Time unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell briefs reporters about the economic aid package making its way through congress. This is 15 minutes. Sen. Mcconnell good afternoon, everyone. Let me give you a report on where we are. Obviously we need to act. We finally got a completed bill from the house yesterday. We need to continue ensuring that frontline healthcare workers have all the resources they need. We need to directly help American Workers and families face this uncertain. We are examining policy tools to put money directly and quickly into the hands of american families. We also need to move swiftly and boldly in a major way to help american Small Businesses survive this disruption and thrive. We are preparing bold steps to ensure main street can access liquidity and credit during this extraordinary time. Since let me outline what we are doing. I have divided and created three task forces among Senate Republicans. Each of them tasked with coming up with what should be described as the next bill. We are trying to reach an agreement as to what Senate Republicans and the administration favor doing next. With regard to the bill that came over from the house, there was some discussion whether to amend that because we all know the bigger proposal is necessary, but i have decided we will go a long as soon as the senate can get permission to vote on the bill from the house, send it to the president for his signature and reassure the people around the country that we can operate on a bicameral and bipartisan basis quickly. Second, the senate will not leave until we have passed another bill, and clearly that will have to go in two steps. Senate republicans and the administration are going to try to reach an agreement on what we think is best for what could best be described as phase three. Then we will sit down with our democratic counterparts and see what we can agree to. The senate will not leave town until we have processed another bill to address this emergency. With that, i am happy to take questions. Reporter President Trump suggested social distancing may be required through the summer. Would that mean the 1000 being talked about would go on until then . Sen. Mcconnell all of those things we will address in the bill we are beginning to write already. I cannot tell you details yet, but we know an additional bill of larger proportions is necessary to meet the crisis. It would bend the health care curve, that will determine how long this emergency lasts. It basically puts us in the unusual position in effect shutting down the American Economy in order to meet these health concerns. If we can get on top of the Health Care Concerns and then to the curve, we hope this will be of limited duration. Reporter are you saying and creating these task forces, you are not willing to get on board with any element of the proposal so far . Sen. Mcconnell we will take up and pass the house bill as soon as the senate gives us permission to do it. Senate republicans in conjunction with the administration will write the next bill. We will then discuss with the democrats what we can agree to pass, which will take 60 votes. The details of that have not been determined. Reporter the administration is talking about up to 1 trillion. Does that sound like a reasonable level . Sen. Mcconnell the details will be worked out as i just outlined, so i cannot give you an answer, particularly on the overall cost. We have not determined that in the final determination will be made in consultation with our democratic colleagues. We are not leaving town until we have constructed and passed a bill. Phase three would be the best. Reporter are any democrats going to be on these task forces . And at what point the republicans become comfortable in spending 1 trillion at this point . Sen. Mcconnell the first step is for republicans to largely agree on what we think is best to address this emergency and second, we will consult with the democratic colleagues and see what we can agree to. And we will stay here until we reach a bipartisan agreement and achieve 60 votes to pass it. Reporter what is your approximation given any further indication from the white house is expecting . For Cash Payments to americans . When would that be . Sen. Mcconnell anything that requires legislation will not move until we can pass it. There are things they can do on their own. Reporter i am questioning if you have any idea sen. Mcconnell they will do what they can do as quick as they can. The rest will require legislation. The first thing we will do is take up and pass the bill from the house, and the second phase outlined a couple of times already and that is the way we will go forward. Reporter there is a lag time in repaying Small Businesses. Can you address the concern about that for Small Businesses . And when stimulus gets through congress, are you considering reassessing the senate . Sen. Mcconnell a number of my members endure considerable shortcomings in the house bill. My counsel to them is to vote for it anyway even if it has shortcomings, and address the shortcomings in the bill we are crafting. I cannot predict how long we will be here, but we will be here as long as it takes and get another measure beyond the one that comes over from the house. Reporter we have been told that a number