ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the floor today in the midst of this national crisis, this pandemic, to talk about one hero among, of course, many. first i want to thank my friend, senator durbin, for his tireless leaner on a very important -- leadership on a very important topic, and that is the topic of immigration and for his taking the lead in bringing us together today to recognize heroes in health care during this coronavirus pandemic. as many of you know, this pandemic is personal for me. my husband, john, was hospitalized with the coronavirus not too lopping ago, and though he is a great person and i'm so proud of him for coming through it all and giving his plasma recently, he's actually not the hero i am referring to. i am talking about an immigrant doctor who is on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in rochester, minnesota. she's asked that her name not be used publicly because she's applying for a green card. she came to the united states from her home country for postgradua

ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the floor today in the midst of this national crisis, this pandemic, to talk about one hero among, of course, many. first i wanto

ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. ms. klobuchar: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the floor today in the midst of this national crisis, this pandemic, to talk about one hero among, of course, many. first i want to thank my friend, senator durbin, for his tireless leaner on a very important -- leadership on a very important topic, and that is the topic of immigration and for his taking the lead in bringing us together today to recognize heroes in health care during this coronavirus pandemic. as many of you know, this pandemic is personal for me. my husband, john, was hospitalized with the coronavirus not too lopping ago, and though he is a great person and i'm so proud of him for coming through it all and giving his plasma recently, he's actually not the hero i am referring to. i am talking about an immigrant doctor who is on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic

ms. bloomfield, can i ask you, and maybe if you want to address my initial question, but in addition i'm cosponsoring with senator klobuchar an act that is focused on smaller providers which, of course, in alaska we have a number of those. can you talk to how you think that's going to be helpful and, again, for all of the panelists i will just put this out there, the ppp program, have the smaller telecoms been able to access that? what are you hearing in those issues? i will open it up again for any of the panel to address any and all of the comments i just asked. we'll start with you. >> senator, there was a lot in there so i will try to go very fast. alaska is unique and that's one of the reasons fcc had done the alaska plan to basically take a look and make sure that they got the support that they need because they're -- >> and we appreciated that. >> and it was important. i think it is time now to start thinking about what that next step is because we know how quickly time passes. so i think, you know, the folks in alaska are led by a great state association and they're thinking already proactively on that. i think tha

klobuchar, harris, and the field, meaning amy enclose, kamala harris, the top two and then you got somebody might come from that very wide field, it's about a dozen people , anybody from stacey abra ms to the nevada governor, cortez, it's a wide field, and might come in if joe biden feels comfortable and feels like they can be a part of the ticket but it's basically those two are, it's those two in the field, and the dynamic is this. biden's people, it will come down to who joe biden is comfortable with, mainly. they say klobuchar is very good legislatively, she's very active in the senate when she was there she's also helps with the midwest. harris will help with african americans and that's a huge voting block. back to you, neil. neil: all right, thank you my friend, charlie gasparino. charlie speaking we're getting word the white house is planning a press conference on the part of the president of the united states it might have something to do with the new cdc guidance on churches. the president has been saying that a lot of people should be free to worship and the numbers they want to worship whether that is going to be the sole subject of this presser coming up, we don't know

ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the floor today to urge the senate to immediately take action to address the issue of elections. and specifically to address technical changes to the $400 million in electric security funding passed in the cares act and to talk about the coronavirus threat to our democracy itself. 16 states have already postponed their presidential primaries or transitioned that i primary -- their primaries to almost voting entirely by mail. we have seen democratic and republican governors from states like west virginia, indiana, the state of the presiding officer, new york, and kentucky issue waivers allowing all voters to cast their ballot by mail during the pandemic. this includes states that used to have requirements that you have give a reason to given get a mail-in ballot to vote from only. -- from home. both democratic and republican governors have weighed in. while it is important that individual states have taken action to protect voters during this pandemic, it is the re

ms. klobuchar: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: no, we are not. ms. klobuchar: madam president, we are here today to vote on a nominee to be a commissioner at the federal election commission, the independent agency responsible for enforcing federal campaign finance laws. i am deeply disappointed in today's vote which is a departure from the senate's long-standing tradition of considering f.e.c. nominees on a bipartisan basis and another step in eroding the fra decisions of the -- the traditions of the senate all for a candidate that hold extreme views towards the agency that he would be appointed to. prior to today, the senate has voted to confirm 47 f.e.c. nominees and 42 of those nominees have been confirmed through a bipartisan process. as the ranking democrat on the rules committee, i have repeatedly urged my republican colleagues to work with us to get the f.e.c. running again as it is unacceptable that the agency charged with protecting the integrity of our campaign finance system has been without a quorum for 261 days, the longest period without