Announcer now todays briefing with nancy pelosi, who comments on the news of foreign interference in the elections, about the ongoing progress of covid19 talks, and that the nomination of judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Good morning, everyone. As we gather here this morning once again, the toll rises. Thousands of americans have died from the coronavirus. Over 8 million have been infected by it. Over 20 Million People are out of work because of the coronavirus. It is urgent that we come to an agreement to crush the virus, put money in the pockets of the American People, and to honor our state and local , workers, our healthcare workers, fire, First Responders and our transportation, sanitation, food workers, and teachers, teachers, teachers all , of whom who make our society run. Many of whom risk their lives to save lives, and now they may lose their jobs. Over 1 million already have because we have not honored them. Authority to thank them,onor them and wish them well because we do not want to allocate the resources necessary to compensate for the money needed to fight the virus to , meet the health needs of people and their communities, as well as the revenue lost because of the virus. So we again need to protect the lives, the livelihood and the life of our democracy. We continue to be engaged in negotiations, and i am hopeful that we will be able to reach agreement. We have made Good Progress this week on the subject of crushing the virus, crushing the virus. We are so long overdue to have a National Strategic plan based on science, funded adequately in order to get the job done. I dont know what, who or what the administration was relying on since february to avoid or to decide not to crush the virus. But we have made progress this week, because we will not go forward unless we get to the heart of the sadness of the matter, and sadness of the matter. We are not going to the opening up our schools, our economy safely unless we crush the virus. So i pleased that weve reached a point where we at least, they still havent completely signed off on it but i think were just about there, that we will allocate against the resources again the resources and the policies necessary to do that. Testing, tracing, treatment, sanitation, separation, mask wearing, all the things that science tells us wouldve stopped the spread, would have stopped the spread of this virus. In fact, a report this morning says well over 100,000 people could have been saved if we had engaged in those practices as science dictated, but was not followed. So it is how we fund the healthcare providers, that is something we are reaching agreement on, as well as how we fund the vaccination, the vaccine and the distribution of the vaccine. And how we meet the health needs of people that lost their jobs and therefore lost their health care, unemployment, how we come up with some assistance for health care to them. Thats the healthcare package that a think we are at a good place on. The issue of educating our children, i mentioned safety in the workplace and safety in our schools, essential to crush the virus to make that happen. But in the meantime, our schools should be the safest places in america for our children, for our children to learn. Children learning, parents earning. As children can go to school, parents have an easier time of it to go to work. The workplace has to be safe, and thats part of our discussion here. But let me spend a moment on the schools because it relates to everything we need to do for our children. It only takes, in other words, we can make our schools safe. It only takes money. And really not that much more money than they had in the bill, but its not just the money. Its how it is spent. For our schools we need more space, more classrooms and more teachers, more support staff. We need better ventilation, technology to address some of the learning responsibilities that we have for our children. Its hard to understand why we would shortchange our children by holding back on what we need to do for our schools. So that remains one of our questions, and im hopeful, we Just Exchange tax and we sent them the most recent text. And in that text we talk about why we need those resources. Well documented institutional, academic, scientific basis as to why we need more resources to make our schools safe for our children. It seems to me that should be our highest priority. Because children are affected so drastically by not being able to go to school. Many children are affected by the virus. You heard me say again and again, if youre an africanamerican child you are five times more likely to go to the hospital for covid and a than a white child. If you are an hispanic child you are eight times more likely to go to the hospital for covid than a white child. More people of color have died of coronavirus than white people, and thats why our crush the virus testing, tracing, treatment is so important because we have to do what we need to do to make it happen and to see the impact in a minority community, which they had to erased from the bill, but now it is back. So the children, again from the standpoint of covid are affected, from the standpoint of school safe, safety are affected. Another point that affects the children is one thing that weve not received a positive answer yet, but i have been hopeful, see how we we will will help children and families who lost their jobs because of covid, or children who are in families that are falling into poverty. The figures range from six to 8 million families more have fallen into poverty because the cares act benefits are running out. This cant happen in our country. How can we have a bill that sustains a cares act provision that gives 150 billion, 150 billion to the