i urge my colleagues to do the same. but the position to which mr. danly has been nominated is one of five seats on the federal energy regulatory commission. by law, no more than two of the five seats can be held by one party. only three of the seats are now filled. two by republicans and one by a democrat. the other democratic seat has been vacant since last august. traditionally when both a republican seat and democrat seat has been vacant, the president -- past presidents have sent nominations to fill both at the same time

mr. president -- >> mr. president, on behalf of the foreign pool, sir, you mentioned italy. >> just to finish -- >> sure. >> so, what both were saying and what dr. fauci just brought up -- we don't want to do well and then end a little bit early and have it start going up again, because that would be a disaster. go ahead, please. >> you mentioned italy. italy is a close ally of the united states. >> yes. >> they are facing catastrophic times. >> yes. >> they have been receiving help from countries like russia, china, even cuba. cuban doctors have been sent to italy. is the united states stepping in to help -- >> yes, we are. >> -- with those in italy? >> i met last night with our people. we're sending them a lot of different things that we're not needing because we're obviously in a need of a lot also, and we're also helping them monetarily. we are helping italy a lot. we're working very closely with italy and we're working closely with spain, too, which is really hit hard. and we're working -- we're working

mr. president. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware is recognized. mr. coons: mr. president, i rise to speak briefly about hard decisions. there are hard decisions that have been made all over our country. in recent days and weeks, decisions by superintendents of school districts whether to shut down their schools and send their children home. hard decisions made by mayors about how to provide for first responders, for those who run the paramedic and ambulance and police services, the 911 centers, and the public hospitals. decisions by governors about where and when and whether to declare states of emergency. and we have seen decisions made by faith leaders, by sports leaders, by school leaders, leaders of all types at all levels. but the most important decisions that are being made tonight are around america's kitchen table, where folks are looking at each other and saying how much longer will i have a job? how much longer will we be able to put food on the table? how will we care for ou

mr. president, thank you for having us. we were delighted when you made the vice president the head of the task force. we believe in collaboration. we want to try to solve these problems both short and long term. we have been sharing ideas with the vice president's staff and your staff. we think there are better ways to trace the passengers coming in. we have contracted to having a mobile app and website developed that everyone would have to fill out that would go directly to c.d.c. with that information. we are moving forward with that. so there's been good progress. i think what we all need is the reassurance that you and the vice president and others have been providing, that travel is safe and that we can go forward. because right now, the fear is almost worse than the virus. pres. trump: you are doing a good job. these professionals are amazing. they have really stepped up. like the airlines have stepped up. very much so. thank you. >> jetblue, thank you very much for having us. a lot has been said, we are doing -- taki

thank you, mr president. rto come up. thank you, mr president. similar to doug come up. thank you, mr president. similarto doug in come up. thank you, mr president. similar to doug in walmart, we at walgreens are happy to help communities across america, because a lot of the times we, when we have national disasters, we act quickly, and this is no difference. we look forward to working with everyone, and specifically with the vice president doing a fantasticjob, we are ready to engage and help. brian cornell, target. thank you, brian. well, thank you for inviting us here today, along with our colleagues from walmart and walgreens and our partners at cbs. normally, you view us as partners at cbs. normally, you view us as competitors, but today we are focused on a comment editor, and thatis focused on a comment editor, and that is defeating the spread of the coronavirus. and we look forward to working with the administration to do ourfairshare to working with the administration to do our fair share to alleviate

mr. president. >> mr. president i watched upro close and from afar, working together on issues like this, i absolutely believe it's a good idea but i think it's what senator murray just said, it's costing businesses all kinds of cost imposed on businesses as a result of people coming to work sick. it is also more expense forse public hospitals and more expense with people getting sick and what that means to medicaid. these costs are impossible to quantify today that are not having a sickly policy, a year from now will be able to look back on what the cost really were, they will be overwhelming. i have a solid cohesive coherent sickly policy of something modest like senator murray is calling for could make a difference there. >> i was recently notified from the governor when you run into a shortage in our state of the test kits that are necessary some 300 million have been tested

mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, reserving the right to object, i will continue to work with the senator from washington state as we always do in this issue on a be comprehensive response to the coronavirus. she and i have had four briefings and we have another one tomorrow. we have a history of being able to come to agreement on these matters. the idea of paid sick leave is a good idea, but if washington, d.c. thinks it's a good idea, washington, d.c. shut -- shouldy for it. when i was governor of tennessee nothing made me more unhappy than an individual from the senate or house coming up with a big idea, passing it, taking credit for it and sending me the bill. and so employees are struggling, so are employers struggling. it's not a cure for the coronavirus to put a big new expensive federal mandate on employers who are struggling in the middle of this matter. so paid sick leave is a good idea. we do it in my office. the federal government now does it. many businesses do it. but if the federal government

