She also addressed allegations against democratic president ial candidate joe biden. Good morning. I am pleased to be joined by mr. Clyburn, the democratic whip, the chair on the committee on the coronavirus. Today, we are here to talk about how we can reach out to everyone as we reach out with broadband. With a broadband. Mr. Clyburn will be addressing that, hes been a champion. Everything is about time. We are in a time of great sadness, 60,000 people have died, more than 60,000 from the coronavirus. 30 million americans have applied for Unemployment Insurance. The lives and livelihoods of the American People are at stake. And we have to make some decisions about the time when we would go forward to opening up our economy. That is the question at hand. I firmly believe there are three steps that we must take in preparation for what comes next. Many of us have talked about testing, testing, testing. Our first bipartisan bill, which we wrote in february, passed on march 4, was about testing, testing, testing. The impression that was given is not everybody can be tested because we do not have enough tests, masks. Lets get it. Lets get it all. The tests were reserved for those who reach a certain threshold and that was almost two months ago, and we should be creating more tests. What will give people confidence to go into the workforce is if they know their coworkers have been tested and cleared to be there. What will give people more confidence to know that will we go into the workforce they are not bringing something home to their children because the other people have not been tested. While we aspire to a vaccine, and that is our hope and prayer, and science, science, science, and we aspire to a cure , hopefully they will be soon. The vaccine may take longer or there might be illumination on the horizon close by. We do know we can make the tests, and we should make the tests available to everyone and have the subsequent care that might follow that if someone tests positive to be free so that it is not menacing to someone that i cannot take a test because i cannot afford what comes next. I cannot take the test because if im positive i will not be able to go to work. The testing is getting a handle on how big this challenge is and how necessary it is for us to know who. Mr. Khyber and has talked about and will again testing, contact tracing, isolation, and treatment. He will tell us more about that. What is also important is come as he has suggested, we have a mobile unit going out so we reach a whole other market of people who might not be aware of how they should be tested. If we do get a cure or a vaccine, we have to be prepared to manufacture it. The defense production act should be geared to this. Even if we had a vaccine tomorrow, we do not have the syringes and vials and Everything Else that goes with vaccinating people. Lets get that done. As we wait for a vaccine, lets make sure we are ready when it comes. Again, we can stockpile it until it is ready. Third, we need to have in place an ethical, whether a task force, whatever it is, of scientists and others, an ethical approach to how a vaccine or therapy will be distributed. Everybody in america would know when that happens i will have access to it. My family would have access to it. Again, as we discussed, should be open up, should we not open up, there is a path. Lets take it lets not say, if only we had started sooner. Lets start now. I am sure you have questions about what we do and what is happening in meatpacking plants, so i will proceed and talk about the fact that i am proud to have announced with mr. Clyburn the members of our Oversight Committee on the coronavirus. That would be maxine waters, chair of the Oversight Committee, congressman bill foster, and congressman andy kim. I am proud of that and i want to put their names out there. Today, we are here to talk about the issue of fairness again and how our sense of community and humanity in america is served by what policies we present, what legislation is included, and what action we take to make that possible. I want to commend mr. Clyburn for being in the lead for such a long time on expanding broadband in america. Im going to have him speak more specifically to it, but just to commend him for the champion he has been, the understanding that he has about it. I also to commend chairman Frank Pallone of the energy and commerce committee. He couldnt be with us this morning, but he has been working on this issue, meet a proposal for infrastructure bill based on the task force that mr. Clyburn has chaired here and i also want to acknowledge the leadership role of councilwoman anna eshoo for the proposal. I want to thank mr. Pallone for what he is doing on the testing issue and tracing and the rest, what they are doing on ppe and the rest, and what they will do on oversight of the committee of jurisdiction that has so much jurisdiction. We call it the appropriations committee. They say, if the sun shines on anything, it is a matter of the energy and commerce committee. They have a broad jurisdiction, and i thank the gentleman for his leadership and so anyways. In so many ways. With that, i want to present mr. Clyburn to talk about this important initiative. We are talking about distance learning. We are talking about telemedicine. We are talking about people buying things in a way they had not before, and yet it is not available to everyone. This is about fairness and equity in every way, access to care, access to credit, access to whatever opportunities come along in terms of testing, therapies, vaccines. With that, i am pleased to yield to the distinguished chair of the committee and democratic whip of the house mr. Clyburn. Rep. Clyburn thank