How we go forward. As always, i begin with our concern about our workers. On monday, we focused on the urgent continued need for personal protective equipment and ventilators. America, men and women are risking their lives to keep us safe because they do not have the personal protective equipment they need. Heroic healthcare workers are falling ill from the very disease they are working to treat. Theonly do they need ventilators to care for the people that they are there to serve, its not Just Healthcare workers, it is our first responders, tsa officers, grocery workers other frontline workers are being put in jeopardy, and then they jeopardize their families at home when they go home. When these workers are left exposed and fall ill, they cannot care for the rest of us. It is in their interest that we need this. I have said again and again, we are unworthy to call them heroes. We are not worthy to thank them, to pray for them if we are not willing to give them the equipment that they need. Thats why we call upon the president to use the full powers of the defense production act for the health of our frontline workers, which we tried to get in the first three covid19 bills and we hope that it will be possible in the next bill as people see the urgency. We are pushing the administration to work more benefitso deliver the of the cares act. We are glad to see the administration reversed its act to require seniors on Social Security to file tax returns in order to receive their correct payment. We encourage the president to open a special Enrollment Period on the aca exchanges. Americans who are uninsured or on one of trumps Junk Health Insurance plans will be the most exposed. Without quality care, hospitalization could cost patients tens of thousands of dollars. Democrats will continue to fight for a special Enrollment Period for coronavirus treatment in bill 4. Again, we note that this is an assault on the good health and lives of the american people. It is also an assault on their livelihood. It is an economic urgency as we confront the epidemic. We saw the estimates of more than 100,000 americans could die and it is a heartbreaking figure and we have to do everything we can to make sure that does not happen. Millions of americans are losing their jobs and at the same time their wages. More than 6. 6 million filing for unemployment this week alone. Doesnt that take your breath away . The virus does, too. 6. 6 million filings of unemployment. Every day we see the need for further action. The virus is moving swiftly and communities cannot afford for us to wait. Democrats have continued our work in Conference Calls with frontline personnel and each other sharing information on the status of the coronavirus response. Yesterday we put forth a plan to invest in infrastructure. Even before knowing the 6. 6 millions filing for unemployment. Even when it was half of that, we knew we had to move to recovery. As we have set in every presentation, the first couple of bills were about addressing the emergency. The next bill, the one signed by the president on friday was a bill for mitigation for the damage to our economy. We still continue on emergency and mitigation but the next bill will focus on recovery. That is why we put forward our plan to invest in our infrastructure, addressing the impacts and vulnerabilities in america that had been laid further bear by the virus. The need for job creating actions are even more critical. Getting back to the 6. 6 on unemployment. Staggering figure. We are building on the moving forward infrastructure framework with investments that include, by the way we announced much of this on january 29. You will recognize it. What we did yesterday was the Community Health centers under the leadership it will include extra investment for Community Health centers on the front lines of the fight against coronavirus. Clean water is part of our infrastructure proposal and it has always been necessary. Clean water, wastewater, and infrastructure are critical to limit the spread of the virus. Broadband, telemedicine, teleworking, and the increase use of social media connecting with loved ones during this epidemic has made access to highspeed broadband more critical than ever. We have taken a big lead on this, we have a task force on it. Even kids who might get a free laptop from philanthropy, they have to go someplace else to be able to connect. We want that to be something they can do all over america, highspeed broadband. We had 25 billion in the third bill. We need more. For a strong recovery, we must have safe infrastructure that is meant to last. Reducing air pollution that harms Public Health. These are directly related to the coronavirus challenge. We will be adding education and housing components related to the virus as well. House democrats will continue to work to put workers and Families First as we work to respond to the Public Health emergency, mitigate the damage, and include provisions as we move forward to recovery. I wanted, as we talk about the challenge that we face, to move quickly and effectively to deal with the opportunities available in the cares act. We want to be helpful to them in any way that we can. At the same time, i am announcing the formation of a Bipartisan Committee to be shared by jim clyburn called the select committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. The Committee Chairs and leadership and republican leadership, this is a house select committee. The greatness of our nation is in its ability to rise to extraordinary challenges no matter how big. Now it is a time, we face a deadly virus and a battered economy with millions out of work. Congress has taken an important step in meeting this crisis by passing three bills. There was 2 trillion in emergency relief. We need to make sure those dollars are spent carefully. Our country face a similar challenge during world war ii. Billions were going to be spent quickly to defeat a global menace. Harry truman recognized the emergency of oversight and accountability in making sure the money did what it was supposed to do. The