mr. president. mr. president this is simple, we need people who are sick to stay home if we have any hope of slowing the spread of this virus. but today, one in four private-sector workers in our country cannot stay home from work without losing a day's pay or potentially a job. mr. president we have to fight this virus with everything we've got. every single one of us. and that means we have to have help people make the right choices for themselves, their families and their committees. our bill will give all employees of 14 paid sick days immediately, today. not next week, not the week heafter, today and public health emergencies like o this one. in addition to allow seven, meaning it would help workers and committees right now. i urge senate republicans, treat this like the public health crisis it is. allow parents, businesses, committees have the peace of mind to know we are acting today and take this urgent needed step. this is nothing short of a chance to save lives and byy desperately needed time t

mr. president 123450 please. >> thank you, sir. mr. president, your approval ratings have been the highest they have ever been, yet there are some networks saying whether or not -- saying they are debating whether or not they are going the carry these briefings live. >> i don't want high approval ratings for this. i wish we could have our old life back. we had the greatest economy that we were ever in. we didn't have death, we didn't have this, we didn't have this horrible scourge, this plague, call it whatever you want, the virus. we are working very hard. i see things, i see numbers. they don't matter to me. what matters is that we have a victory over this thing as soon as possible. when you hear that 2.2 million people could have died if we didn't go through all of this -- and now the number will be, you know, a much lower number. hopefully it is going to be the numbers that we are talking about. so i appreciate it very much. but what i want is i want our life back again. i want our country back. i want the world back. i want the wor

mr. president, i yield the mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: in a moment democrats will ask the senate's consent to take up and pass several measures that would immediately help american workers and american families cope with the

mr. president. i think you know, over the last months, we've taken very bold action to stop the virus from coming to our shores. and because of that, we gained time to really get together and understand the progress across the globe of what has worked and what hasn't worked. we now need to appeal to every single american, so that they can have their role in stopping the spread of this virus. we've talked about things before, about washing your hands, but we really want to focus on, if you are sick, no matter who you are, please stay home. if someone in your household is diagnosed with this virus, the entire household should quarantine in the house to prevent spread of the virus to others. the reason we're taking these strong and bold steps is because we know there is virus spread before you develop symptoms, and then we know that there's a large group. we don't know the precise percent yet, that is actually asymptomatic or has such mild cases that they continue to spread the virus. if your children

mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, we don't have the luxury of time here. i think we all know that. certainly the american people know it. they can see it sort of just unfolding right in front of them. we've got small businesses that are shutting down which, of course, affects the people who work there. we've got health care systems that have tremendous needs and obviously they're on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus. we continue to try and make progress on a piece of legislation that really should have been proceeded to today. the vote we had earlier today was a procedural vote. it was basically are we going to get on the bill. what you saw was the democrats object to even getting on the bill. obviously as the leader pointed out, once you're on the bill, you have 30 hours if you choose to use it in which to continue to discuss and debate, and if there are things that they are continuing to work on, certainly they could have

mr. president. 's pleasure to be here with all of you i think you know at the beginning of this epidemic, hh through cdc developed an essay built on the existing flu surveillance system. that system was then converted to diagnostic system but last tuesday, seeing the spread of the virus around the globe, the president realized that our current approach to testing was inadequate to meet the needs of the american public he asked for an entire overhaul of the testing aproep. he called the private sector laboratories to the white house as noted and charged them with developing a high through quality platform that can meet the needs of the american public we are grateful to lab corp. answer quest for taking up u the charge immediately after the meeting and within 72 hours, bringing additional testing ak e success, particularly to the outbreak areas of washington state and california and now across the country we are also very grateful to the universities and large hospital systems that took up the charge