you for your leadership and guidance in this important issue. In spite of what attempt may have been made to the contrary, my vision for this great country is drawn from the pledge of allegiance. That pledge, when i was a kid growing up, in south carolina, we used to say the pledge every morning. I remember getting to perfect it because i was in school when we changed the pledge to insert the words under god. I remembered how many times i would have to keep repeating it for failing to put those two words in it when i recited it. We conclude that pledge with a phrase that means a lot to me, with liberty and justice for all. That is what has enlightened me in my service here in the congress. I have always said that my vision for this great country is making its greatness accessible and affordable for all. I have it on billboards all over my congressional district. I believe strongly in that. This country is great, but the greatness is not accessible and affordable for everybody. To me, that is what we should be about. Im often reminded of when we the coops, the electric coops paused to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the rural electrification. They wrote a tabletop book i keep in my office and my home. It is called the next greatest thing. Let me read for you what gave rise to that. It was a gentleman in a rural Tennessee Church giving testimony one evening. He said, brothers and sisters, let me tell you what is the greatest thing, is to have the love of god in your heart. But the next greatest thing is having electricity in your house. I believe in that testimony, which is great for the 20th century. The greatest thing for the 21st century to me would be having broadband in every house. That, to me, is what is going to be necessary and made even more necessary by this current pandemic that we are trying to respond to. We cannot get testing done unless we have broadband because, when you test, what then . If somebody shows a positive, it is time to do two things. Number one, do tracing. Secondly, you have to isolate. Then you have to treat. I do not see how you do effective testing without broadband. If we are going to have effective treatment, you have to have broadband because our federally qualified must be equipped with the ability to do isolation and treatment. To do that, you have to have broadband. If we are going to experience, as the experts say, another round of this virus, our children will be out of school again next year. If that happens, the only way you can have Online Learning is with broadband. You cannot afford to allow two thirds in many communities that i represent that means that only 34 of the homes are tied to the internet. That means that over 60 of children are not going to be able to receive Online Learning. Some of them will fall behind i happen to have started my professional career as a Public School teacher. I can tell you what happens if a child falls two years behind in school. That child will never graduate high school and will never become a productive citizen as a rule. There are exceptions to every rule. But as a rule, that is what will occur. This broadband deployment is very, very necessary. I want to thank the speaker this afternoon. Later today, we will be rolling out our broadband program. And i am very pleased that when we had our first infrastructure meeting at the white house the president said he got it. He understood. And i conclude with this. Last year, when we were trying to develop a legislative response to the disasters many of our farmers were experiencing, they came here. And i met with farmers from all over the country. And they were telling us what we need to do because this was the second year that they were going to be unable to get their crops out of the field. One man sitting across from me in the meeting, when it came time to speak, he said this. He said, i came here to talk to you today about my farm and the disaster that has been visited upon me, but that is not what is on my heart. He said, what is on my heart today are the families that live in my community who go to work every morning, they come home every evening, they load their children and automobiles and take them down to the parking lot of a local library so they can do their homework because they are not tied to the internet. The only place they can do that homework is in the parking lot at the library. When i shared with my friends what i had heard and what it was doing to me, they looked at me and said, you do not get it. In my community, two of them said, children go to the parking lot of a local fast food place so they can get on the internet to do their homework. I shared this with the president , and he said he got it. And when i did, senator schumer said, in new york city, 25 of the children are not tied to the internet. And so, i want to applaud the speaker for making this a priority for our caucus. I want to thank the president for agreeing that this is something we ought to do. I would hope that we can Work Together not just to make broadband accessible, but to make it affordable. I yield back. Speaker pelosi thank you very much, mr. Whip, mr. Chairman. In so many ways, such an inspiration to all of us. Such a stark perspective and what it means for the future. You are right. There are urban deserts for this. It is in my state of california. Even if we give every child in california, and there is an inclination to do so, if we give them all a laptop, they are still not into the system. , has taken thern lead to make sure. In some communities, to make it affordable, they can establish their own system. This has a lot of entrepreneurship connected with it. It really is directly related to the coronavirus. We would