The white house will give an update on the spread of the coronavirus later today. Vice president pence has been leading the task force and will offer remarks. We expect to see him this afternoon as well shortly as he meets with a number of hospital executives. That could be at any moment. We are planning live coverage of that here on cspan 3. The Vice President s update from the white house on the coronavirus pandemic is set for 5 30 eastern. We are planning to bring that to you live when that starts here on cspan 3. Again, at 5 30. Also online at cspan. Org or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Congressional democrats believed reporters earlier today about the federal response to the outbreak and paid sick leave. We will have that for you later here on cspan 3. Pennsylvania republican dan muser a freshman member who serves on the budget as well as the Veterans Affairs and labor committees. First, whats happening here on capitol hill amid the coronavirus outbreak . Roll call had a story yesterday about some members complaining about a lack of constitutional standards in their response and how offices should be responding, whether there should be a uniform response. Whats your view right now on capitol hill . Well, you know, we run our offices, however, of course when youve got a serious issue theyre going to send down some best practices and in many cases requirements to assure from an hr perspective basically to assure that staff and all stay informed and stay safe, but theres a fair amount of rumors circulating just as there are throughout many cities and society and certainly the media and the news, but there are no real cases that have been validated throughout the capitol, for that matter, and everybody is taking precautions. This is a busy place, weve got thousands of people coming in and out. Yesterday was one of the most busy days on the capitol ever, some people felt, and certainly my office was jam packed as was the capitol, so people are coming in. There are cancellations taking place, so i think in the next few weeks we will likely see a downturn, but, you know, very much in general, again, rumors we are doing a lot of communicating. I meet on the coronavirus probably twice a day with the last week i met with the Vice President twice, i met with dr. Fauci two or three times, yesterday i met with former fda director gottlieb, i also met with the former the cdc director yesterday as well. I mean, we are staying updated and the resources of the government are in full force here. About over half dozen members now selfquarantining after possible exposure, the latest congressman don beyer out of virginia and his announcement yesterday. Roll call in that story noted some 200 members of congress are 65 and older. I know you are in your 50s, but what are those older members saying to you and their level of concern considering the risk for those over 60 . Well, a number of those people, the five or six youre referencing, met one individual at the cpac event which i was supposed to be attending as well. Some of them have confined themselves, some of them did not. There was one, in fact, yesterday giving tours because they experienced no symptoms after five, six, seven days. The others are taking measures that they think are in their interest and in peoples interest, but theres data here and im a realist and im a believer in the data, right . I mean, the data is that the risk remains very, very low. The number of people affected by this thus far is wildly less than has occurred ten years ago, for instance, with the swine flu where over 12,000 people died and it barely made the news. Tens of thousands were afflicted. So we really have to take this in a measured way, see where the outbreaks are. Theres no question its contagious so people have to stay clean, everybody is washing their hands regularly, the fist bumping or the elbow bumping, i mean, whatever you feel comfortable with is what people should do. I will tell you this, though, for the most part people are shaking hands. Whats happening in your district back home in pennsylvania . In pennsylvania we have, i believe, 11 or 12 test positive people out of a population of 13. 5 million. So it is not a clearly since its in the media regularly and in an alarming way, frankly, its not what i mean by that is its not databased. Whats being portrayed in the media, its whats possible as opposed to whats probable. I like dealing with whats probable and when you have large areas or regions like my district, for instance, 5,000 square miles without one case the idea of a school having to close now doesnt make sense based upon realistic data. Look, decisions have to be made and in our country decision right side not made in that build all the time, they are made at the state level, they are made at the local level so i respect it. What decision has to be made in that building when it comes to President Trumps efforts in a economic stimulus . The president is applying every resource of the federal government under his authority in a mobilized effort medical effort to combat, contain and mitigate this issue, this virus. And so the president has come in initially, he prohibited flights in from china, that was the first great step. I mean, we would have had more cases, no question, it would have ramped up faster. We have suspensions on flights in most of italy and in south korea and other places and we have significant screening taking place in many other countries where the number of cases has been higher than the average. Thats one thing thats been done. Now, we just passed the other day an 8. 