I dont have to tell anyone viewing this program that our and the world are facing an unprecedented series of crises. We are dealing with the coronavirus, which is spreading throughout this country and throughout the world. We are dealing with a growing economic meltdown, which will impact tens of millions of workers in this country. We are dealing with a political crisis as well. I think the main point to be thistonight is that in moment of crisis, it is imperative that we stand , understand that right now, throughout this country, there are so many of our people wondering what is going to happen to me tomorrow. In my own city, burlington, vermont, bars and restaurants have been shut down. Schools have been shut down. What happens to all of the people that lose their jobs . What happens to all of the people who tonight worry they may have the coronavirus but not the resources to get the test they need or the treatment they need . This is a moment that we have together andking Going Forward together. What i wanted to do tonight along with you is to talk about a series of proposals that we are working on right now and will introduce to the democratic leadership as to how we can best go forward. In this unprecedented moment, this will require an unprecedented amount of money. My own guess is that we will be spending at least 2 trillion in funding to prevent deaths, job losses, and avoid an economic catastrophe. Let me just go over some of the issues. We will be posting these ideas tomorrow on our website. This is what i would like. We certainly dont know it all. We want to hear from you, not only your ideas about how to best go forward, to best go forward, talk about your experiences. In every state, there is a different level of crisis. And every occupation, there is a different level of concern. Please communicate with us so that we can get the best understanding possible about what is going on in our country. And how together, we can come up with some effective remedies. Let me start off with the bases. Basics. From my perspective and your perspectives, we need to make certain that everybody in our country who needs to go to a doctor can get the health care they need regardless of their income. This is kind of a nobrainer. Something that should have happened in our country many, many years ago. But in the midst of this crisis. What i believe we must do is empower medicare to cover all medical bills during this emergency. All. Is not medicare for we cant pass that right now, but what this does say is that if you are uninsured, if you are underinsured, if you have high ifuctibles, high copayments, you have outofpocket expenses, medicare will cover those expenses so that everybody, regardless of their Health Care Needs, and im not just talking about the coronavirus, but their Health Care Needs in a mist of this crisis will get midst of this crisis will get all the health care they need. We need to make sure, furthermore, that as we go forward, we are effectively prepared to deal with the Health Care Crisis we are facing. That means that we need to make sure that the hospitals have all of the icu units and ventilators that are needed to respond to this crisis. What the fear is, as you know, is that there will be a surge of patients coming into the hospitals and that we will not have the equipment that we need to deal with that crisis. Frankly, it is incomprehensible why, in the wealthiest country on earth we are not better prepared. Be that as it may, in my view, the federal government must work aggressively with the private sector to make sure this equipment is available to hospitals and the rest of the medical community. In other words, federal government must take the responsibility of working with the private sector and saying, this is a major priority, you are to get the job done. Addition,s crisis, in we need to mobilize medical residents, people in medical school, retired medical professionals and other medical personnel to help us deal with this crisis. One of the great fears that we are facing right now is that doctors, themselves and nurses themselves will become ill. If our front line defense in the injured,rofession is is made sick, is not able to treat the american people, that is only going to make a very difficult situation even worse. Furthermore and again, this goes without saying, it has to be done immediately. We must massively increase the availability of test kits. Test kits for coronavirus and the speed at which the tests are processed. We must look to successful coronavirus testing models in other countries and throughout our own country and implement best practices here. Right now, there are communities and states all across this country that do not have the test kits. We have to aggressively address that. In my view, we need to use existing Emergency Authority under the defense production act to dramatically scale up production in the United States of critical supplies such as masks, ventilators and protective equipment that our Health Care Workers need. It is again, quite unbelievable that we have a short supply of masks, and of doctors and nurses dont have the masks that they need, it is going to be very difficult for them to provide the care that patients require. We need to utilize the National Army corps of engineers and other military resources to deal with this crisis. All forces must be immediately activated to build mobile hospitals on testing facilities, assist providers, reopen hospitals that have been shut down and expand our Health Care Capacity in underserved areas. One of