senator chris van hollen of the state of maryland. sen. van hollen: thank you, steny, and i want to thank steny and my colleagues from the state of maryland were here, congresswoman eleanor holmes norton from the district, our friends from virginia, and all of you for joining us for this important occasion where we blow the whistle on what is happening around the country with the new postmaster general under orders from president trump. and i want to give special workers ande postal the letter carriers and all the men and women who faithfully on time sixmail days a week. the words "neither snow nor rain night keepr gloom of the workers from the script completion of their appointed rounds" has always been part of the post office grade. we can add it to that recently, hnor a global pandemic. these are essential workers who have been delivering mail on time six days a week even during a pandemic, and they have been doing it for over hundreds of years. and then comes along the new postmaster general, postmaster general dejoy, and suddenly all

senator van hollen, pleasure to have you.ight, in the meantime, we do know what is coming up, next with democrats and joe biden won't be there and week after that, republicans gather and the president of the united states won't be there to address the troops. we know that joe biden will likely give his speech at home in delaware, we're hearing that the president has narrowed it down to two locations, one is the white house, that is tricky. the other? it is the battle field ge of gettysburg, after this. field o gettysburg, after this. of gettysburg, after this. ♪ we see you. looking out...for all of us. and though you may have lost sight of your own well-being, aetna never did. we're always here to help you focus on your health. because it's always, time for care. this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they

dear senator van hollen, i am a resident here. while i was in quarantine in georgia with my daughter for the past four four months, i mailed a box home to me by party mail on friday, july 31. i was told it would arrive monday, august 3, which is the day i flew back to maryland. today is august 7 in my box has yet to arrive. ,y medications are in that box and today was the last dosage i had with me. , and theybox to ups were informed it arrived on august 5, but that it is probably somewhere in the warehouse. we have been hearing from seniors who can't get their medicines, veterans, seniors, retirees desperately waiting for the retirement checks, for small businesses whose operations are being disrupted. when we calm our post offices to ed our post call offices to find out what happened, they said it came from above. right here toed this headquarters in postmaster general dejoy. what we learned because he had put in place a number of measures that slowed down the mail. ofy include the removal sorting machines from post offices. in f

van hollen: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank the minority leader, the democratic leader, mr. schumer, for his remarks. you know, there are not many of us around here in the senate today. it's pretty quiet. you can walk through the halls. virtually nobody around. that's what it was like last thursday afternoon. that's what it was like here in the senate on friday. and again on saturday and again on sunday. and here we are again on monday, and this senate is virtually a ghost town. a few people here, but for the most part, everybody was sent home by the majority leader. by senator mcconnell. he told senators, go home until further notice. go home. we're going to put the senate on standby. no need to be here doing the people's business. well, mr. president, the coronavirus is not on standby. the coronavirus is very much alive and well and spreading throughout the country, more severely in some parts than others, but spreading throughout the country, and with it has come the spread of economic pain and economic harm.

let's turn to democratic senator chris van hollen of maryland. the white house pointing fingers at the other side as these relief talks seem to have stalled. in the meantime, millions of americans have lost pandemic benefits. where do the talks stand as you understand it? why has it been so difficult to reach any sort of deal on legislation? >> craig, we should be back at the negotiating table. i was on the floor of the senate just yesterday calling on mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, to bring the senate back to washington. right now he told people to go back home and just be on standby. the coronavirus is not on standby and neither is the economic fallout. we need to get back to the table. but the problem we've got is exhibited by a comment just yesterday from ron johnson, the republican senator from wisconsin. he said and i quote, i hope the talks remain broken down, unquote. and senator mcconnell has said about half of his caucus don't want to do anything. they think the problem has gone away. so the white house can't negotiate somethin

van hollen: thank you, madam president. i want to thank my colleague from new hampshire, senator hassan, for the important points she made about what's happening in new hampshire and in listening to her, i think each of us could say that that holds true for our state, certainly what she said holds true in my state of maryland. in maryland we are just weeks away from the opening day of school. in other parts of the country, schools have already reopened. i think all of us can remember back to when we were going back to school during our k-12 years. we had a mix of excitement and anxiety. and those of us who are parents with children share the excitement and ant -- and anxiety of our children as they went off to school. this year we are facing a sense of emotions and realities that none of us have ever experienced before. and i think all of us agree that we would like all students to be able to return to actual classrooms as soon as safely possible. i hope we would all also agree that we want to make sure that in returning, w

