And state and local government funding. Every minute, madam speaker, is a death, aognized for one minut. Mr. Hoyer i thank the gentleman for yielding. People, d a number of including my friend, the majority leader, stand up and to act in a bipartisan fashion. Partisanstatement is a attack on one of our members. Schizophrenia or a lack of understanding of what this congress has been doing the last few weeks. Dont know about you, madam speaker, but i have been working the ours, seven hours on phone and another three or four ours reviewing the materials today. S gotten us here and why did it take so long . Took two weeks for my colleagues and this is a partisan statement, i understand it. Be i think we ought to all realistic. We are all trying to get to a place where america and safe. Ans are and where our economy is working. Statistics we see of pain and of fear, an anxiety about tomorrow. So what have we been doing . Weve been on the phone with one another. Minority ked with the leader numerous times over the last two weeks. Not only on this particular of legislation but on going forward. So if anybody on that side is aying that congress is not working, they must be speaking for themselves. Every one of these colleagues on my side of the aisle and i believe your side of the aisle have been working very hard. In touch with their local government. In touch with their governor. In touch with their Health Care Delivery people. Anybody who works in the hospital or Health Care Center or federally qualified health center. They are working hard. And let us not denigrate ourselves or this institution or our commitment to the American People. Because that is blatant partisanship. We waited two weeks, madam speaker, thats correct. What for . So that the proposal that we made two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, which has now effectively been accepted by the republicans, would be accept. Thats what we waited for. What did we get . 120 additional billion dollars for Small Business. What we assured, we all talk about being for the Small Business. What this bill does is puts 120 billion in addition, in addition, 370 billion for mall business. Now, we talk about bipartisanship. The first bill we did dealing with coronavirus on this floor passed 4152. Doesnt sound like partisanship to me. It sound like we came together and agreed on how we could help. It wasnt enough. Then on phase two, which we passed on march 14, 10 days later, congress not working . 0 days later we passed 36340. Doesnt sound like partisanship to me. En phase three, we passed on 3 27, 13 days later. On a voice vote. With only one member in the. Enate or the house demurring it doesnt sound like partisanship to me. I dont think todays vote will be a partisan vote. I certainly hope it will not be. Why . Because for the last two weeks we have been working with one another to try to get to a place where we think we are giving the needed resources. Because we think the initial request was shortchanging hospitals. Shortchanging testing. And its still shortchanging our state and local governments. We need another bill to get there. Madam speaker, on tuesday the senate came together to pass this legislation in a bipartisan way. Now, unlike the house, no senators came to the floor except three or four. They did it by unanimous consent. We are not able to do that, although i think this bill will pass overwhelmingly because some of our republican friends wanted a vote. Fine, we are here. We are Wearing Masks. Im not wearing one speaking, but as soon as i do youll put a mask back on as i turn around to go among us. Congress is doing its job. I want to tell the American People one more time, members are working daily to respond to the coronavirus that is putting our people and our country and our economy at risk. Last month we enacted emergency legislation that included more than 2 trillion in assistance for workers, veterans, Small Businesses, health care systems, and communities dealing with the spread of coronavirus. One of the programs we created together was the Paycheck Protection Program. Try to keep people on a payroll even if they could not go to work because Health Professionals say dont ongregate. The Paycheck Protection Program provides loans to Small Businesses that will be forgiven, that will be forgiven if they keep their workers on the payroll. The need was so great that the initial 350 billion, as been pointed out in funding, madam speaker, was exhausted in a matter of days. So today we are providing another 310 billion for that program. An additional 60 billion for the most atrisk Small Businesses. Critically 60 billion of that as i just said will be setaside for Smaller Banks with fee cuss on Community Development focused on community velopment and Financial Development and financial institutions, Rural Communities left out of the initial program. I bet if you ask your Small Business or rural people, your hospitals, or those state officials who say testing is essential, ill bet they say, im glad you waited because you got us resource that is we needed. That wasnt in the initial proposal that came from the administration. And it was oobd to objected to and the leader in the senate would not provide for such sums. More help is still needed for nonprofits as well as small and minorityowned businesses. Those in Bank Communities and selfemployed. Those must be, madam speaker, priorities in the next gill bill that clearly is going to be necessary. In addition to the increased funding for the Paycheck Protection Program democrats insisted on recapitalizing Economic Injury disaster loans as well. Providing an additional 60 billion for this program which can be leveraged to 300 billion. Yes, we asked for, we worked for, we negotiated with to get Small Businesses, minority businesses, businesses that couldnt get into the system that the other bigger businesses got in. Some so big they were ashamed and gave the money back. We are also providing an additional 75 billion for hospitals