the ongoing crisis but our Health Care System faces, y parts of this country people cant find a doctor or a hospital 200 miles away from them. We have to address that reality in the midst of this crisis today. We need to dramatically expand Community Health centers which provide primary care, dental care and Mental Health care as well as low cost prescription drugs to nearly 30 million americans including some of the poorest and most vulnerable. We have a primary Health Care System which is in very bad shape. Even people who have insurance are having a hard time, in many cases, finding the doctors that they need. Expanding Community Health centers will be a significant step forward and making sure there are locations where people can get the testing they need, the treatment they need, the health care they need, in general. We are making sure that all of our people have the health care that they need, we must also respond to the growing economic crisis at this pandemic is causing. That means that we must make sure that everyone who has a job right now receives the paychecks that they need and does not lose their income. As we speak right now, think about the millions of workers who are being laid off in the tourism industry, and the fast food industry, and the restaurant industry, and the transportation industry. These are folks that dont have a lot of money, as all of you know. Some 40 of the people in this country cannot afford a 400 emergency. People are sitting out there saying, my god, what am i going to do . How do i take care of my families . That has got to be the Major Economic priority we address. How do we take care of the working families of this country who are negatively impacted by this crisis . Small and mediumsized ininesses, especially those severely impacted industries such as restaurants, bars on local retail, need immediate relief. We must tell these businesses who are being forced to lay off, in some cases, their entire staff, or possibly even shut down through no fault of their own, that we will not allow them to go out of business. The federal government will work with affected businesses to provide direct payroll costs for small and mediumsized businesses to keep workers employed until this crisis has passed. In other words, bottom line here, most important point is workers need to continue to get a paycheck even when their businesses are shut down. Further, we need to provide a casht emergency 2000 payment to every household in america every month for the duration of the crisis to provide them with the assistance they need to pay their bills and take care of their families. We are throwing out a lot of ideas. When you deal with the United States congress, you dont get everything you want. It will be picking and choosing. I think it is important for us tonight to discuss the various options that they have. One of those options is to make sure that people at least get a 2000 a month check to take care of the basic needs. Importantly, we must make certain that the government is getting this money into the hands of working families and the most vulnerable as quickly as possible. In other words, we dont want some sort of bureaucratic arrangement. We were talking about this weeks and months and people dont get the help they need. We must provide emergency unemployment assistance through anyone who loses their job through no fault of their own. Under the proposal im working on, everyone who loses a job, must qualify for Unemployment Compensation at 100 of their prior salary with a cap of 75,000 a year. In addition, those who depend on tips, waiters and waitresses and others, gig workers, Domestic Workers and independent contractors, must also qualify for Unemployment Insurance to make up for the income that they lose during this crisis. I think as many of you know, Unemployment Compensation does not cover every worker in america. There are millions of people exempt from unemployment. We have got to deal with that right now. It doesnt matter what work you are doing. If you lose your job, you need unemployment. Further, we need to make sure that people with disabilities and families with children have access to decent, quality food. That means expanding the meals on wheels program, the School Meals Program and food stamps so that no one goes hungry during this crisis and everyone who cannot leave their home can receive nutritious meals delivered directly to where they live. That is as basic as you can get in america during this crisis. People must not go hungry. We must place an immediate moratorium on evictions, on foreclosures, and utility shut offs, and suspend payment on Mortgage Loans for primary residences and utility bills. In other words, it would be unacceptable that people could lose their homes, lose their apartments, see electricity or gas shut offs during this crisis. There must be a moratorium on all of those areas. Furthermore, we must restore Utility Services to any customers who have had their utilities are shut off. In america right now, you have a whole lot of folks who dont have Running Water in their homes because they havent been able to pay their water bill. They may not have electricity, and that has got to be dealt now. Right we must also provide funding for states and localities to provide rental assistance for the duration of this crisis. In addition, we need to waive all student loan payments for the duration of the emergency. Longterm, as i think all of you know, it is vital we must cancel all student debt a make public colleges and universities and trade schools