Speaker pelosi good evening. Today was an historic day for us to pass our now fourth Bipartisan Legislation to address the coronavirus crisis. Were very pleased with the vote, 3885. 3885. Passing under suspension in a recorded vote. We had masterful leadership with richie neil managing the bill on the floor for us. He disciplined so many of us to keep our remarks to 30 seconds. So i will use 30 seconds to acknowledge the greatness of the leadership of our committee who made this important event possible, and then take 30 seconds to comment on it. Congresswoman maxine waters, the chair of the Financial Services committee, just was remarkable. She brought her depth of knowledge of the financial industry, as well as her deep values about making everyone have access. And the chair of the Small Business committee, just a champion, one of the first woman in congress to serve as a chair of a full committee, and she brought all of that experience, knowledge and judgment and values to this legislation. It was really remarkable to see the two of them interact, two powerful women in Congress Making a tremendous difference. And what was important about it was, they took a giant step in loosening that hard grip of disparity of access to credit in our country. But they made something very special happen to try to have that crumble. And i think thats very important for the american people. Pallone cannot be here but he and his staff were helpful with the hospital and testing parts of the bill. So you know that what the bill does, two weeks ago, was proposed on a thursday, on the floor of the senate, that we would have legislation that 250, that was it, nothing else and thats it. For a week and a half, that we that was the position of the administration and the republicans. Then they came to understand that we could do much more for Small Businesses. At 60 billion set aside for women, minorities, veterans, nativeamericans, rural folks, people who didnt have banking relationships but big credit needs. Another 60 billion in loans and grants for Small Businesses, all of Small Businesses, and 100 billion, 100 billion to hospitals and testing. Quite a remarkable feat. So, we have 250, 220, 407 today, but all of it in the interest of Job Retention and first and foremost to address the key issue of health, testing, testing, testing, contact tracing, the initiatives that are necessary to be the key to open up our economy. So with that, that was a long 30 seconds, i know. To yield to our extinguished chair, our leader in the house to see if he can do better than i in sticking to the 30 seconds. Thank you, richie neal, for your help in all four of these bills. I know you are ready for our heroes bill, where we will address the needs of our heroes, our health care workers, fire officials, teachers, transportation workers and the rest who are on the payroll of the state and local governments. And that will be the centerpiece of our next legislation. With that, i yield to the distinguished leader of the house, mr. Hoyer. Mr. Hoyer madam speaker. The bill that passed today could have passed two weeks ago. Because it aided, i think things that the president is going to support. And hes going to sign this bill. It added 120 billion for what everybody says they want to support, the health and success of Small Business and their ability to keep people on the job and their ability to come back and create jobs when we open up the Society Consistent with our Health Experts and our scientific experts. And in addition to that, we did what Everybody Knows is necessary. Our hospitals have been inundated with patients they did not expect and the tax on their resources has been great. And we want to keep them working and we want to keep them resourced. And then we know, lastly, that every expert says the key to doing what almost everybody wants to do in america, opening up our government, the key is testing. And the key is testing sufficient numbers of people so you know that you have a handle on the virus. You know that you are quarantining, isolating those who need to be isolated, and you know who to treat and then you know what go tracing you need to do because you know and ask who have you been in touch with . And the experts tell us thats the key. So this bill answers, i think, a universal information that we have as to how to proceed. Its a shame that it took a couple of weeks to get there, but madam speaker, you were tenacious and focused and i think did the right thing, because we got substantially improved. And very frankly, as an appropriator, when youre bargaining between 250 and 500 and you end up with 484, thats a pretty good deal. Ms. Pelosi thats pretty good. Chairwoman waters. Ms. Waters thank you very much, speaker pelosi. Ladies and gentlemen, i am the chair of the Financial Services committee, the first africanamerican and first woman in the history of this country and nancy pelosi is the speaker serving a second time, historical achievement. Lydia velazquez, the chair of the subcommittee of the committee, rather, of s. B. A. What we are witnessing at this moment in history is how diversity makes a difference. How diversity makes a difference in the way that we understand how to have targets and include women, minorities, africanamericans, latinos, et cetera, and oftentimes we are doing the work and its not noticed because the issues of Financial Services are not that sexy. But i want to tell you this particular piece of legislation, this supplemental, this emergency bill really points out how diversity makes a difference. Nancy pelosi is an extraordinary negotiator. She has gotten more out of the senate and out of the treasury than any person could ever do because she put her mind to it, she put the time in, and negotiated in the wee hours of the morning. Lydia velazquez knows s. B. A. Better than anybody in this congress and she was able to close some gaps and increase spending in ways that will benefit not only all people, but minorities. When you take a look at the supplemental appropriation we have