and concurrent resolutionly 25 billion for testing. And crucially 25 billion for testing. No governor or county executive or mayor or county commissioner or county Council Person will say, gee whiz, we didnt want that money for testing. We will not be able to return our economy to normal operations, madam speaker, without a robust testing system. In place to know we can safely go to work without putting workers at risk and to identify those who have coronavirus so we can take necessary steps to isolate them and trace those with whom they came in contact because thats how we win this battle. This bill is an interim step. The fourth interim step. As we continue to work on the next major piece of legislation. I hope we can include, by the way, madam speaker, the next bill provision that is unfortunately we are unable to secure in this bill. First of all we shortchanged, we are all in the nations capital. Millions of americans come here. And we gave wyoming and vermont small states, less population than the district of columbia, the nations capital, to which millions of your constituents will come, we shortchanged them by giving them 40 of what we gave the smaller states. Smaller than the district of columbia. Let us hope that we wanted to add that 700 million in this bill. Unfortunately we couldnt get agreement on that. I think that was pennywise and poundfoolish for those of us who want our constituents to visit washington to see their government. We also must include more help for state and local governments. They have been on the frontlines of fighting this scourge. As a result have spent a lot of resources they budgeted for other issues, including employees, including police and fire and health workers. We need to do that. We wanted to do it in this bill. But those of you who argue for delay i will bet you youre going to vote in the next tranche for additional state and local help. Aybe not all of you. Why youre delaying that help is beyond me. This by the way is not an abstract accounting problem. We are talking about states and counties across the country being able to keep teachers, first responders, as tax revenues collapse due to the necessary social distancing. This pandemic, madam speaker, has shown a spotlight on the stark disparities in Health Status and treatment of africanamericans in particular. Minority communities in general. That reality is an indefensible and unacceptable one. While we do not do include new ways of tracking certain data related to Racial Disparities in this pandemic, there is more we must do. Not simply for those who are greater risk, but for all of us who wear masks not because we dont want to be with one another, but because this pandemic has made us a risk to others, to our neighbors, our friends, our family. Furthermore, we need to do more to protect our elections. My governor has ordered the election coming up next tuesday e all by mail. In wisconsin, the governor tried to do that and republicans fought us. And the speaker of the house, the republican speaker of the wisconsin house, was covered rom head to toe, gown, super mask, gloves. Do we want to ask all of our citizens to be so at risk because they are exercising their franchised to vote in america . I surely think that is not the case. So we need some additional money to facilitate because they didnt plan on it. Because they didnt plan on this pandemic. To allow our citizens to vote, to encourage them to vote, to if acies tate their vote to facilitate their vote and welcome their vote. And to provide for a way that they can do it safely. Without endangering themselves or others. Furthermore, we need to do more to protect our elections and this administration. Im glad the house is moving toward with a committee to oversee the coronavirus response. My friends on the other side of the aisle had eight different partisan commissions overseeing what happened in benghazi where four american lives were tragically lost. 44,575 americans have lost their lives. Is it too much to ask that we would have a special committee to make sure that the money that we are appropriating in historic amounts is spent correctly . Congress has a responsibility to ensure that the extraordinary sums we have authorized and appropriated are disbursed efficiently and consistent with our intent. Such great sums can only not only be a source of economic recovery, but surely everyone on this floor knows that that sum of money on the table can also be a magnet for waste, fraud, and abuse. And, yes, criminality. We owe the American People as we appropriate unbelievable sums to make sure that the American People are the ones advantaged. Any Time Congress spends taxpayer money, particularly in such large amounts, we owe it to the American People to know where that money is going and to ensure that it is being spent as directed. Now, i know the president of the United States said hes going to do the oversight. I dont think thats what the framers had in mind in terms of checks and balances. In the most efficient and ethical ways possible. We must know which programs are working best. Which arent. That way we can modify what we do in the future. Madam speaker, i want to thank Speaker Pelosi. I want to thank the chair of the Small Business committee. I want to thank the chair of the Financial Services committee. I want to thank the chair of the education and labor committee. I want to thank mr. Neal on the floor. And many other chairs. Mr. Peterson whose very nervous about not having nutrition programs in this bill, which we wanted. And that would have delayed it further because, of course, we didnt get support on your side of the aisle for that. People are in incredibly long od lines because their Nutritional Health as well as their Psychological Health is at risk because they cant get food. I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for having the courage and the wisdom to stand up and say we need these items. We have gotten a lot of them. We asked for 500 billion total. This is 484 billion