of republicans are working on potentially voting from home. Sen. Mcconnell we will not be doing that. There are a number of ways to avoid getting a number of people together. Just to give you a hypothetical, it is not set in stone. The rollcall vote only goes on for 15 minutes. We can lengthen the amount of time for the rollcall vote, people can come over in small groups, we will deal with the social distancing issue without fundamentally changing the senate rules. Reporter people are still going to the supermarket and seeing uncertainty. What do you want to tell them . Sen. Mcconnell the way to indicate certainty is doing what we are talking about, bipartisan bicameral action. That will happen on the house bill as soon as we can clear whatever procedural issues and get it down to the president for the signature, and then we are going to move here at warp speed for the senate. I think everyone sees the urgency of moving on another bill and we intend to do that. Reporter senator paul once a wants an amendment vote to move quickly, will you give him an amendment vote . Sen. Mcconnell you will have to ask him. Usually he wants to offer an amendment to pay for these kinds of bills. He is usually willing to let us have that vote. That will be the case this time. Reporter eventually will have to make a deal with senator schumer, why not do that first . Sen. Mcconnell i think the best way to proceed is the way i outlined, then we will have a clear indication where most republicans are, and then we will sit down and talk with colleagues and reach an agreement. Reporter what about reports to send National Unity . Sen. Mcconnell sure, and that will be underscored by the overwhelming bipartisan vote of the house passed bill and ultimately bipartisan support for another bill that will originate in the senate. Reporter discussions about the jobs act needs corrections to help retailers and Small Businesses. Will those come up during the course of this discussion, and might that bring up how bad the tax cuts work . Sen. Mcconnell the goal is to deal with this emergency and anything that doesnt address that, then it should not be considered. We are working on trying to deal with this Public Health crisis which we are trying to bend the curve on quickly, and anything that addresses that, Small Businesses and individuals on a shortterm basis, we hope we will begin to bend the curve and get back to normal because the underlying economy before all this came along was in very good shape. Reporter can you talk about the moment that republicans became ok with spending 1 trillion . Was it the stock market . Is it the health risk . What shifted among the party . Sen. Mcconnell i have been through a few of these. I was here at 9 11, during the financial crisis of 2008. I was here during the fiscal cliff. We occasionally have these great crises and when they occur we are able to rise above our normal partisanship and many times our normal positions because these are not normal times. This is not an ordinary situation, and it requires extraordinary measures. Reporter is there a role for congress to play for icu beds, ventilators as the spread becomes more worse . Sen. Mcconnell all of that deals with the substance of measures we were about to pass or will pass soon. The contents are being negotiated. Reporter are you satisfied with what you are getting from the federal government . Sen. Mcconnell we are not satisfied with where we are or we would not turn to another bill, and we will do that shortly. I will take one more because we are getting repetitive. Reporter can you say what senators have been put on the task force . Sen. Mcconnell what i have said, you cannot have 53 people write the bill. I have picked out groups of people to do with three separate categories and told everyone else who has a good idea to funnel that because this is a herculean task. To craft something this significant with 53 people just cant be done, so everyone has a way to funnel in their particular suggestions. These task forces will be working with the Treasury Department to see if we can reach a republican consensus. My understanding is senator schumer has laid out where they are. I am in the process of crafting where we are and that is a time to sit down and make a deal and that is the time to do it. What is the three task force, how do you divide them . Sen. Mcconnell in a sensible way, it is not particularly newsworthy. Reporter [inaudible] sen. Mcconnell i think you are getting too far into the weeds. Our goal will be to try to move forward and then you will be hearing from us as we move along crafting the measure that republicans will be behind. Then we will sit down with senator schumer. Thanks a lot. Reporter could that vote the as early as today . [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] cspans washington journal, coming up this morning we will discuss the latest on the coronavirus and the u. S. Response to the outbreak. Then efforts to slow down the spread of the virus with Population Program health of Thomas Jefferson university. Watch cspans washington a. M. Al, live at 7 00 eastern this morning. Join the discussion. Senators went to the floor to discuss the house passed a package that is endorsed by President Trump. Here is what they had to say starting with Senate Majority ad