senate agreed and put senator truman in charge of the committee to investigate the National Defense program. That is what it was called. Years later, president truman looked back at that time and summarized his view. He said, i knew that after world war i, there were 116 investigating committees after the fact and i felt that one committee before the fact would prevent ways to save some lives and that is the way it worked out. President truman could not have been more right. The Truman Committee turned into tremendous vestment for taxpayers. Its total cost was less than 1 million and it saved money by preventing fraud and abuse and profiteering. What made since then makes even more sense now. In the coming months, the money will be spent on rescue efforts. We have no higher priority than to make sure those moneys get to working families struggling to put food on the table who need it most. That is why the house will be creating an Oversight Panel to make sure that the money and additional funds come with legislation and is spent wisely and effectively. The panel will protect against price gouging, profiteering, and favoritism. We will press to ensure that the federal response is best and guided by the nations based health experts. The committee on the coronavirus would be bipartisan and have an expert staff. Will be empowered to examine all aspects of the responsibilities of the virus and ensure that taxpayer dollars are being wisely and efficiently spent to save lives, deliver relief, and benefit the economy. There are many suggestions about what we do next and the rest. What im saying is what president truman said. We should be acting before the fact to prevent fraud and abuse. That is not just from the federal government. We are looking at how the private sector react to the funds they receive as well. I want to go back to the need for another bill. We talked about some of the issues that relate to state and local government. Democratic and republican governors and mayors own statements call for more funding. It is so important. Hospitals and Healthcare Systems are crying out for assistance. I can further answer your questions about that if you wish. The regulation that we tried to get into 1, 2, and three. It is more necessary and obvious that we need to protect our workers. Medical leave, it needs to be clear who can take advantage of that opportunity. Pensions is something that we agreed to, even the president agreed. Leader mcconnell did not and said we would do it in another bill. Here is another bill. Snap, we did not get all that we wanted in terms of food, nutrition, etc. In the previous bill. We have more needs, so we need more resources to feed the hungry. And i come back to the free treatment. If we are saying that testing is free, then everything about it should be free, and we do not want people having to incur costs for doctors visits and the rest to be tested. Testing, testing, testing. I will end there, because that is where we began on march 4, with the first bill that we passed. Since the first bill, we have had two other bills we have moved to address the needs, and i hope we will be able to do that with the fourth bill, because whether someone in washington realizes it or not, this virus is taking its toll very quickly and we need to be in front of it rather than behind it. With that, i am pleased to take any questions you may have. Thank you. We would like to open the full the phone lines for any question. If you have a question, please use star one and record your name when prompted. Our first question comes from the new york daily news. Your line is open. Hi, madam speaker. Thanks for doing this call. We all appreciate it. You are mentioned that you mentioned starting the select committee, and we heard reports of materials going to states that do not ask for as much as they are getting, and a letter was written today asking for some transparency, because there are hospitals in new york that are having orders diverted. Is there anything you can do to bring transparency so that we know where these orders are going, who is making them, and what is happening with all that . Speaker pelosi that would be one of the purposes of the bill, and we need transparency and accountability. This is a story around the country, some areas having hotter spots than others, but these hospitals are hemorrhaging money because they do not have it. They do not have their original, shall we say, resources. It is an opportunity cost. They cannot do certain surgeries. They cannot do certain procedures that are usually the lifeblood of how a hospital succeeds, so that affords them the opportunity to care for those who cannot pay. We had a conversation with the secretary of hhs yesterday, and he talked about how they would be dispersing the money. My guidance to him, since he asked for my advice was to send it. Do not record it, spend it. We will get you more money as you need, as the demand, but spend the money. I am hoping they will do that. In terms of funding, in terms of equipment and the like, we really, our best friend on all of this is the press, is the Public Opinion on this, to shine a bright light on it. This is not in a negative way. This is to say, lets Work Together to get this done in the best possible way. Or are so many demands, so many concerns, and it is very emotional because people are dying. Lets see how we can Work Together to get this done. I do not think there would be any resistance to that. Again, the experience i have 230 some Members Around the country on calls every day for several hours reporting back what the situation is in their areas. You mentioned senator gillibrand, i spoke with leader schumer this morning, the new york situation really requires more resources, financial, technological, and support in every way. That would be one of the purposes, to say, how can we Work Together to make sure the resources get to where they are supposed to get in a priority time to save lives and again to keep people working . Thank you, michael. Thank you. Next we have ellen wilson from fox. Your line is open. Thank