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. toomey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm here because i am absolutely shocked at what happened on this floor a little while ago and i'm going to try to convey to my colleagues a sense of the urgency that i think this moment demands, and they apparently don't understand because our democratic colleagues all voted to prevent us from considering this legislation. so let me start with the context that we're operating in, mr. president, because it's unbelievable. i -- i wouldn't think i would need to go through this but just to be clear, we've been invaded by a potentially lethal species, a virus that is infecting americans, now by the tens of thousands, growing numbers every day. it's killing americans, including in my state. we have infected people in every single one of our states and the numbers are growing rapidly. in response to this threat, we've been taking progressively more serious measures because of the degree of the danger, the disaster, the illness, the death that we fear if we don't try to stop this v

mr. president. the coronavirus act was one that was negotiated by speaker nancy pelosi and the president of the united states through mr. mnuchin. that negotiation went on for a week and a bill was agreed to and supported by both. the president even tweeted his support for it, that just shows his level of commitment, i suppose. and speaker pelosi supported as well. it was a measure that should have passed by a voice vote in the united states senate over the weekend and instead we're still talking about it today. there are measures included in that that are critical for public health. may i give you one example? when the state of illinois and the city of chicago asked for protective masks for health care workers so that they could avoid infection, they sent us an allotment of 25,000 masks, a state of 12 and a half million people, 25,000 masks. those would protect the people working at one major hospital in chicago for a month. totally inadequate. the last time we faced any kind of epidemic threat like

mr. president. i want to know if you are in contact with the brazilian president after a member of his delegation who was with you saturday was tested positive and, also, i want to ask another question if you let me, senator lindsey graham and also senators rick scott are self-isolating. are you planning to take kind of precautionary measure to protect you and others with him? >> no. we have no symptoms whatsoever. and we had a great meeting with the p bolsonaro, great guy. very tremendous. he's doing a fantastic job for brazil. and, as you know, he tested negative, meaning nothing wrong this morning and we got that word, too. because we did have dinner with him. we were sitting next to each other for a long period of time. >> are new contact with him over the coronavirus crisis? >> we have. we are talking about it country to country. we did discuss if he had a problem. it was reported that he may have it, and he doesn't, fortunately. >> thank you so much, mr. president. dr. fauci said earlier this w

mr. president, this bill also mr. president, this bill also mr. president, this bill also provides more than $30 billion for states, , school districts, colleges and universities to help them meet the unexpected expense that have explode from the coronavirus crisis. our schools, our k-12 schools, while at access to 13.5 billion which will help them support remote learning and meeting the needs of their students. and don't want to take a moment to recognize the dedication of those teachers, administrators, school food service workers and bus drivers who are not only making sure that students have access to remote learning, but are making sure that students have accesso to meals off-site. this bill provides funding to help them provide those meals and created -- but, such as delivery prepackaged meals along bus routes or directly to students in their homes so that there won't be hungry. we all know how important the school breakfast and school lunch programs are to our low income families. when colleges and universities made the very tough decision t

mr. president, we had dr. oz on our show earlier, we were asking him, we said the president is coming on are there any questions you have for him after you watched the press conference yesterday. this is what he had to say. >> how long until when a patient comes to the hospital and we get a test on them we can get a result back within 24 hours? forget about five minutes or 15 minutes or 45 minutes. i know those tests are coming out but we just need to be able to get the results back within a day. it would help tremendously. ainsley: can you respond to that mr. president? president trump: well he's 100% right because sometimes it's two or three days. now it's getting down to a day we think it be less than that but when this new test comes out we'll be able to give it as they sit, we literally will be able to know exactly what's happening and it's a very sophisticated result too. it could be even a step better than what we're having and what we do, you know it's a rough test. it's a pretty rough test. i took it a

mr. president. [roll call] >> thank you, madame clerk. i will now hand this over to president caen of the public utilities commission. >> madame secretary, could you please -- i'm sorry what? >> nothing >> could you call roll call? >> [roll call] we have a quorum. >> good of my i yield the floor back to you. >> thank you. madame clerk, thank you madame president. on behalf of the board, i would like to acknowledge the staff at sf gov tv who record the meetings and make the transcripts available online. thank you for joining us today on this very important topic. before we proceed, president caen, would you like to make any opening remarks? >> i will defer any opening remarks because i would like to get to the basics of why we're here. and i know that we are moving in concert together. and let's proceed. >> okay. madame clerk, are there any communications? >> i have none to report, mr. president >> okay. let's go to the public comment. >> yes. at this time the publish may address the entire board of supervisors and the p.u.c. commissioners