wealthiest families in our country, and we give a third of that to the neediest families in our country, so that they can get back on their feet. The economists in every place on this scale, in terms of philosophy and experience, whether they are secretaries of the treasury or some other academics, they have told us that the best way, the best dollars we can spend are the dollars we spend on the neediest, the neediest. They need the money the most, and therefore they will spend it the fastest, injecting the man money into the economy, creating jobs, stimulus, stimulus. Its also the right thing to do for our families. That is also stimulus. Thats also true of what we had in the earned income tax credit refunds, the child independent tax credit refundable, the child tax, makes a tremendous difference in the lives of these families as they hopefully return to work and more work. Some of them are still working. These are the working, working poor. Are essential to our childrens wellbeing, whether its the ir education or the health or economic security, is honoring our heroes. I have talked about them before, and again were not going to have safe schools unless we have strong support not only from the federal government, but also from state and local government, who largely fund over 90 of what education is funded, Public Education is funded at the state and local government. The money from the federal government is largely about helping children who are in economically disadvantaged situations, as well as children with disabilities. Again, you are hurting kids if youre not doing state and local. You are hurting kids if youre not doing enough for education. You are hurting kids if youre giving tax breaks to the rich and ignoring their families. You are hurting kids if you are doing unless you are doing what we need to do to crush the virus. And then putting money into peoples pockets, thats one way, and the other is with, i think to terms on the direct payments. But we still havent come to terms on and im upset about this because its so central to who we are as a people, and called for in a constitution and that be the census in the election. So thats what we are on that. And again, having to make a case to crush the virus at the same time as they are crushing the Affordable Care act. They are in court. People talk about, its 12 days until the election. Its 19 days before we go before the Supreme Court for the oral arguments to overturn the Affordable Care act, a goal of this president and republicans attorney general across the country, and the republicans in the congress of the United States. Why they are in such a hurry to shares a justice, who she has even and written about it and has criticized a justice for his support of the. Even on of it. Even on top of all of that senator feinstein asked of the , nominee if she believed that medicare was constitutional. She could not respond. She did not give an answer to that. She said she could not answer that question in the abstract. Here we have a nominee endangering one of the most sacred american pillars of Health Security for seniors and their families. I cannot answer that in the abstract. Is medicare constitutional . Its no surprise to any of us here because for years weve been hearing republicans say medicare should wither on the vine. So, we have a lot at stake in this nomination and therefore all the more at stake in this election. One of the most things i had the most pause about in the hearings was what she said when she was , the about the climate climate crisis. She was asked if it were , she was and she said asked about the Scientific Evidence that Climate Change is happening. She called it controversial. I am certainly not a scientist. Ive read things about Climate Change. I would not say i have strong that. Iews in really . Defiance of science, you see it throughout everything we do. The defiance of science and not facing up to the coronavirus, so many months with so many lives that could have been saved. The defiance of science in recognizing the need for the Affordable Care act to meet the needs of american families. That is what is on the ballot, the Affordable Care act. The Affordable Care act and Preventative Care benefits that are in it they will be gone and , no longer will Insurance Companies be required to cover essential Preventative Care services, which are some of the most popular assets of the bill. The most wellknown that will be gone is the preexisting conditions protections. That benefit will be gone and insurers will be able to deny people coverage for preexisting conditions. Addedw covid19 has millions of people to that list. Already 150 million families are affected by the preexisting conditions challenge and therefore benefit from the Affordable Care act. Medicaid expansion, states will lose their funding for the medicaid expansion. Aople think of it as childrens initiative, and it is. Thank god. But it is also a middleclass benefit because much of the money that is spent for seniors. Care, for it comes from medicaid. Not so much anymore. If the republicans have their , of course, they do not believe in protections. Again, all the other things that a woman is no longer a preexisting medical condition. Back to that. If a child is on your policy up to 26 years old, forget about that. The list goes on and on. We talked about the fact that those of us involved in this are so proud that the 20 million more people would have access to quality affordable healthcare , but it is not just that. 150 million families have better care because of the Affordable Care act. Let me name them again. A benefit of having a preexisting condition protection, Preventative Care, benefits, medicaid expansion. Women paid more because of the Affordable Care act. So