you, speaker pelosi, for holding the call. I have a twopart question. First, looking at these new jobs and unemployment numbers today and the staggering number, as you said, should congress consider passing more money for expanded ui, given the number of job claims being processed . Second, is there any consideration of a rent moratorium during the Coronavirus Crisis . Speaker pelosi the first question, yes. What we are trying to work with the administration now on is something that is really up to the states. The states need resources in order to administer the ui, and that is part of ui, how do they take in the filings and the rest . It is not uniform around the country. Some are much better prepared than others or have a different timetable. One of the things we may have to do is to get more resources to the state agencies that do this. Again, we want this done as soon as possible and we will not have another bill for a few weeks at least, because we are not here, but we can give some hope to people that that would be a priority. Should we again do the 600 . I certainly think so so people have the purchasing power to help them meet their needs, but also spend it and inject demand into the economy, provide stimulus as well as relief. We did have provisions in the cares act about a period of time, four months where there was encouraged to be mortgage forbearance, foreclosures, that has to be much stronger for renters. Especially for residents in the bill, for Small Businesses there are provisions about if you keep your employees employed, then at the end of the period, the loan you were given to keep your employees on, your utilities, your rent, that would be forgiven. That loan would be forgiven if you continue in that way. So on the rent from that standpoint, there is a consideration there, but i believe your question was more geared to residential. That is a very big challenge, and it is frightening to people because there is shelterinplace, and then they are evicted. How do we deal with that . There are some provisions in the care act, but we certainly must do more. Maxine waters is very much in the lead on all of this, so i thank her for that. Joining richie neal and bobby scott as well, minute to minute on that. Next we have cnn. Your line is open. Thank you. Madam speaker, there are some democrats who want to have a 9 11 commission to investigate what happened at the onset of this crisis. Do you support it . Would you support some sort of commission to investigate what happened initially, and when you support Something Like that happening before the election . Speaker pelosi i was a member of the 9 11 commission, and an author is of the legislation to pass the 9 11 commission, the hamilton hamilton king commission. So i am a big supporter of after action review. When i first introduced my bill, it passed in the intelligence committee. By the time it got to the floor a couple of days later, we were in the minority at the time, they are probably going to the republicans changed their mind and said it was treasonous to question how this happened. It took a while, the activism of the families affected by 9 11, and there was legislation that then went forward. I see the value of that. Hink right now i respect at least two of our chairmen have made a suggestion that that should happen, and something that affects our economy in such a major way, involves the allocation of so many trillions of dollars, we do have to subject to an after action review. Not to point fingers, but to make sure that it doesnt happen again in the manner in which it happened. Hopefully not at all. As i said on this committee, this select committee is about the here and now. Right now, we have to Work Together to get through this. As we do, we do not want to make more mistakes. I heard dr. Fauci say when they get the rebound, if this comes back in the fall or something, we will have hopefully some therapies, a vaccine or cure, later. I want to learn what are those lessons learned, what do we need to learn from what has happened before . Lets go forward with what we are doing now, but hold everybody accountable for decisions that are made in the here and now as to how we go forward. The best way to do that is with, as michael and i discussed earlier, transparency and accountability. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have paul cain from the washington post. Your line is open. Hi, madam speaker. Thanks for doing this. Can you explain in more detail what the clyburn select forgive me for not recognizing your voice. Paul allen from the washington post. Forgive me. Its ok, matt speaker. Can you explain in more detail what the clyburn select committees powers would be, subpoena power and jurisdiction . With a be looking into how this would they be looking into how this all started, or are they just supposed to be looking at the oversight of the 2 trillion plus, however much gets put into the recovery and rescue . Speaker pelosi it would have subpoena power, and we would hope there would be cooperation. This is not an investigation of the administration, it is about the whole there are things that are so new, and we want to make sure there are not exploiters out there. One of the cabinet officers told me yesterday that there are people who are pretending they had ventilators or masks, masks, and they didnt it was masks. They didnt have it, but they were arbitraging it. Where there is money, there is frequently mischief and we want to make sure that the funds that are put out there are done so with the conditions that we had in the legislation, that the implementation of the bill expeditiously, and anyway we can be helpful with having more transparency to get that done. But it does, as i said, say that it will protect against and also pressed to ensure that the federal responses based on the best possible science and guided by the nations best health experts. It will be to ensure that the taxpayers dollars are spent wisely and efficiently. Is there a need for after action review . Absolutely. People are putting their proposals forward. I do not want