She also addressed some democrats concerned about the possibility of Bernie Sanders being the democratic nominee. Speaker pelosi good morning, everyone. This morning, leader schumer and i put out a statement on the coronavirus threat. Probably is in your inbox, but in case you dont look there, we said the United States government must address the spread of this deadly coronavirus in a smart, strategic, and serious way. We stand ready to work in a bipartisan fashion in congress and with the administration to achieve the necessary goal. Lives are at stake. This is not a time for namecalling or playing politics. The first step that Congress Must take is to ensure that the government has the resources needed to combat this deadly virus and keep americans safe. Then we go on to some of the provisions that we think we need to go with it, but thats, again, in your inbox. Earlier this week, yesterday, actually, i said that the American People need a coordinated, whole of government, fully funded response to keep us safe from the coronavirus threat. Unfortunately, and this is the purpose of my telling this unfortunately, up until now, the Trump Administration has mounted and often chaotic response to this outbreak. They left critical positions vacant, in charge of managing pandemics at the National Security council and the department of homeland security, they left them vacant. They dismissed the people and never filled the slots. They were there from previous administrations. The trump budget calls for slashing almost 700 million from the centers of disease control, and this was the budget, which came out after we knew about the coronavirus threat. And now it continues to our health needs by ransacking other health needs. Whether its the ebola fund or others. So that was up until now. Now, we are trying to work in a bipartisan way and thats one of the reasons that i was delayed in meeting with you this morning. Were trying to were coming close to a bipartisan agreement in the congress as to how we can go forward with a number thats a good start. We dont know how much we will need. Hopefully not so much more because prevention will work, but nonetheless, we have to be ready to do what we need to do. And in that regard, we want to make sure that the president cannot transfer any of these new funds this is part of the statement from chuck and me, from leader schumer and me the president cannot transfer any of these new funds to anything other than use for the coronavirus threat that we perhaps will have interestfree loans made available to Small Businesses who are suffering from the coronavirus. Some may have to shut down because of that. Vaccines, we want to make sure that the vaccines are affordable, affordable. We think its important to make that point because of what secretary azar said yesterday. We would want to ensure we can work to make it affordable, but we cant control the price because we need the private sector to invest. Really . Thats this will be a vaccine thats developed with taxpayer dollars to, again, prevent, and we think that should be available to everyone, not dependent on big pharma. I guess yesterday when the secretary made that illadvised statement, he was wearing his pharma hat which he wore before he came here. And then we want to be sure that state and local government are reimbursed for costs incurred while assisting the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak. Again, i met with i spoke with the Vice President this morning. Made some of these concerns known to him. We have we always had a candid relationship. I expressed the concern i had of his being in this position while i look forward to working with him when he was governor of indiana slashing the Public Health budget and having some clinics one especially a planned parenthood clinic close where was the anyplace in scott county where you could get tested for h. I. V. And aids. There was an outbreak. Again, he will have his side of the story, but the fact is is that the health professional, the director of the health in indiana at the time, jerome adams, was the Vice President , then governor pences health state health officer, hes now the Surgeon General of the United States. So this is about resources. Its also about personnel. Its also about respect for science, for evidencebased decisionmaking, and its about having so much of that talent that we are so proud of in our Public Health sector be available in other countries so that we can get a true, a true accurate a true and accurate assessment of what is happening in other countries. They may have the best intentions, but they may not have, shall we say, even with most talent they may have, they dont have the value added that someone from our country could lend. So in any event, we look forward, as i say, to working together in a bipartisan way and hopefully, you know, again, in a very candid way about our concerns about past performance or statements that are made. Lets put that in perspective as we move forward to have the adequate funding, the respect for science and evidencebased decisionmaking and, again, reimbursement for state and local government and the impacts this has on our community. Speaking of community, i had the privilege on monday of having a walk through chinatown. I always feel very privileged to and say my poor colleagues when they come home they dont , have the advantage of this beautiful diversity i have in my district. Sadly, china town is being very hard hit by the lack of tourism and the rest of the coronavirus so a number of us went there. Many press came too to go to temple, light the candle, have a lunch, dim sum that was, go visit and make Fortune Cookies in the Fortune Cookie factory. By the way, the Fortune Cookie machines are made in america and they are an american phenomenon. It is not something you really find in china. At least it didnt begin there. In the shops to show competence, not fear, in terms of the virus. So, again, in every way we want to be fully prepared but not panicking or fearful of what is happening. Then, today tomorrow on the floor of the house, we have very important legislation. It is to stop the Youth Tobacco epidemic that were expressing, also on the Public Health front. The house will vote on h. R. 2339. Strong legislation to combat the growing Youth Tobacco and ecigarette crisis. More than 5. 