tuition free. That is the view that i have held for a long time. But right now, at the very least, we must make sure that nobody is obliged to pay their student loan right now. Furthermore, we must ensure that the homeless are survivors of Domestic Violence and College Students quarantined offcampus are able to receive the shelter, the health care and nutrition they need and connect those individuals with social services to ensure nobody is left behind. We must also utilize empty hotel beds and other Vacant Properties to ensure that everyone in this country is safely housed during this crisis. We cannot forget that right now, tonight, there are some 500,000 people who are homeless, some in emergency shelters, some sleeping out on the street. Our job is to make sure that everyone is safely housed during this crisis. Further, we must protect farmers. Insurancetend crop and emergency loans to all affected farmers, extend Rural Development loans and expand the Emergency Food Assistance Program to help alleviate hunger throughout the country and support our farmers throughout this country. We already have a major crisis in terms of familybased agriculture in america. Thousands and thousands of family farmers are losing their farms. We have to stop that process right now. Finally, we must make sure that our response to this health and economic crisis is not another moneymaking opportunity for Corporate America and for wall street. Let me underline that. Thisst make certain that health and economic crisis is not another moneymaking opportunity for Corporate America and for wall street. We need to establish an Oversight Agency to ensure that no one is profiting off of the economic painandsuffering of our people in the midst of this crisis. And imagine emergency credit or loans as a result of this crisis must come with strict protections and benefits for workers, for unions and for stringss, not no attached handouts for large corporations and their executives. We will be crisis, on stock buybacks and bonuses for executives ban stock buybacks and bonuses for executives. We will make certain any corporation that benefits from emergency aid is not layoff workers, pays workers a livable wage, and does not rip off consumers. That companiesre that get bailouts are required to sell equity to the government and put workers on their board of directors. We need to prevent price gouging pharmaceutical companies. As soon a Coronavirus Vaccine is developed, it must be sold for free. This is not an opportunity for some Drug Companies to make a fortune by charging an outrageous price for the medicine that people need in order to stay alive. All prescription drugs developed with taxpayer dollars must be sold at a reasonable price. The pharmaceutical industry must be told in no Uncertain Terms that the medicines that they manufacture for this crisis will be sold at cost. This is not the time for profiteering or price gouging. We have covered a lot of territory tonight. This is what i would very much appreciate. This is an outline proposal that i will be introducing to the Senate Leadership and working with the democratic leadership to implement. It is important for me to hear your comments. We will have this outline up tomorrow in a little bit clearer away on our website. We need to to that, know what you are experiencing right now. It is hard to write proper legislation if we are not familiar with the kinds of pain and problems that people all across this country are facing. Let me just conclude by once again thinking all of you for being with us tonight. Understand that what this country is experiencing right now is something we have never experienced in the modern history of this country. That is number one, a major pandemic which threatens the health and lives of millions of people. On top of that, and economic crisis which threatens the jobs and income of many, many, many millions of people. We have some major crises, but i have this strong belief that if notork together, if we do turn to fear and panic, but if we understand that the way we solve this is by Going Forward as one people, remembering those who are hurting tonight and well be hurting in the future, this is the richest country in the history of the world. This is a country with unbelievable energy, unbelievable talent, incredible resources. We can do it. We can address this crisis. We can minimize the pain, and lead do just that. Let us go Forward Together and i look forward to continuing to communicate with you, to tell you where we are coming from, what our ideas are and look forward to hearing from you as to what your ideas are and what your situation is. Once again, thank you very much for joining us this evening. Good night. Season,g this election the candidates beyond the talking points are only revealed over time. Since you cant be everywhere, there is cspan. Our campaign 2020 programming differs from all other political coverage for one simple reason, cspan. We have brought you your unfiltered view of government every day since 1979. This year, we are bringing you an unfiltered view of the people looking to steer that government this november. In other words, your future. This election season, go deep, direct and unfiltered. See the biggest picture for yourself and make up your own mind. With cspan campaign 2020. Brought to you as a Public Service by your television provider. President trump tweeted this morning, we will be by mutual consent, temporarily closing our northern border to canada to nonessential traffic. Trade will not be affected. Details to follow