mr. president. want to know if you are in contact with the brazilian after a member of his delegation has tested positive ask another question if you let me, lindsey rick scott enator are self-isolating. re you planning to take any kind of precautionary measure to protect you and also your staff are there with him? pres. trump: no, we have no have,oms whatsoever and we we had a great meeting with the brazil, he is doing and tastic job for brazil as you know, he tested negative, meaning nothing wrong this and we got that word, too. we did have dinner with him. sitting next to each other for a long period of time. with him in contact over the coronavirus -- pres. trump: we're talking about it country to country. he had a cuss if problem. it was reported that he may have doesn't fortunately. fauci saidident, dr. earlier this week that the lag in testing was in fact a failing. take responsibility for that and when can you guarantee that every single american who will be able to have a test? what's the da

mr. president, and i yield the floor. >> mr. president? >> senator from washington. >> mr. president, i come to theh floor to thank my colleagues for hard work on this legislation and to urge my colleagues to move forward today because the state of washington desperately needs this hell. when i think about this package that literally has been crafted since saturday about 10:00 and people running to go and collaborate, and yes, there were many challenges to that collaboration, i also think about the people who were on the phone line in the state of washington who have paid such a heavy price. from the factory worker we just lost in everett, washington, to the covid-19 disease, to the grocery in the grocery store i was just tried to help deliver groceries to ao needed public, o the pathologist at the university of washington who was a leader in this field but also lostlo his life. real sacrifice and real crushing blows have been dealt in this disease but today we are responding with more help for our states. we are giving them more money for hospitals, more money for the front

mr. president i see the senator from maryland is on the floor. i think he is performing if youan would like to go first. >> i am grateful, thank you but i am happy to have you go first. >> thank you. mr. president all across the country americans are stepping up in response to the coronavirus pandemic. those that are working endless hours to care for the surgeon patients. many companies in my state are working overtime to produce medical testing with ventilators and personal protective equipment, all of which are vitally needed. truckers are going above and beyond so they can deliver goods needed to restart the depleted grocery shelves. people are working on - - looking out for their neighbors and making personal sacrifices to help present one - - prevent the virus from spreading to vulnerable members of society. on the horizon for small businesses and facing the economic devastation through no fault of their own. mr. president i have talk to small business owners all across our state including small mom-and-pop businesses. many for the first tim

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: i'd ask unanimous consent to terminate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. graham: thank you very much. later in the day i'll be making a motion to table the paul amendment that would require offsetting the $7.76 billion for the coronavirus against the foreign operations account. senator paul's at it again. he's consistent. i respect his view. i just reject it. what he would be doing is basically upending the f.y.2020 agreement passed by congress and signed into law by president trump. he would be putting our nation at risk if this amendment actually passed. 1% of federal spending is foreign assistance in different fashions and ways, including our commitment to our friends in israel and other programs we have that i think are national defense oriented. the u.s. global leadership coalition consisting of 500 businesses, n.g.o.'s, military and faith leaders have warned that cuts of this magnitude would have devastating consequences on our ability to conf

mr. president. >> eric work so hard. and now the two of them how about you say a couple of words. >> thank you mr. president and vice president. encouraging your team to be bold and brave. six.2 trillion dollars is tremendous. we made sure we can reassure americans that the paycheck and earnings are protected to make sure we can provide significant reinforcement to the economy and finally looking ahead we have included significant resources in order to assure therapies for those vaccines to come online as quickly as possible. protecting public health and economic health of america and to gather on - - together today. >> hopefully it can be distributed very quickly especially with computer equipment. >> hats off to mitch mcconnell who did an amazing job with his leadership and i agree bipartisan special thanks to my friend stephen secretary mnuchin who was done a extra ordinary job is indefatigable and we got it done. a few months ago this economy was roaring literally this bu bug, this virus and i think the assistance bi

the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, mr. president, negotiations on the third phase of the coronavirus legislation went late into the night last night and continues through the day today. i've spoken to speaker pelosi and secretary mnuchin several times and president trump to keep them apprised as we continue to work through a number of issues. in fact, i just had a very good, very detailed phone call before secretary mnuchin or stephen chuck as we prefers to call it. we discussed many of the outstanding issues, and we are making very good progress. i have every expectation that this progress will continue throughout the day. democratic negotiators will meet with their republican counterparts throughout the day to continuing hammering out the details. the senate is here. we are working. and we are all eager to come to a bipartisan agreement as soon as humanly possible. there is still a number of prior