hope that while we have a big bill that mr. Pallone has helped shape into our infrastructure proposal, that the task force on infrastructure and broadband might be able to get a piece of this, as it is so necessary. Telemedicine, distance learning, so many other ways it is important for people to be connected. With that, i would be pleased to take any questions you may have. Yes, maam. [indiscernible] will answersi i your question at the end. We are here to Say Something very important for how we fight the coronavirus and a way of addressing that. I would hope you would have some interest in that. Any questions on the subject but brings us together . Any questions on the subject that brings us together . Some states are reopening. How critical do you think it is to get state and local funding within the next two weeks . Do you think that is possible . Speaker pelosi i cannot answer to timing because we are at the mercy of the virus. In terms of when the Capital Position and sergeant at arms say that we can come together in large numbers. This is very important and i thank you for your question. These are our heroes, our health care providers, our first responders, our transit workers, our teachers, our teachers are custodians of our children for s the day. So many people working in terms of making sure we have food on the table, whether it is in shops or delivery. So much of how we function and meeting the needs of the people depends on state and local governments having the resources. Some of these people, these heroes, are risking their lives to save other peoples lives and now they risk losing their jobs because what the states and localities have had to spend makes it unsustainable not to have layoffs. Mr. Schumer the other day was talking about hundreds of people being laid off by hospitals in his area, some of them Public Hospitals dependent on the Public Resources to keep open. So this is something that is of the highest priority. It honors our heroes. As i say, we are unworthy to thank them and honor them unless we are willing to support them in a substantial way. And that way is to say this is strictly about the coronavirus. It is about what your outlays are for the virus and what your revenue loss is on that. Because, again, of mr. Clyburns leadership over the years, he has been a strong proponent for making sure that localities get resources. Did you want to speak to that, mr. Clyburn . Rep. Clyburn when we look at states, i am from a state that in large measure was talked about by the governor of new york. I am from a state that did not expand medicaid. Therefore, so much of the burden of trying to meet the challenge of this pandemic goes straight to small communities, local governments, irrespective of what may be happening at the state level. If you are the mayor of a little town of 8000 or 9000 people, i think you ought to be eligible to get direct aid from the congress. And so i have been advocating for a long time and will be advocating very strongly that, whatever we do for state and local governments, do not leave the locals out. And make sure that the small communities get their fair share. Haveer pelosi we may three challenges. Thee, county, and then municipalities that mr. Clyburn mentioned. In addition to that, we want to expand medicaid and other things that help the states over and above this. How much the states are putting together . 500ave heard the figure billion. Counties have a similar figure. We want to related to outlays and lost revenue. We are not going to be able to recover all of it, but to the extent that we can keep the states and localities sustainable, that is our goal. By the way, that money is not just for one year. That could be for three years, maybe even four. It is over time. [indiscernible] Speaker Pelosi state and local, i talked about almost 1 trillion right there. I would hope so. But we do have other issues we want to deal with and hopefully get something for broadband,. Bute are other concerns, not as major and expenditure not as major an expenditure or investment for our heroes. They are risking their lives to save lives and now theyre going to lose their jobs. It is just stunning, and we have to address it. When others say, let them go bankrupt, that is silly. That is not a reason. It is an excuse. If you dont believe in governance, you dont recognize that. The leader over there said, we are not bailing out past bad mistakes. The mistakes he mentioned were caused by a republican governor in illinois, but that is neither here nor there. This is not about any other budget issues. It is about the coronavirus. Madam speaker, thank you. I have two questions. First, what are you going to do taxesnyone who is paying and they have no job . They are in a difficult situation. Are they going to be in the next package or are they ever going to be considered . I have a second question. U. S. Citizens are not receiving because they are married to immigrants without Social Security numbers. What are you going to do to help them . They are u. S. Citizens and in a difficult situation. Speaker pelosi i appreciate your questions. O ine are more than tw there. The other part of it that you did not mention but alluded to is there are american citizen children born in america in a mixed family. Maybe one parent is not official, uptodate on documentation. I think that has to be addressed. In addition to that, we have been working to try to get the tax Identification Number as a basis for how people would get direct payments. All of it, though, speaks to the fact that we are well served if we recognize that everybody in our country is part of our community and helping grow the economy, most of what we are doing is to meet the needs