Cspan. Org coronavirus. First, je this morning is congressman mcgovern, the chair of the rules committee, democrat from massachusetts, joining us on the phone about a new report put out examining the options for congress to vote during this covid19 pandemic. Thank you for your time this morning. Guest my pleasure. Host tell us why congress cannot vote remotely as it is right now. Guest we would have to change our rules to do that. If one person objected, we would be forced to have a vote, and everyone would have to come back and cast a vote. If we move forward on anything, any changes, it has to be in a bipartisan way where there is no objection. There is a growing consensus given what is happening in this country, that there are some members who just cant get here. We have to figure out a way to deal with that. One way to deal with that is to try to work and a bipartisan way on the nature of legislation that will need to be dealt with and pass it by unanimous consent where everyone is ok with it. We will see if that can happen with the bill today. Not we cantw, if do bipartisan consent, we will have to find other ways. Some people are suggesting we vote remotely. Others are suggesting may be proxy voting. That would, again, have to adjust the rules. All of these alternatives, we have some constitutional challenges, logistical challenges, security challenges. Even though some of these things sound simple and matteroffact, in real life it is pretty complicated. Host what are your options . How would it work, some of the options you have . Guest for example, if we had proxy voting by unanimous consent we would pass a measure that would change the rules. Members could notify a member how they wouldup vote on something and that person could cast the vote for the member that couldnt be there. Some talked about remote voting by ways of facetime and other means. Technology has clearly advanced, but that is challenging too. To everybody is hooked up the appropriate technology to be able to do this right off the bat, number one. There are Security Issues if china, russia, or iran wanted to Block Communications they can mess things up in terms of members being able to communicate directly with what is happening in washington. We are going to figure this out. I have had a lot of good bipartisan conversations. For now, my hope is that whatever the final package is that we are going to vote on will be something that might be able to move by way of unanimous consent. Host how quickly are you trying to figure this out . Are you trying to put this in place before the vote on the package . Is this something youre looking at for additional packages in the coming weeks . Again, if we have a problem with todays vote, we will have to do something immediately. More for this is future bills we might work on consensusot have the that i hope the bill today will have. Well see. The deal was reached last night and many of us have not read all the details. We know we made some progress in areas, but i havent been able to look at everything it. We will find out at everything yet. We will find out how this plays out later in the day. Host when were you told the house will attempt this unanimous consent vote . Guest we havent been told anything yet. The bill was reached last night and we need to review it. My hope is we will act on this bill one way or another, by unanimous consent or figure out another way to do it as expeditiously as possible. Our economy is at a standstill. Are inf my constituents a very desperate state right now. A lot of them are out of jobs. A lot of Small Businesses are shut down. We need to do something to help regular people. What we have insisted on, the package cannot just be a bailout for fortune 500 companies, and only help the welloff and wellconnected. It has to help real people, average people, working people. It also has to help those who are most vulnerable. I think we have made some progress in that direction. We will look at the bill today and determine if we have made enough progress. We need to do something right now. Speaker told you that they will try today to have a unanimous consent vote . Guest i havent communicated with the speaker this morning us, but my view is all of are committed to moving something expeditiously as possible. We have a crisis on our hands, us people are none of could have anticipated we would be here. People are in desperate need of support. There are a lot of Small Businesses who need help. There are cities and towns that need help. First responders that need help. You can go right down the list. We need to do something by unanimous consent or figure out another way so we can cast votes. We need to do something as quickly as possible. We should have been on this, to be honest with you we should have been dealing with this crisis a lot sooner. We were told by our intelligence agencies this would turn into something very severe. For too long this administration has been very easy street. This package will help. I dont think it will be the only package. We will have to come back on at least another occasion, may be multiple occasions, to deal with multiple packages. We will have to make sure we have a process in place that will allow everyone to dissipate and vote. I think we can work with republicans on this, or alternatives that make sense. Then we have to figure out, once we get through this crisis in the long term, how we deal with this in the