3 billion supplemental bill to provide the Funding Resources to go towards helping pharmaceutical Companies Find an anecdote. Thats certainly being worked on. But there is no question, thats ten months out. Were hearing some rumors here and there that that can happen that much sooner. Not the experts and doctors that we talk to. Do you think congress should suspend the payroll tax today . Thats something we can do immediately. I think we have to look at a number of things. Im never against lowering a tax, frankly, i mean, we have a blue collar economic boom taking place, an overall boom, i think its a little bit more macro than that. Lowering the taxes on people in the workforce today is certainly something worth considering. We will see. But what is important is many of the other things the president is offering, we have businesses out there, maybe they arent in an area where a case has developed. If those that business is concerned about its employees and they, therefore, if they are producing a product, providing a service that they think its a good idea to shut down for 10 to 12 days, we dont want that business, we want to provide that business some sort of safety net. No bailouts. Hopefully were done with bailouts for a long time in this country, but making it known that Small Business loans and other types of loans are made available, some sort of relief as well as assuring those people that employers and employees that the medical benefits will be there and if any testing needs to take place that the tests are available. So a very reasonable approach that starts lets say it starts here, starts with the white house, but is being implemented and executed on the local level. Thats what america is about. We dont operate like china, you know, where everything is command central and thats why they had such a big problem that they have. We are a very independent society, they are very dependent. Our citizens dont immediately turn to washington for their answers, they turn to themselves. They turn to their communities, but they do need some leadership here. Our leadership needs to be based upon data, needs to be realistic and needs to empower people so as we can mitigate and then improve the situation. Dan muser our guest, congressman from the ninth district of pennsylvania, republican congressman joining us until the bottom of the hour this morning and former Small Business executive before getting into public service. Our phone lines split up as usual democrats 2027488000, republicans 2027488001, independents 2027488002 and Small Business owners 2027488003 is the number for Small Business owners. Roger is up first for you out of virginia, a republican. Roger, good morning. Caller good morning. Go ahead, roger. Caller can you hear . Yes, we can. Caller i want to give you a heads up. I used to be a republican but since donald trump come in hes destroyed the republican party. I dont know what we have now. But my question was when donald trump put the ban in, thats fine, he was a few weeks late and thats okay, but who were the 15 people that he allowed into the country to get all this started . Yeah, i dont yeah, im not sure what youre referring to. We have millions and millions of people that enter our country every day, i mean, millions just go to disney world from different countries, so its very you cant pinpoint whether or not they are 15 people or not, but President Trump is someone focused on improving america from quality of life and economic and the world stage and has a sense of urgency and is willing to use the resources in order to achieve that. All while abiding by the constitution. Thats not going to be thrown out the window under this emergency, but hes also as a businessperson someone thats responsive to issues of the day and so thats what were seeing here. Every aspect of our federal government is being brought to this to this emergency and its not being taken lightly, certainly from the top you want a calming effect, but behind the scenes youre working very aggressively to completely understand this problem, to fix it as well as possible, to protect people along the way and to minimize the overall effects to peoples health, but also to the health of our economy. You know, some people say the president is trying to have it both ways, where in china they just shut everything down. We dont operate that way, right . We operate in a reasonable way because we dont we dont make decisions from command central, we allow our people to make those judgment calls that are best for them. You serve on the Veterans Affairs committee, is the va ready for coronavirus . Weve received various updates from the v. A, again, they are using all of their resources to follow a similar plan, detecting cases, responding to those cases, quarantining and containing those who perhaps have it, testing, providing therapeutic relief since there is no vaccine along the way and just staying very, very diligent. Doing everything they can to keep this thing, to keep people informed as well as keep those who arent affected away from those that are. And thats one thing about the cdc, the cdc has 12,000 individuals that work at the cdc. Every one of them is dedicated to protecting and keeping American People safe. They are in full operation here. The cdc website, by the way, is the same information, the information on there as the hearings and briefings that i receive. Whether or not theyre behind closed doors in our congressional auditorium or with the Vice President of United States. We are not receiving any information other than i can talk about here. Theres been nothing at all classified, everything is out in the open and we are all in this together. Reed, tennessee, independent, youre next. Good morning. Reed, are you with us . Caller yes. Go ahead. Caller the coronavirus outbreak, you know, i dont know why they dont let the president take care of take care of things. I mean, he has done a good job, hes got all the experts taking care of everything and also i watched cnn and msnbc last