of people but it is all stimulus. So we should not cut the stimulus off that. In addition to that, i am pleased today that the chairman of the fed is saying he is going to include more terms of more in terms of nonprofits and outreach. We want to expand nonprofits and outreach, which is something we have been asking for. We want to expand outreach opportunities to nonprofits, many of whom are there to meet the need of folks who might not be directly receiving help in that regard. [indiscernible] are the packages part of the negotiations . Speaker pelosi what we said was we want to address the mixed family issue. We are supposed to have a call on that tomorrow. Tomorrow, we are going to have a call specifically on that subject with Chuck Schumer and the chair of the hispanic caucus. We will let you know when that is on the mixed family issue. I myself cannot understand why the tax number is not the basis for how some of this money is distributed, so we will make that case as well. Thank you. There is concern that ppe p funding is going to run out again, even though you renewed it last week. Are there negotiations past that next package . Or is there some concern that maybe some businesses will have to start opening up now a little bit sooner than what would be recommended . Speaker pelosi let me just say, our distinguished chair of the Small Business committee is a champion on Small Businesses. We all rallied for ppp because we view Small Business as the entrepreneurial spirit of america, a dream, an idea that people work so hard, sometimes refinancing their homes to do it. There is a lot riding on this and a lot of recourse to individuals beyond the professional piece. We are all for that, and we did we just did an intervention. But we must do a cares bill now. We cannot put that off. In fact, we never anticipated this intervention bill the interim bill we passed with substantial support for Small Businesses. We practically doubled it. We share that concern. There is no plan. Our next plan would be cares two. You said earlier youre beholden to the virus when you would get the next cares bill done. Speaker pelosi im not talking about a long time. A week or two. We are not coming back this week. Our plan is to come back the following week. But we are not saying, the next bill will be cares two. In other words, youre saying, do not come back for cares. The next bill will be cares two and how we address it. There are many people saying, with all the money we are spending on Unemployment Insurance and all the money we are spending on ppp and all that is needed to assist the states and the rest, why dont we consider some guarantee of paycheck initiatives strictly for the coronavirus at this time . That is a big, tall order i have tasked committees to take a look at because this could be endless. There are 30 million Small Businesses in the united states, over 2 million have received assistance. That is good. Maybe 3 million by another week or so, but that is 10 . How much money is there for unemployment and the rest . Whatever it is, as the chairman of the fed said to me, youve got to think big. Youve got to think big. I said the same thing to him. Youve got to think big. In order to think big, you have to think small about Small Businesses and nonprofits. That is the announcement made today. I was very pleased with that. But the next bill will be cares two. As you think big and you talk about infrastructure President Trump is supportive of that. He tweeted he wants infrastructure but mcconnell does not want infrastructure in this next bill. When youre talking about broadband, is that the only infrastructure provision you want here . Or do you want something much broader than that in cares two . Speaker pelosi we talked about this before, but the urgency of getting money into peoples pockets was so pervasive that it became the priority. We talked about three things. We talked about Community Health centers. Again, mr. Clyburn has been the champion of that. We talked about broadband. We talked about water. Sanitation is key to this. Wash your hands for 20 seconds. Wash off everything. The water issue for us is a tall order for our big bill. However, perhaps we should have something in here. Mr. Pallone has been talking about provisions that would say jurisdictions cannot shut off your water if you cannot pay your water bill. There is a recognition of the need for people to have water. I do not know if that will be in this bill. Again, time is important. We should be able to do some piece of it. The bill that mr. Clyburns initiative is, the 750 billion deal over five years. Maybe pieces of this over the next year or two could be included, but right now, again, putting money in peoples testing,testing, testing are the priorities. You just mentioned something about timing. You are not going to come back next week. Is that because the bill is not going to be ready . Speaker pelosi that was not the point at all. You missed the announcement, i guess. It was because the house said for 430 people to come back with what is happening in the district of columbia kind of changed the timing. But people will be back next week. Mr. Clyburn, you want to speak to that . I will yield to you in a moment. Perhaps the Small Business committee will be meeting next week. Small groups can come back. Maybe they had a full Committee Meeting or maybe they have a virtual or maybe a hybrid. We have had already about 60 meetings in this period of time, some of it oversight, some of it legislation and the rest from our committees virtually or otherwise. This week alone, two days ago, the Veterans Affairs committee had a successful meeting. I think today or tomorrow is Homeland Security. Again, the