respectfully, senator chris van hollen, i would like to write to you about the $600 unemployment. i understand that the other party is fighting you all the way. this is painful because i am a diabetic, and at this point because that benefit was taken away i have to choose between paying my bills or my insulin. i applied sometime in june since i was thinking i would be back to work. gone are my savings, paying rent -- gone on my savings to pay rent, car loan interest and other bills. from this week on because of losing the $600 i will have to stop paying bills so i can pay my insulin. i never thought that i would be inn a situation like this in america, where if you work hard, pay your taxes to be able to have a roof over your head, health insurance and human dignity. and i, like i am sure many of my colleagues, have received hundreds hundreds of notes like that from our constituents. who will not be able to make ends meet without the additional $600 a week. but the president doesn't want to continue that, nor do senate republicans. and so what did the president say up in new jerse

senator chris van hollen of maryland. >>> turning now to texas which currently ranks in the top three for total number of covid-19 cases in the country. not only that, but the state is dealing way skyrocketing number of infants who have contracted the deadly virus. in july, just in the city of corpus christi, more than 80 infants tested positive for covid-19 and so far this month, one week into august, another 80 have tested positive. joining me live in corpus christi, texas, janelle ross. good to see you. you have been talking to local health officials about why the infant infection rate is so high in the city. >> reporter: yes. i think that the belief is that these infant infections are, in fact, sort of family infection cases where say an adult or grandparent in the household was first infect and then because of the difficulty of isolating inside of family or quarantining one self inside of a household, that the infants have themselves been infected. unfortunately, while some of these cases have been very mild, one of these children did, in fact, die. and in addition to that, the c

respectfully senator chris van hollen, i would like to write to you about the $600 on appointment. i understand that the other party is fighting you all the way, this is painful because i am a diabetic and at this point because the benefit was taken away, i have to choose between payingyi my bills for my insuli. i appliedg sometime in june sine i was thinking i would be back to work, gone are my savings, paying rent, car loan, insurance and other bills. from this week on because of losing the p $600, i will have o stop paying bills so i can pay my insulin. i never thought that i would be in a situation like this in america where if you work hard, pay your taxes to be able to have a roof over your head, health insurance and human dignity.d and i like i'm sure many of my colleagues have received hundreds, hundreds of notes like that from our constituents. we will not be able to make ends meet without the additional $600 a week. but the president doesn't want to continue that, nor do senate republicans and so went to the president say up in new jersey, while he came up with this plan

. >> reporter: senate democrat chris van hollen of maryland wants $3.2 billion for mass transit. says time is running out. transit advocates estimate almost 3 million essential workers take public transit, and two-thirds are people of color. >> there is no doubt that if you pull the plug on transit systems or allow them to wither away that you're jeopardizing entire communities but you will have a disproportionately harmful impact on communities of color. >> reporter: the impact could be even bigger on smaller cities. in flagstaff, arizona, many city bus riders are what's called transit-dependent, those without cars, to get to work or school. heather domelin says her system needs $7 million more or it could cut services to neighborhoods that need it most. >> we feel hopeful there will be a way we find more funding so our community doesn't face service cuts. >> reporter: the cuts could have a disproportionate impact here in the d.c. area, especially on people of color. they make up 82% of the region's bus riders. jim? >> some folks don't have a choice. that's the only way in to wo

. >> reporter: senate democrat chris van hollen of maryland wants $3.2 billion for mass transit.ime is running out. transit advocates estimate almost 3 million essential workers take public transit, and two-thirds are people of color. >> there is no doubt that if you pull the plug on transit systems or allow them to wither away that you're jeopardizing entire communities but you will have a disproportionately harmful impact on communities of color. >> reporter: the impact could be even bigger on smaller cities. in flagstaff, arizona, many city bus riders are what's called transit-dependent, those without cars, to get to work or school. heath heather domelin says her system needs $7 million more it could cut services to neighborhoods that need it most. >> we feel hopeful there will be a way we find more funding so our community doesn't face service cuts. >> reporter: the cuts could have a disproportionate impact especially on people of color here in d.c. they make up 82% of the metro system's bus riders. john? >> the pulse of the city, the public transit system here which is why t

other democrats like chris van hollen of maryland are skeptical." >> they got caught red-handed.he post office is enshrined in the constitution. they all swore an oath to uphold the constitution. they are violating that oath. and we need to hold them to it to make sure that we have this election. >> president trump opposes vote by mail. >> neil: you can't take millions of ballots, send them haphazardly all over the countre and expect to come out properly. and if you look at the last ten elections where they did this universal -- by the way, absenteeism great. it has been working for a long time like at florida. >> ron johnson today announced that dejoy will testify virtually before his committee on friday. johnson says he wanted dejoy to have the chance to get out his story before appearing before a house panel on monday. as i said, the house of representatives will forge ahead with that bill on saturday. this will be very specific to the postal service here. indicating that he doesn't anticipate any changes to that bill. some democrats are not starting to pressure democratic lea