in any event, this is, this election becomes a very because no matter what , the court now that they lined up against americans could help, we in congress can change all of that. Weve already introduced legislation to enhance the Affordable Care act as we know any bill and always be better and any legislation and always be better people have to know the upgrade of support, scary as it is as we approach halloween. Understand that the election, the election has ramifications. When the house the senate and the white house are able to have an Even StrongerAffordable Care act to overcome what the supreme , court dangerously did. Medicare is constitutional, and again, criticizing the justice for his vote in support of the Affordable Care act and the constitutionality when that vote came up. One other other subject i wanted is the subject of the foreign interference in our elections. After this, i will go to a briefing on and it will be interested to see where they have to say and that classified briefing, because everything we have seen in the Public Domain does not justify the statements we heard yesterday. We do not want any interference in our elections from anyone. We think intimidation in the election is wrong. Foreign or domestic. To get equivalents to one country over another, when we know that russia has for a long time, 247 in the past election , and this one are there to undermine our election. They tried to make an equivalence with china. I will take second place from no one in this congress in my criticisms of china whether its trade violation or proliferation of Weapons Technology that are dangerous and sending it to rogue nations. I know what theyre doing, i have attracted them every day for 30 years, a little bit more. But in the Public Domain, you can see that what they are doing is their usual trying to infiltrate people in our country to be sympathetic to china. A lot less to do with the election. Russia is the villain here. Seen in the have iran isin, i ran a bad actor. But in no way equivalent, and they always try to find some equivalent to protect their friend, russia. I have confidence in the director of the fbi about all of the votes will be protected, that laws will not be violated, and we dont want this message coming out from the dni now to give people any impression that they should be afraid to vote, that their vote will not be counted as cast. I will be eager to hear what they have to say. I am glad i am having this meeting with you before that meeting, because everything i have to say is in the Public Domain. Elections are safe and should be treated with respect. I do not know what the dnr is up to with this, that remains to be seen. Again, i urge everyone to vote, theres a lot of poison out there. The antidote to the poison is the vote. Over 30 Million People, is it over 30 million that have voted by now . 42 Million People have voted already. God bless them, no matter who they voted for, god bless them for voting in such a patriotic way, waiting in lines and such. And i hope that we will continue well up until the closing of polls on election day. 12 days and 10 hours from now in california. I always think in terms of california, but ill take any questions you have. Forgive my cynicism, but i do not understand your optimism on the deal for covid relief. You are 12 days out from an election with the president see you need to the senate to in vote for this thing they dont , have any appetite to vote for anything bigger than the 500 billion package on the senate side. With all the months in these talks, they are just Going Forward with talks and i dont see how this happens. Speaker pelosi let me say this. If this talk did not have a purpose and if we were not making progress, i stopped in five seconds in this versation and i say that why would i even be talking . He says the same thing to me, why would i even be talking . This is not anything other than i think a serious attempt, i believe that both sides want to reach an agreement. I cant answer for the disarray from the senate side. One day the leader says i dont want to do it before the election. Another day he will say to send it over. Ill put it on the floor. Another day he says other things. Its not up to me to fight that, its about the president of the United States engaging in a discussion. Thats up to him to deliver what can happen on the senate side. Again, as i said before, we are not going to make the world straight in this bill, but we are going to crush the virus, finally take a step to crush the virus and do other things. We cannot pass a bill that makes matters worse, which is what every time they do something, reey have something in the that brings us one step forward, two steps back. We want to keep moving forward. Im open to these negotiations and when you get to the end, it is the hardest part. But weve sent more paper over. I told you one of the big issues , is education. We have a different view of how money should be spent on education. Again, grounded in what we are told by the association of superintendents of school, other associations which have no political prowess, just objective measures of what is needed. And we can do something great and i am still optimistic that we can do that. We will have to compromise, we swallow, neither side can swallow a poison pill, and were narrowing those differences. Go ahead. Andf you can get a deal, over the next 72 hours you can make a bill, would you be able to run it next week or would you have to wait until after the election . Speaker pelosi it is a hypothetical, if we can get an agreement. I think that we can, but again were legislators. ,we understand how long things take. Theyre not in the white house, they are not. I keep saying, it is not just a question of agreeing