future so we arent dealing with it in the middle of a crisis. Back if you have to come and vote again, and you want to make changes, as we were discussing from the report you put out, that would allow members to vote remotely or proxy vote, what are the constitutional questions with that . Know, one it is a major change. The constitution talks about congress gathering together, people gathering together. Check with constitutional experts. There are a lot of constitutional scholars who say there is no problem. There are others who say we are not so sure. When we get to proxy voting, there is a history of proxy voting in committees. Not on the house floor, but in committees. If anyone wants to challenge it, there is some precedent. I think we could deal with that. The challenge is always in the logistics, how you implement this. Proxy voting would probably be easier in the short term than remotely voting by way of facetime or other technology. Some of this is manageable, but we need to work out the details. Here is my hope. At least in the immediate term we can come together in a bipartisan way and do what is good for the country. I have no doubt that this bill that is coming before us is not going to be to the liking of everyone in the house. It is certainly not perfect from my point of view. My values are not the same values of the president. But nonetheless, at the end of the day, we have to decide if there are enough things and they are that i think are important for my constituents and the away with the things im not terribly thrilled with. That is the question all members will have to ask themselves. The overall package, when you weigh all of the equities, is this something that will benefit our country come help our constituents . That is where all of us are going to be what all of us are going to be asking ourselves today. In the preliminary reports i have received, speaking as a democrat, there are things we have made progress on. I want to thank leader schumer and speaker of the house nancy pelosi for insisting this bill become more focused on people than corporations. There are some safeguards in there to make sure this is implemented in a way that will actually help the people and businesses we want to help. Host thank you for spending some time with us house set to return tomorrow for a pro forma session only, 11 00 a. M. Eastern, as they await Senate Action on the Coronavirus Response measure, the third measure, the 2 trillion measure approved by Senate Leaders last night off the floor. Here we are live on capitol hill once again for another briefing this one from the House Republican leader kevin mccarthy. It should get under way shortly here. You may have seen a briefing an hour ago or so with republican senators, that measure approved by the majority and minority leader of the senate last night in negotiation with the white house has yet to come to the senate floor. The senate is currently considering the motion to proceed to that legislation. Senators scott, graham and sasse have some issues with it. Our capitol hill producer craig kaplan saying they note a massive drafting error in the current version could have devastating consequences unless this bill is fixed, theres a strong incentive for employees tore laid off instead of going to work. You can see all their concerns, hear about their concerns in that briefing we covered an hour ago or so. You can find that at cspan. Org coronavirus. In response to that, vermont independent senator and democratic candidate Bernie Sanders just tweeted a short while ago saying unless republican senators drop their objections to the coronavirus legislation, im prepared to put a hold on this bill until stronger conditions are imposed on the 500 million corporate welfare fund. The senate as we mentioned is working on the motion to proceed debate on the legislation specifically awaiting a couple of votes on the senate floor and those votes have yet to be announced. A 1 00 vote for today was postponed for a later time. You can follow the Senate Coverage of course over on cspan2. Here on cspan, we hear from kevin mccarthy, his news briefing coming up shortly. Two minutes. Kevin mccarthy, the republican leader in the house set to brief reporters shortly. The house not in session today. They have a pro forma session today as they await action by the senate on the third Coronavirus Response legislation. The majority leader, steny hoyer, said earlier today, he said that, quote, before we can determine when and how the house will consider this legislation, we must have the final legislative text and clear direction on when the senate will vote. I remain committed to giving house members 24 hours notice before the house acts. So again, as far as we know, tomorrows session, so far in the house, jaust pro forma session. But we will keep you posted. Thats set for 11 00 a. M. Eastern. Mr. Mccarthy good afternoon. As a four, a husband and a son, my first responsibility is to protect the health, the safety and the security of those who i represent. For anyone who is affected with this virus, whether you lost a loved one, maybe youre battling it, maybe you lost your job, what i want to say is were working for you. Thats why im glad the senate has come to an agreement an they need to act. They need to act now. For over a week, House Republicans have worked with our colleagues in the senate to put together a really bold relief package in this time