chairs of the committees are making their decisions about how they go forward. Again, this whole issue of the meatpacking, that is raising concerns about members as to people saying i will yield to you on this, mr. Chairman. If you do not go to work, even though you have a concern, then you could lose your Unemployment Insurance. That is just not what the intent four bipartisan, nonpartisan bills that we passed. There are criteria agreed to in the Families First legislation that said, if you have a child who is not in school because schools have closed, you can take family medical leave. If you have a parent in a Senior Center or a health care provider, the list goes on. It is not as complete as i would like. We would like to add more to that. But nonetheless, there are criteria which give people the opportunity to have family and medical leave as well. We have to look at this in totality. This is about Families First. I am sure members will be wanting to come together on some aspects of that in terms of Unemployment Insurance availability. But mr. Clyburn has another take on that that i want him to share with you. Thank you for that question. Next week, hopefully, the full committee will be able to gather here. In washington in some capacity in some manner. I will be on the telephone with them tomorrow as a committee. Because a couple things have already come to our attention that we think might need immediate attention from us. One involves Unemployment Insurance. It came to my attention yesterday that some states are applying policies to Unemployment Insurance that has relegated some people down to 95 a week. That was not our intention, as you know. We intended for the 600 coming from us to be on top of whatever the state would be here in that may be something we need to look at. I saw an account of this on a Television Show this morning to indicate this may be a widespread application of a policy that goes afoul of what we intended. So this committee will probably be working in addition to the testing, contact tracing, isolation, and treatments. That will be our primary focus, but we may have interventions taking place because of some of these policies. Remember, to me, we have to look at essential workers beyond health care. Essential workers are those hourly employees, sometimes twice a week employees working only on weekends in Grocery Stores and drugstores. These are the people that find themselves losing out with Unemployment Insurance. I had a long talk last night with the chair of our Homeland Security committee, congressman thompson from mississippi. It looks as if mississippi is one of the states that is doing that. We may have to do something rather quickly as a committee. We will be on the phone tomorrow and my plan is for us to be up here next week. Have you heard from mccarthy about [indiscernible] Speaker Pelosi no. But i do not know why they would be opposed to looking into price gouging, profiteering, and the rest. And the implementation of the intention of congress and the interest of the American People, americas families and workers. We hope they will participate. Let me just say one more thing on that score, and that is we share this question when will we be able to open up things . When will they be open . Everything, whether it is testing, whether it is economic sustainability, whether it is the states, it is all related to that and therefore all related to the committee. Yes, sir. Two questions. One will be the tribes. There are some disputes about the distribution of the 8 million in the cares act between the lower 48 tribes and the forprofit alaska native corporations. That is tied up right now. Do you see that as something you have made way into clarifying the eligibility issues . Speaker pelosi the judge ruled this week that the anc should not be receiving this. The secretary of the treasury was supposed to, when the case was resolved, release the funds. They could have done it before, but they said we want to wait for the trial to be over. The court was very emphatic in its decision about this, and i completely it is ridiculous that they would be getting in line to get funds from this. Because heres the thing. It is important to note this. The money being distributed is supposed to be, and this is the standard, necessary for the sustainability of the business, the entity, the nonprofit. Whatever it is. Necessary for sustainability. And there are 26,000 entities that received loans of over 2 million or more. Many of them may be justified. But they have we have to take a look because there are so many others who want 50,000 or 100,000 who are not be attended who are not being attended to. In this case, the 8 billion for the tribe, not nearly enough, and i want more in the next bill for the tribes because this is about states, counties, municipalities, and tribal governments, and this money is supposed to be distributed there. So i call upon the secretary of the treasury to disperse that funding now because the court has ruled in favor of the tribes. Again, to go back to the purpose that the funds that you apply for are necessary for the sustainability of your business, not you are on the stock exchange, i am a business so i can apply for that. That is not what it is about. And you have to be answerable for that. I appreciate the ruling of the court. And the judge was very emphatic about no, they should not be getting this. I would hope that immediately the secretary would release the funds. It was supposed to be as of yesterday, but lets hope it will be today. So necessary, so needed. We talk about the outlay of funds for the coronavirus, but the the opportunity cost, revenue lost because of this. So very important. Again, a down