done added to the cares bill, you will see that we have opened up opportunities for people who have traditionally been excluded, for people who have not had relationships with the government, some who have not had banking relationships, but theres Small Businesses who are doing wonderful things in our community and they happen to create jobs. And i think weve responded to them in ways that they will appreciate. I know that we needed more money and we put more money into it. I know that there are more people with the numbers, waiting, standing in line waiting to be served. Im pleased to be a member of congress at this time and the chair of the Financial Services committee. Thank you, nancy pelosi. Ms. Pelosi thank you, maxine. Richie neal. Mr. Neal the legislative process actually worked in this instance, recalling that the two chambers offer pieces of legislation and then they have to be melded together. The speaker is a master at it. Recall this is a much improved piece of legislation and the one that came from the senate originally. The two chambers of the institution, i thought they functioned quite well. The other thing is, despite all the rhetoric you heard on the floor today, 395 people voted for this. So, youve had now four successive bipartisan achievements with the understanding that weve got to get ready for the next round, and the next round is going to be state and local government assistance and a number of other features and were not done with the work yet. And i thought maxine and lydia did a terrific job of putting this legislation together. When you put this together on the phone, its tough. Its hard to do facetoface but hard to do it on the phone because you cant get the eye contact or emotions or the rolled eyes. The legislation after the speaker offers her signature, i believe the president is going to sign it tonight. This is a pretty good piece of work, mr. Speaker. Ms. Pelosi thank you, mr. Neal, and thank you for the work you are doing on the next bill. The distinguished chair of the Small Business administration. Ms. Velazquez im really proud of the work that we accomplished here today. I always say that Small Business is big business in america, and that there is no republican or democratic approach when it comes to deal with issues impacting Small Businesses. And we tried to do that. And its a shame that, two weeks later, we were in this predicament of making changes that were necessary. Madam speaker, thank you for standing your ground, for reaching out to us, recognizing that we have the expertise, the knowledge, and we have got something to offer when it comes to legislation of our respective committees. So, what we did in this bill was to make it better and more efficient, and still, we have a lot of work to do. But the bill that was passed in the senate only provided 250 billion for p. P. E. We added money for disaster loans. 50 billion that will leverage 377 billion in disaster loans. That wasnt in the senate bill and it was very important. And let me explain to you why. Because the 250 billion p. P. E. Will not work for many businesses in our country like new york, california, and any state where there is a shutdown because once the moneys disbursed and you take that money, you only have eight weeks to rehire your workers. Places like new york, were still closed for businesses. So, what is another tool that we provide for those businesses that cannot get the ppp . Pp disaster loans that offers 0 years, 30 years terms for that money to be repaid and no interest rates. So, i am proud that not only are we saving Small Businesses and making them whole, but we are saving lives. We added money for hospitals, for testing, and that is an incredible accomplishment. People need, and the president and the republicans, they need to understand that in order to open, to say that we are opened for business, is by making sure that you want to have customers walking through the doors of your business. And unless we address the issue of the coronavirus, that will never happen. Thank you, madam speaker. Ms. Pelosi thank you very much. Well, as im about to sign this historic legislation, i want to acknowledge the cooperation we had from the republican leader, mr. Mccarthy, but i do want to thank him and all the members of congress. But i want to thank our House Democratic caucus. Very unified as you saw the diversity of our leadership on the committees made a difference and i always say, the diversity is our strength, our unity is our power, and thats how we were able to get this crossing the threshold, more credit to businesses in our country, and also a testing piece that was very strong in terms of asking for a Strategic National plan to address testing and to do so, keeping data as to how different communities are affected. So again, diversity playing in here in terms of policy that now we will act upon and after the bill is signed by the president it is my honor to sign it. But i do so very sadly and prayerfully. Maxine learned today that her sister has been diagnosed with the virus. Our distinguished colleague, it could happen to anybody. On the floor, we heard about a fiveyearold girl who died from the virus. So, the numbers are staggering. Nearly 50,000 dead, 900,000 diagnosed. But every single incident of it strikes home to some family and to each of us. So, prayerfully and sadfully, we always thank our first responders, our health care workers, our teachers, our transit workers, our food workers, as well, everyone who has kept us together in these few weeks. But our hearts and prayers go to those who have lost their loved ones at this very, very sad time. So, in sadness, as well as some satisfaction of what we have accomplished, im very proud to sign this legislation. [indiscernible] [applause] [inaudible] House Speaker nancy pelosi hold her Weekly News Conference today to talk about the Coronavirus Response and other legislative priorities, live at 11 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan. 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