to wait for that, because we are in the action right now and i want to make sure that what we do and people have doubts. They are concerned about getting their unemployment check, concerned about their Small Businesses, all of those things. First and foremost, they want their workers to get their protective equipment and the rest. Again, we dont have it yet, we are saying why dont we have it now . That is what this is about. Thank you, paul. Thank you. Next we have lisa. Your line is open. Lisa, your line is open. Sorry, i was on mute. Thank you so much for doing the call, speaker pelosi. As you move forward with phase four, i was wondering if you could tell us a bit about your relations with the white house, if you had at all had a chance to speak with the president on this . Are you talking with secretary mnuchin as well . And as a second part question, if i could, you mentioned at the top dance, dont forget to dance. I was wondering if you could let us know a little bit your message to americans whose lives are dealing with all of this right now . Thank you. Speaker pelosi i am always advocating for prayer. I am a big believer in prayer, especially as it is coming up on holy week, that we will not be able to come together in this most glorious feast of my catholic faith and in the christian world. Christmas is our joyous occasion. Everyone loves christmas. Easter is our glorious holiday, because it is the article of faith, christ has risen. It is a very prayerful time, coming in the last days of lent now, palm sunday coming up, and it is a whole new experience for us to not be together for all of that. But we can be prayerful and have maybe a national day of prayer or something specifically to this. Some of my members are suggesting that. I would not suggest to dance instead of to pray, but i do think dancing has its own therapy, there is a certain joy to it, not to mention occasionally some exercise, and it is hard to shelter in place. It is a very hard thing for many families, so as long as they keep their distances from each other, i hope that people will find some joy in the glory of the holiday that is coming up, whether it is passover or it is the feast of, the glorious feast of easter, or mohammeds birthday, which is coming up soon as well. If it hasnt already happened it is usually around the same time as the easter, passover i was in jerusalem when it was easter, passover, and mohammeds birthday, so that was quite a glorious time. To your question, i spoke with secretary mnuchin as recently as last evening. I was happy about the changing the requirement that our seniors had to make some other filing in order to get their check, so we talked about that, but we also talked about what has happened, how we can implement it as quickly as possible, and of course, they know that i want to go forward. The president has always talked about infrastructure. Sorry, secretary mnuchin has been in communication with richie neal, you might want to speak to him, because when we were doing the u. S. Mexicocanada trade agreement, they said, when we get through this, we can move onto infrastructure. They said when we get through thatt we can move on has been accelerated now because we need clean water, we need what case do we need to make for that, right . We need clean water that is in our bill, we need broadband so we can address peoples needs with telemedicine and the rest, as i said earlier, and we need more Community Health enters. That is in addition to our original bill, and we need mobility. We need to get people to work, products to market, produce to peoples tables and the rest, so these provisions are directly related to Coronavirus Crisis that we face. Whatever communication we need to move forward, that will be happening, whether i talked to the president or not. As i said yesterday, that is a historic occasion, when the president and speaker speak. It is usually done on an as needed basis. It is not casual. It is historic, it is a record. It will probably go into whatever his records are, mine where mine are, but it is not, lets just chat. It is about, what is the purpose, what is the urgency . What requires the time of the speaker and the president , both of whom are very busy people . Thank you, lisa. Thank you. Our final question comes from the washington post. Your line is open. Thank you, madam speaker. The last thing the world needs is to see me dance, that is for sure. Speaker pelosi there is an irish quote it is a blessing. Sing as if no one can hear you, dance as if no one can see you, love as if you have never loved before, and live as if heaven is on earth. So dance as if no one can see you. Then i am in, so thank you so much. Speaker pelosi i asked if that was a family irish quote, and they said no, it is on a poster at shannon airport. Anyway. I love that. Thank you. Given the nature of the downturn, how long would you extend the provisions of ui, and could you talk a bit more about aid to states who are really going to get hammered, and also what you would do with the snap program. The second question. Speaker pelosi that was three. A twopart question. The second, how do you move senator mcconnell to be interested in doing any of this . Speaker pelosi in terms of the downturn, we have to make a judgment as we go forward as to how long this will last. But we do have to have, the economy lets say we are very concerned about our workers. That is what unifies us as democrats. Our support for americas working families. That is above the highest priority. However, it isnt just that. It is about what it means to the economy at large. It is stimulus. It is relief, but it is also a stimulus. We have to recognize the value of it. Again, we would rather people go back to work. You are on Unemployment Insurance if you have been furloughed or fired. You cannot quit work and go get ui. Some of the fights we have had with others here is they say oh, people go on ui because they do not want to work. No, if you quit your job, you do not go on ui. If you are fired or furloughed, you get ui. That is the way it is. We have a