. >> all right, senator chris van hollen from the state of maryland, thank you for joining us this morning, appreciate your time. >> good to be with you. >>> turning to the other big story we're following today, our team reporting that joe biden could announce his choice for vice presidential running mate as soon as today after spending the weekend huddled with family at home in delaware. mike memoli has more of that reporting from wilmington. mike, good to talk to you again. it is go to be a busy week, going to shape the course of this race one way or the other. what is your latest reporting and what you're hearing from the campaign about this pick and how it is going to be rolled out? >> yeah, ayman, here is what we know for sure at this point. joe biden did spend the weekend at his beach house in rehoboth beach, delaware, in the family discussion that we know joe biden had with his family before every major political decision throughout his life, including the decision last year to enter this race in the first place. we know he was having some fun with reporters who were chasing him aro

chris van hollen has a bill, bipartisan, i believe it's with marco rubio to stop it. trump is resisting. why does he not want to stop russia from interfering in this election? you have to ask that question. >> your colleague richard blumenthal said it's so alarming, so chilling that it should be declassified. he says every american has the right to see. >> without compromising sources, yes. they should know another thing, these hearings that johnson and graham are doing, some of it is now public is based on false russia intelligence about joe biden, in other words, false russia reports on joe biden. they should be ashamed of themselves for what they're doing. letting the russians manipulate us or try to manipulate us. >> senator schumer, thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you, george. >>> let's get a white house response from the president's top economic adviser, larry kudlow. thank you for joining us. this morning, let me give you a chance to respond senator schumer. you saw him right there saying that the president's proposal are weak, narrow and unworkable

senator van hollen, first of all, your response to the president and his characterization of the democrats being a threat to the country? >> well, lawrence, again, this is a projection because what we know from the latest intelligence reports is like back in 2016 vladimir putin not only supports donald trump to be the next president of the united states, but is engaged in active measures to keep him that way. and what you saw today at the podium was the president again refusing to admit that and trying to point fingers at everybody else. the reality is that you saw the president try to equate china and iran and russian interference when there is no equating them. make no mistake. it is vladimir putin and the russians who are engaged in active measures, including duping certain republican senators into spouting their propaganda line that really are posing a risk right now. >> let's listen to what nancy pelosi said to joy reid tonight about the republican position on trying to deliver some relief to the people suffering economically from the coronavirus. >> last week they came up with some m

this was from senator chris van hollen who was saying enough, already.ident says he's going to do it because democrats were not really interested in doing anything. what do you say? >> well, neil, that's just not true. democrats have been working very hard to do something to help the country. as you know, the house passed its heroes act almost three months ago. we have tried to get a vote on that in the united states senate. senator mcconnell has blocked it. we went to these negotiations and the administration walked away. neil: more interesting a little later in that interview, he said he did not see any hypocrisy about democrats opposing this president trying to cut the payroll tax even though they had twice overwhelmingly supported president obama doing the exact same thing in 2010 and 2012. i'm just finding that a little bit interesting. what about you? >> the messaging for democrats is exactly right, was a mess over the weekend. nancy pelosi called the whole thing an illusion when people were pretty relieved, folks i know who don't follow politics w

van hollen: mr. president, here we are, another thursday afternoon in the united states senate. it's pretty quiet around here. it's amazing how quickly this place gets quiet when the senate majority leader, the republican leader, senator mcconnell tells people we don't have any more work to do today. and by the way, we don't have any more work to do tomorrow, friday. and by the way, don't worry about saturday or sunday. monday, you know, i'll be here, says the majority leader but the senate doesn't need to be in doing its work and maybe not tuesday or wednesday either. i want to thank the senator from michigan, senator stabenow, for being down here standing up for working men and women and families and small businesses because for them it's not business as usual. it's not business as usual for all the folks who are out of work, 30 million americans are on unemployment insurance. but here in the united states senate, senate majority leader, business as usual. take a day off. take the weekend off. and be on standby next week. maybe we'll start doing something real. well, i can tel