mr. president. dr. fauci said earlier the lag in testing was in fact a failing. do you take responsibility for that and when can you guarantee every single american who needs a test will be able to have a test? what is the date of that? president trump: no, i don't take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time. it wasn't meant for this kind of event with the kind of numbers we are talking about. what we have done is redesigned it very quickly with the help of the people behind me and we are now in very, very strong shape. we will be announcing sunday night, and this will start quickly. we will have the ability to do in the millions over a very, very quick period of time. what we have done and what we are going to be leaving a very indelible print for the future in case something like this happens again. that is not the fault of anybody and frankly the old system worked very well for smaller numbers

mr. president -- >> mr. president -- mr. ent, two things, one on airlines. >> yes. >> one on jeff bezos. can you talk a little bit specifically what you'd like to do to help the airlines? second of all, we heard jeff bezos has been in contact with the white house daily. can you tell us what -- >> i heard that's true. i don't know that for a fact. some of my people as i understand it have been dealing with them or with him. that's nice. we've had tremendous support from a lot of people that can help. and i believe he was one of them. as far as the airlines are concerned, the airlines, we're going to back the airlines 100%. not their fault. it's nobody's fault. unless you go to the original source. but it's nobody's fault. and we're going to be in a position to help the airlines very much. we've told the airlines we're going to help them. >> you told -- >> we're going to be helping, going to be backstopping the airlines, helping them -- >> the stock market, sir -- >> $25 billion for the passenger carriers and $4 billion for car

mr. president. this is a proud moment for our country, for the president, republicans, democrats all pulled together and passed the biggest bill in history in record time. i also want to thank kevin mccarthy and our leaders on the republican side in the house who helped speed this through to passage. the american people needed this rescue package needed to quickly, and we delivered. it has a proud moment for all of us. mr. president, thank you. pres. trump: i would love to shake your hand, but anthony will get angry at me. i would rather not do it. it is so natural. i just want to shake his hand. he did such an incredible job. , the realto thank answer to america as we are listening to. you do our part, and we would do ours. that is what is happening today. ist leader mcconnell did amazing, bipartisan, bicameral. everyone was involved. wish we could have signed this earlier this week, but this will put people back to work. i want to thank secretary mnuchin. he has done an amazing job. and all the tea

mr. president, i yield the floo. -- quorum call. the presiding officer: we are. mr. udall: i wish to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: today we face a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen in over 100 years and today the senate must act to pass the

mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, reserving the right to object, i will continue to work with the senator from washington state as we always do in this issue on a be comprehensive response to the coronavirus. she and i have had four briefings and we have another one tomorrow. we have a history of being able to come to agreement on these matters. the idea of paid sick leave is a good idea, but if washington, d.c. thinks it's a good idea, washington, d.c. shut -- shouldy for it. when i was governor of tennessee nothing made me more unhappy than an individual from the senate or house coming up with a big idea, passing it, taking credit for it and sending me the bill. and so employees are struggling, so are employers struggling. it's not a cure for the coronavirus to put a big new expensive federal mandate on employers who are struggling in the middle of this matter. so paid sick leave is a good idea. we do it in my office. the federal government now does it. many businesses do it. but if the federal government

mr. president, i yield the floor. >> mr. president, the senior senator from mississippi. >> thank you, mr. president. the senator from south dakota has said it well and i just want to come down here today to echo that we've had so many misstatements made by people on the other side of the aisle this afternoon and this evening that i just think it cries out for explanations. senator thune is correct, this is a bipartisan bill that we're asking for consideration on it, we're asking that a vote be taken so that we can have the final 30 hours of debate and get to it tomorrow. america's crying out for this. the financial markets are watching us and our economy is teetering on the brink. we need to get this done. i, too, was in one of the working groups, mr. president, and we had equal numbers of democratic and republican senators in this working group with their staffs, with their laptops and much of what is in the bill was hammered out with the input of democratic and republican members of this working group and there were a few

mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: mr. president, i rise in support of my amendment to pay for this economic stimulus package by removing less important spending from elsewhere in the budget. i would ask every american, if you were faced with a personal crisis in how to spend extra money and you had to spend extra money on food and medicine, money that you had to borrow from a relative, wouldn't you prioritize your resources and immediately stop loaning money to those overseas for their children to go to space camp. wouldn't you stop funding clown colleges in argentina. if you had a true emergency like this amendment, wouldn't you stop building roads and gas stations in pakistan. if you had a true emergency like this crohn pandemic, wouldn't you stop spending money studying why drunk people fall down more than sober people. i ask my colleagues to stop wasting money in this time of crisis, do your jobs and prioritize our precious resources it is our job and our responsibility to conserve these resources. why is this importan