in a room. It is a question of the cdl weighing in with the score. The legislative counsel raising their questions and putting it in legislative order. That takes time. I want to take the opportunity given me to salute my chair, because before the meetings i talk with my tears, then after i reported them as to what happened in their particular arena. And so isre so smart their staff. They are so professional in getting into print what we were talking about. So it takes time. This is not slamming down what time we will have dinner next week, this is about establishing a plan to crash a virus, to honor our heroes, to put money in the pockets of the American People and do so in a way that does not harm our children. It can happen. Its up to them. It is really up to them. When people say take the deal, there is no deal, it is onesided, take their bill . It was not possible. It wasnt possible. It didnt crush the virus, it didnt do anything it was supposed to do. So, im pretty happy, im please d at where we are now. If we can resolve some of these things in the next few days it , will take a while to write the i was hoping that we could be writing starting now, but we are putting pen to paper and some of the easier parts of the bill, but it is close. Its close. The question is where will the , president be at any given moment . He has been all over the map. All over the block. But i think weve gotten into a good place, especially on questions of the virus. This is a major event. Can you put it on the floor . Speaker pelosi it depends. Have you come to an agreement on state and local funding . Speaker pelosi no. On liability . Speaker pelosi no. These allegations of corruption involving joe biden im notpelosi answering those questions, but hey, were talking about the coronavirus. I dont have all day for questions, thats what were taking now. Anybody else have a question on coronavirus negotiations . Im wondering how confident you are that senators would go over, given that the Senate Majority was going about not having it out and have you had discussions with nguyen about convincing republican senators . Speaker pelosi im not interested in a bill, we have to have strong bipartisan support in the legislation that we come together on. I would hope that we have bipartisanship in the house and in the senate. The last bill, the cares act was a terrible bill, it was corporate trickledown, we have d our bill taking responsibility, and we brought it. We didnt get everything we wanted, they still got there under 50 billion for the richest people in america, but nonetheless, we got a bill that made, made a difference, not everything but a difference. Getting republican votes is not my job. Thats up to them. Thats up to them. They know. I think they come to the table with some level of precedents confidence, that if we can reach an agreement, that we can. The president wants the bill. He wants a bill. That is part of the opportunity that we have. Yes, maam. You say the president want to deal, the president wants a deal until the minute he decides he doesnt want to deal, so how do you deal with that . Speaker pelosi it is called disarray. Mitch mcconnell, the president. Youre also running up against logistics in terms of you have things to work out on state and local, still got things you got to work out and get it done, so that comes up against actual election day, so is it more important to get it done before election day or is it more important to get it done and you dont really care when that happens as long as it gets done . Are you willing to wait until after to get what you want . We are not going to have a bill that is not acceptable to my caucus or my chairs. We have written the act. It is about time. Somebody made a decision on their side that they do not want it before the election. I think we want to pass it before the election, but it is not up to me to decide. The senate does. It will be bigger, better, safer , and it will be retroactive. Thank you. Goodbye. Announcer later on cspan, more campaigning 2020 coverage with the Vice President traveling to indiana for a rally. You can watch that live from fort wayne at 4 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. In other election races, in maine, the incumbent Suzanne Collins debates challengers today, including senator gideon and alisa savage. That will be live on cspan, on superman. Org, or listen on cspan. Org or listen live on the cspan radio app. We are looking at Belmont University in nashville, the side of the second and final president ial debate between President Trump and his democratic challenger, joe biden. Live coverage here begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, with a preview, then the debate at 9 00 p. M. You can listen on the cspan radio app or go to cspan. Org debates for Live Streaming of the debate coverage. Announcer we are weeks away from election day, november 3, when control of congress and who occupies the white house next year will be decided. Stay with cspan2 here joe biden and President Trump make their case to the American Public come and watch debates in the hotly contested senate and house races. Campaign 2020 coverage them every day on cspan, cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app app, your place for an unfiltered view of politics. Contenders,he about the men who ran and lost, but changed political history. Tonight, businessman and philanthropist ross perot. The contenders, tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3. The Senate Judiciary committee today approved the nomination of judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court by a vote of 120, all 10 Committee Democrats boycotted the meeting and vote, claiming the process was illegitimate. Here is how it played out