philosophical challenge. In addition to which, 49 republicans voted against the 600, 600 for people who are out of work. Fortunately, that was not a majority of the senate and not the 60 required, but senator mcconnell voted for that. I think he did, he voted for that. In any event, again, we always have to make a judgment about what is needed. Hopefully not. Hopefully we have a cure and a light at the end of the tunnel is that cure. But if we do not and do not address the economic consequences of this, the light at the end of the tunnel could be a proverbial train coming at us. These are, again, should we say people Oriented Solutions that have a tremendous impact on the economy, and that seems to be what the white house is very concerned about, in addition to their concern for workers. Aid to the states, very important. We had 200 billion in our bill. It came to 150 and neither was enough. It was a down payment, and this is democrats and republicans, senators, governors and mayors i cannot show you right here, but i have their statements and proposals that they put forth. They really need the assistance. How do we use the tax code . How do we use the appropriations process . How do we use policy in order to make sure that they get the most value and the most money so that they can meet the needs of their people . I mean, they were busy people before the coronavirus, meeting the needs of the people in their cities and states and municipalities. We also have to implore the fed to do what it can to help municipalities and states where they can. They do not need more debt. They would like to see it in a way that is recognizing the are recognizing that these are extraordinary expenses, they are not the cost of operating a state on a normal circumstance. I hope that we would have a shell on the bill, and the word shall is there, but they followed it with shall endeavor to. I know that secretary mnuchin is very much interested in this. Chairman powell, i have spoken to him. He says think big in what you are doing in your bill, and we want him to think big too. We have not thought big enough, because we have these needs for state and local governments, and that is probably the biggest leverage to get another bill. Democrats and republicans, mayors and governors insisting that the need is there. And they are also a big, strong force for the defense production act being enforced by the president , they are big supporters of the ppe, the personal protective equipment that workers need. All of the equipment that is needed to meet the needs of our working people. They have been a strong force, and hopefully, will help us make the case for another bill. But we will pass our bill. Let me do snap before we go to the snap, we had good language in the bill, but we need more. We wanted a 15 increase in snap benefits, because that is what we saw as the need. We will be having a conversation among members later today or tomorrow, every day we are on the phone for hours and different chairs of the committees are guiding people in how we can meet the needs of our constituents to avail themselves of the benefits of the bill, but we need to do much more for snap, and anyone in their communities knows, whether faithbased organizations, food banks, the Education Community or some of the kids go to school, that is where they get their meals how do we have the resources to get their food to them and their families . It is a very tragic, sad situation. It is the least we can do to provide a 15 increase in snap. In terms of senator mcconnell, we will have our bill. I hope we can do it together. I am always an advocate of the four corners approach, house and senate, democrats and republicans. Let us see what the resources we are willing to allocate, and i would hope that would be the case. We will be writing our bill on the basis of what we are hearing from state and local, what we are hearing from the hospitals, what we want to do, as i mentioned earlier, on the pensions, which the president is in agreement on, even the language of that. As i said, the list we have had before. It is obvious what is necessary to be done. To ignore it is to ignore the fact that the Coronavirus Crisis is raging, that we can do something about it, to rein it in, but it takes resources, it takes policy, it takes the tax code, it takes the willingness of the congress of the United States working with the executive branch to understand that the earlier the investment, the better for the lives and the livelihood of the american people. So i will be talking to the, i will be placing a call to the senator about other things, of course, and one of the oversight issues, he and i will have to agree on who would share that who would chair that congressional panel. That will be one of my first questions to him. I think that the white house is more inclined to be supportive of the infrastructure initiative, the president always has. Infrastructure has rarely been a partisan discussion, and again, who can begrudge people clean water, internet access, and the ability to go to work for the rest of our essential workers at this very difficult time . Thank you all very much. Dont forget, hydrate, wash your hands, pray, dance as if no one is watching. Thank you. Thank you all. And since i am talking to the press number may i just say this. As very sad to hear of ms. Angela having this virus. We were so proud of his brother all the attention he was paying this to be infected himself is very sad, but it helps get the message out that this can happen to anyone, no matter how strong or othersed, separated from you think you are. My hopes and prayers go out to him. I love his father matilda so i am glad the governor said not to visit anybody, stay home, and the shelterinplace requires anyway, god bless you all. I hope none of you fall into that category, but again, we dont want anyone to do so. Thank you all so much. House republicans took questions during their Weekly Briefing during a conference call. Then mccarthy talked about possible phase for and a
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