total. My, my, my. You held out for two weeks for 16 billion savings. Also want to thank our members who have been working let me repeat this once again, madam speaker, these members, those members have been working roundtheclock to make sure their communities are safe. To make sure their hospitals are getting what they need to make sure that their teachers are teaching kids at home. Everybody has been working hard. You may not see us, but millions and millions and millions of americans are working at home. They are teleworking. Thats essentially what we have been doing. Teleworking. Dont tell them they are not working. Because they know they are working. They have been a credit to their districts. Every member, republican, democrat. I presume, i only know about the democrats who have been on 220 of our 234, 225 of our 234 have been on the phone 2 1 2 hours a day talking back and forth between to see what policies we need. They have been a credit to their districts, to the institutions of the house and this nation spending hours on the phone through videoconference, making sure congress is doing its job, and talking to state and local leaders and Health Care Providers. Let me also thank the members and staff who volunteered to be here on the floor. Well go off the floor and we wont be as exposed as they are. They are all Wearing Masks. They are Wearing Masks because they know there is a risk. Perhaps not as great a risk as those courageous individuals who work in our hospitals and our Health Care Providers in many different modes. But courageous and patriotic nonetheless. Thank you, staff. I want to thank those who are working on in our grocery fire, our police, our our Truck Drivers who are from g food and products ere to there, e. M. S. Personnel who respond to emergencies, workers. And every time i go to the grocery store, and i hope all of it, i thank those people shelves. Tocking the i thank those people who are checking us out. I thank those people who are putting the carts where they to be. Of america, best and we owe it to them to do all we can to bring this pandemic to end as quickly and safely as possible. All want to go back to work in the regular fashion. House will icled continue to do everything possible, working with our we blican friends who believe want the same objective, working erica, a america. Want to help Small Businesses, workers and their families get crisis and to ensure our courageous Health Care Workers are on the frontlines have all the support win this fight against covid19. I hope and pray that every member of the vote for america and americans and vote for this bill. May need more, but we certainly need to do this this day an the house went on to pass the bill by 3885, with one member voting present. The Senate Approved the legislation earlier this week. The house is not scheduled to meet again for legislative business until may 4. That could change because of the coronavirus. Follow the house live on cspan when members return. You moved the maryland primary to june 2. Do you think it will be safe for people to go to polling places at that time . I dont which is why i moved to it june 2 and then asked the state board of elections, which is an independent, autonomous group, i asked them to come up with a plan of how they could conduct the election by mail and do it in a safe manner so we dont have people going out to the polls. They came up with a plan because of there were certain people who could not vote by mail, it was mostly people with disabilities, it was a couple of blind advocates, some people that didnt have fixed addresses, so they made a combination for just one safe polling place in each county for people that could not do the by mail. Were strongly encouraging everyone in our state to vote by mail in the june primary because we dont think its going to be same we dont think we can get pollworkers or p. P. E. And we dont think we should have hundreds of people standing in line at polling places. How about november . November is quickly approaching. Your party on capitol hill is basically said were not interested in vote by mail because it disadvantages us. Im not sure theres any evidence of that. Im curious on your thoughts about it. My party on capitol hill doesnt have anything to do with it the state boards of elections the governors of states will make the decision. In our state well see how it works in the june primary and assess what things look like in the fall. Our state board of election is working in conjunction with the Health Department will make the determinations. I will say still weve always had the ability to do vote by mail. We have the ability to do absentee ballots for any reason at any time. We have early voting. Its worked very well. The difference here is everyone will be mailed a ballot as opposed to requesting one. We could do that for the november election. If its safe we could do a combination of both. But we have plenty of time to make those determinations. Were going to do it based on theres two goals. One, i want to make sure everybody has their constitutional right to get out and express their vote and two, we want to make sure everybody is safe. Were going to try to accomplish both of those things. The president s. Just released on paperback affairs, as biographies of every president organized by their ranking in the much funded president ial historian survey. Thepresident s,rg and order your copy today, wherever books are sold. Journalngton primetime. For the next hour, a special edition of washington journal. Your questions about the coronavirus epidemic start now. Thursday, april 23, we welcome you to this edition of the washington journal. There are an estimated 26 million americans out of work as a result of the pandemic. The house approved nearly 500 billion for the Small Businesses, hospitals, and a nationwide testing program. Just ahead, a leading infections disease doctor from Austin University school of medicine. Later, learning from history. A Pulitzer Prize winning