payment. We need to do more for our tribes. [indiscernible] i feel pretty good it will happen. Public sentiment is everything. All of a sudden, we are not going to give money to the tribes . Really . The secretary has been i have not had this conversation with him, but as recently as last night, my most recent conversation with him was about how we can have many more Small Businesses that the leader insisted would be in this new bill. I am waiting to see what those businesses are. That money that we put aside is already spent, so we want to see on whom. We will see what they are. He has said he was going to look into the 26,000 to make sure those millions of dollars went for where it was necessary for sustainability. To follow up on you mentioned the physicians recommendation was critical in your decision to not come back next week for a full roll call vote. Leader mcconnell is making a much different decision than what you made, facing the same information. Believeion is, do you calling people back is he putting his own Members Health and safety at risk . Speaker pelosi that is a completely separate question. We are 430 people now. Mr. Meadows is gone. We are 430 members. The decision was made on the strength of our numbers of people coming together. We, i thought, did beautifully at the direction of the sergeant at arms and the capital physician when we had to have a voice vote into the gallery and the rest and i wish that tableau had been seen because that was historic. It got the job done for the American People. Secondly, the next time we did it was because those on the other side were demanding a recorded vote. They had planned for that. That worked beautifully. It took time with social distancing and the rest as people came in. We could have done that again. The situation in the district of columbia has changed a bit since then and that may have had an impact. You would have to talk to the capitol physician. Even from one day to the next, he said, i think it is better to wait. What they advised the senate, i do not know, but they are 100. We are four times that. They had some of their own members saying they should not come back, but i cannot speak for the senate. But i just know what our responsibility is in the house. But in the meantime, by the time we do come back, we will be able to vote on remote voting by proxy. We will be able to have in place we have to have a vote to make these changes. We will have a vote for what mr. Clyburn referenced. They are having meetings in advance that would be validated hoyer, mr. Mccarthy, mr. Chairwoman lofgren and davis are working on in order to recommend a rule that enables Remote Committee work. But the committees are smaller. So some can come back. And we have an auditorium to spread a larger committee in or we have other rooms that are bigger than the normal room where they would meet. It is practical, but it is all getting the job done. And everybody is working hard in that regard. I do think one of the things we share, mr. Mccarthy said this to the los angeles times, and i gave my commitment that we were not there yet, but maybe we could be, that everybody wants to open up the congress. Republicans want to open the congress. We do, too, but we want to do it in a way that people have to that if people have to stay home because of this, whether it is about themselves or family members or transportation, which is more difficult now, that remote voting will enable them to do that. We just have to get enough people here to do the remote voting, and i feel quite confident. Do you agree . Rep. Clyburn i agree. We can effectively do a lot of Committee Work here and do that in preparation of coming back at some point in the nottoodistant future and have remote proxy voting in order to have these things become effective on behalf of the American People. I do see possible legislation coming out of these hearings, especially if we need to clarify something as regards to people not getting what we intended that they get from the congress. Speaker pelosi thank you. Yes, maam. Democrats square with the idea that they are standing by biden, but using a different standard with mr. Kavanaugh, when they demanded an investigation on mr. Kavanaugh when a very similar allegation came out on him. Speaker pelosi let me just say, i respect your question and i do not need a lecture or speech. Here is the thing. Respect for the metoo movement. I have four daughters and one son. There is a lot of excitement about the idea that women will be heard and be listened to. There is also due process. And the fact that joe biden is joe biden, there have been statements from his campaign not his campaign, but his former employees who ran his offices and the rest that there was never any record of this. There was never any record. And that nobody ever came forward to Say Something about it apart from the principle involved. I am so proud. The happiest day for me this week was to support joe biden for president of the united states. He is a person of great integrity, of great concern for the American People. He authored the violence against women act when he was the chair of the Judiciary Committee in the 1990s. He has been an advocate for funding it all along since then. I believe that he will be a great president of united states. He is the personification of hope and optimism and authenticity for our country, a person of great values. I want to remove all doubt in anyones mind. I have great Comfort Level with the situation as i see it come it, with allsee the respect in the world for any woman who comes forward and all the highest regard for joe biden. That is what i have to say. Thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [laughter]