3 Million Middle School and High School Students are using ecigarettes, more than twice as many as two years ago. According to the u. S. Surgeon general, youth ecigarettes use is an epidemic. The bill protects our children with strong measures, preventing marketing to youth under 21. Banning all flavored tobacco products, including Menthol Cigarettes and ecigarettes. Big tobacco is just on its usual rampage. It uses flavors like gummy bear, bubble gum, cotton to ensnare and addict our children to tobacco. 97 of youth using ecigarettes use flavored cigarettes. So here we are. This bill would reduce Health Disparities that spring from cigarette smoking. This is something, a statement that was put up by the National Medical association, africanamerican doctors, the National Black nurses association, the naacp, black Womens Health imperative, the association of black cardiologists, the africanamerican Tobacco Control leadership council, the list goes on and on. There are 75 organizations representing Public Health, communities of color, and teachers in support of the bill from the American Academy of pediatrics to National Association of school nurses, society of thoracic surgeons, again, affecting lung cancer. This statement says, to congress, end the sale of flavored tobacco products, including Menthol Cigarettes and flavored ecigarettes. Support h. R. 2339 to protect our kids. It really i dont know if youve seen this statement. Let me read it. For decades, big tobacco has targeted africanamericans with Menthol Cigarettes with devastating consequences. Menthol cigarettes have addicted generations of africanamericans, resulting in high death rates from lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other smokingrelated illnesses. Seven out of 10 africanamerican youth smokers smoke menthol, making them more likely to become addicted smokers. Today, the Tobacco Industry is using ecigarettes to hook a new generation with new flavors like bubble gum, mint, mango, and menthol. Its a Public Health crisis affecting over 1. 53 million kids. The naacp, the National Medical association of black doctors, National Black nurses association, black Womens Health imperative, association of black cardiologists, the list goes on and on. I repeat those whoever signed onto this. We hope to have a good vote on that tomorrow. Today is a very sad day for us because it was one year ago today we passed h. R. 8 and sent it over to the senate. H. R. 8 is our legislation, as you know, for commonsense background checks and it is its very sad that the grim reaper has decided that more people will die because hes the grim reaper. 100 people a day, my understanding, is die from gun violence. Not all can be saved by this legislation, but many could. So we did h. R. 8 today one year, and then tomorrow, h. R. 1112, the South Carolina loophole that enabled hate crime to be performed at mother emanuel church. Well, this would close that loophole, mr. Clyburns bill. Here we are, 90 of the public support commonsense background checks. Democrats, republicans, independents, gun owners, because most of them have engaged in background checks. This would be only a simple matter of expanded to sales on the internet, issues at gun shows. Internet sales have come about more abundantly since the bill was originally passed. This is only an expansion of all of that. We would hope that we could save lives doing that. Anyway, i have some other things to talk about. Perhaps we can do it in the q a. Any questions . What are you telling your members, those who are nervous, perhaps, of a Bernie Sanders nomination . Speaker pelosi ive been very clear in all of this. Our responsibility is to win the house. We have known how to win. We have demonstrated that in the most gerrymandered, voter suppressed political arena you can name and yet we gained 40 seats in the last election. Owning the ground with our mobilization. Not yielding one grain of sand by a message of bold, Progressive Agenda and mainstream and nonmenacing and having the money, the ms to advance our cause with our message and our ground game. That was very well managed by Ben Ray Lujan and now continues to be well managed by cheri bustos, our chair, and the most important part of those ms are the memberstobe, our candidates. They are absolutely spectacular. My responsibility is to make sure that those we elected last time return to congress, keep the majority, and add to our numbers. The president ial is its own race. And i dont contrary to what you may be hearing or writing, we are not getting we are all unified. Whoever is the nominee of our party, we will wholeheartedly support. Our gospel is one of unity, unity, unity. So i dont have the experience that you may have described about hearing from anybody. I just would Speaker Pelosi how does like someone to ask somebody who usually comes to our meeting not , those who parachute in for something. Yes. My question is on fisa. Obviously there are more concerns, especially on the republican side of the aisle after what happened in the 2016 election. Some of the allegations. How have some of what concerned mostly republicans about fisa, how does that make that tougher challenge . You know thats a unique cocktail of votes that was put together last time on both sides of the aisle to pass it and how does that pose a challenge and do those concerns from republicans make it tougher that time around with the deadline looming . Speaker pelosi we will see. As you say there is a deadline. March 12 for us, from a legislative standpoint, but march 15 is the deadline. We have the challenge, and this is my wheelhouse. I was there for the for some of the fisa revisions in the past. The goal is to have the right balance between Civil Liberties and National Security. I think the bill that was put together in the judiciary committee, working with the intelligence committee, does that. There are others who would like to see some other provisions. Were just working through that now out of respect for everyones point of view. It is really important that we passed the fisa bill. One thing i am very happy about, because this has been just a painful experience for all these years, is that we will have an end to the Data Collection by telephone records, etc. So that will be out. There are many good things that are in the bill that protects further protects Civil Liberties and i would hope we can come to a conclusion on it. Did the markup canceled yesterday, did that make it tougher to meet that deadline . Speaker pelosi depends. Its a postponement. Well just go through anytime somebody has a suggestion, what does it mean in terms of Civil Liberties and National Security . And so well see how that goes and hopefully it will be done expeditiously. Yes, nancy. How concerned are you about the stock market drop that we saw in response to coronavirus fears . And how much do you think those market jitters should be taken into account, both around the belt and the white house when you are delivering messages about coronavirus . Speaker pelosi well, we are hoping to work in a bipartisan way to stop the spread to have serious preventions, sciencebased, evidencebased decisionmaking with professionals who know the territory of science and epidemiology to do the job. The market drop now, it is 3000, 2500 of last night it is disturbing. Again, we want to instill confidence. We went to prevent without panicking people about this. The market will do with the invisible hand that it does. It does show some fragility on the part of the market that it would drop so much. But, again, it cant affect what we do if what were there to do is to prevent and not panic people on the subject. The president said something so strange that you really have to wonder. He said the reason the market dropped is because of the debate the other night. Well, the market had dropped 1,800 points before the debate the other night. The market dropped while he was speaking yesterday in his press conference. So lets not lets not be silly about what that is. Clearly the lack of ability to get some of the product to sell and the rest has an impact on the bottom line with some of these companies. We dont like seeing the market drop. Thats for sure. We hope that this will have a turnaround, but it cannot affect how we address the issue. Our issue is Public Health. Our issue is prevention, and we would hope that would not lower the market but raise the market because we want to show decisions have made to put this in good hands now. Later today would you advise your members to support a leader of pledged delegates . Speaker pelosi this is not the purpose of the meeting. Dont read too much into it in your moments. This is a strictly a housekeeping meeting. This is to say, this is a date, like march 7 coming up is when the names will be sent to the state parties as to who the unpledged delegates are. This is about how we participate in committees and the rest. Its really just a reading of the rules. Its not anything about that. And the rules are very clear. The person who will be nominated for president will be the person who will have the majority of the votes. In addition to that, though, i will take the opportunity to say what i said over and over again. Were responsible to win the house of representatives, and that is what we intend to do with our mobilization, with our messaging, with our resources in order to win and hopefully that victory will also help to win the senate and to help win the white house. We also want to help to win state and local government positions as well with our demonstration that we know how to win. So thats not what that meeting is about. [inaudible] Speaker Pelosi the person who will be nominated is the person who will have majority plus one. That may happen before they even get to the convention but well see. The people will speak and thats what were listening to and its a pretty exciting thing. But thats not what this meeting is about. Dont read too much into it. Its merely housekeeping to say this is this is how you can be on a committee. This is when you get a chance to vote. What do you call them unpledged delegates can vote for Vice President on the first ballot. Just technicalities like all reading of the rules. Its not political. And thats not the rules say have majority plus one. Yes, maam. You just said that its your job to put forth an agenda thats mainstream. I think i heard you say nonmenacing. Speaker pelosi thats right. Im talking about the house of representatives. Your agenda differs from senator sanders agenda. You are not advocating medicare for all. Do you believe senator sanders agenda is mainstream . Speaker pelosi well, health care is the most important issue in the campaign. There are three issues health care, health care, and health care. Thats why part one of our agenda and how we won the election last time was to lower the cost of health care by lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Second was to build bigger paychecks by building the infrastructure of america in a green way. And the third was cleaner government. On on the firsttier, i think that we can find Common Ground with the first two come i think that we can find Common Ground with the administration. That is very i. It is not an that is where we are. It is not unusual. It is not unusual for the house of representatives. Areas. To win at certain we are district by district. That is how we won last time. Continues and the momentum is there to help us win other positions as well. We will have a discussion and see where we go from here. Unity, unity, unity. Whoever our nominee is, we will support with respect for his or her position. Win. Ve made a decision to , yousaid to the members have to make every subsequent decision to win. Just stay on the path to victory. Country is a great country. It is so resilient. Time will take a toll. Whoever theial that nominee is will have our wholehearted support. Thank you all very much. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. We will discuss the latest on Global Response to the coronavirus outbreak. Congressman tim ryan. Watch cspans washington journal. Join the discussion. On friday. Coverage the house is back to finish work on a bill that would ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including ecigarettes. Carolina, from south the first with senator Bernie Sanders and the other for president trump. Secretary of state mike pompeo justifies before the House Affairs committee towards iran and iraq followed by Amy Klobuchar campaigning in falls church, virginia. On cspan3, our coverage gets underway at 7 20 with Trump Administration officials among the speakers. Cspan, your unfiltered view of inernment, created by cable 1979 and brought to you by your television provider. Here is our land coverage. The house is back to finish work on a bill that would ban the e of all