night, they had a guy out there that was irate about President Trump. I mean, thats the president of the United States. Reed, when you say they arent letting the president take care of things, what do you mean . Give me an example. Caller like theyre saying hes not doing anything or hes not taking control. He is in complete control. Who is they reed . Caller hes got some of the best scientists working on it and i dont know why reed, i think i understand what youre saying. Yes, unfortunately our Mainstream National media is painting things once again in the worst possible light. They sure dont want to ever give President Trump any credit for anything. Things are being hyperbolized at every opportunity. It is disheartening to see that. The New York Times called it the trump virus, if you are sick blame trump. I dont know where these people come from. They certainly dont act in a professional manner because that is wrong to send out a misrepresentation on an important issue. So once again we have to remove the politics from this, deal with an issue, correct it as americans and all Work Together and maybe this could maybe this can actually be a uniting issue in the end, but all i know is every resource of this federal government, and i say this, ive got an inside look at it, is being put to use to inform and protect, mitigate, contain and then ameliorate, improve in the shortest period of time possible. Greg in auburn, alabama, a democrat, good morning. Reporter good morning. How are you doing . I would first like to say that im a diabetic, im 66 years old and a cancer survivor and i am a target of this disease and people with my condition are targets of this disease. Now, common sense would tell the average person and i go to a lot of Emergency Rooms in my condition. I always wait two and three hours before i can see a doctor. So common sense tells me that this is fluent throughout our country and with this virus those numbers go through the ceiling on when you can see a doctor if we have a pandemic and whatever else comes after that. And thats really, really scary. Now, as far as the cdc, 12,000 people to overlook 300 million, thats a little bit undercut, under the weather. I think it will take 12,000 a long time to look after 300 million. Thats common sense. I also think about the president and donald trump, hes down playing it just a little bit. I dont blame him for this disease at all. I think hes doing the best he possibly can with what he has to work with. You know, thats neither here nor there. Well, i dont disagree with anything you just said. Yeah, unfortunately you are in a higher risk and, again, the data shows that. Those who are suffering the most severe symptoms and those that are have fatalities are 95 of the time and let me check my math, i want my math to be right, but lets call it 85 of the time over the age of 70, most of that percentage is over the age of 80. So you are in a higher risk so you absolutely have to take more precautions, avoid places that are highly public with a lot of people, wash your hands regularly and thats seriously. Im watching my hands eight, nine, ten times a day, particularly if im shaking hands. And when you talk about the 12,000 people, that relates exactly to what im saying. Youve got to bed count all the physicians throughout our country. Physicians are being trained by the cdc to on how to respond and how to get to the test kits. Without that local resource that exists because frankly we are a free society, because we are america, were able to were better prepared than other countries. As far as the president downplaying, you know, you can look at things glass is half full, glass is half empty. I do think the president is trying to be calming, yet at the same note be very open. You know, he was down at cdc last friday i think it was and he had about an Hour Press Conference with all of the scientists and cdc directors and dr. Fauci and others around him. Everybody answering those questions in the most honest manner possible. The same honest way that we get our briefings behind closed doors. So everything is being pretty much put out there and its for its for us to use that information as well as possible and when we have better solutions, well, you know, we will be communicating that. Coming back to solutions on capitol hill, what could happen this week . You talked about creating a safety net, not wanting to give a bailout, things like mandatory paid sick leave. Is that something you think democrats and republicans can come together on . Maybe. Right . Lets see where things go. I mean, many businesses have pay leaves that they allow for. People have vacation time. We want to take the added worry out of employers and employees, so there should be access to it. Frankly not on the back of taxpayers, however, so i think there are some initiatives that can provide that. So for some temporary or even longer term help, even perhaps extension, we are at a full employment right now. Weve got 3. 5 employment, the best in 50 years, our economy is doing extremely well, most businesses are doing very well so they can probably sustain a little bit of a downturn. People so many people are living paycheck to paycheck, thats why the president wants to do the payroll reduction so they do have some more money in their pockets. Yes, under these sort of emergency initiatives we likely need to make people understand there will be some outlets for reli relief, but we have to see what the option right side. A good time to talk to a Small Business owner. This robert in michigan, an independent, what kind of business do you own . Caller i own a Grocery Store and also farm. And what do you think is needed right now, robert . Caller well, i will tell you what we need. Number one, when i go to the store, my store, i take a paper towel and i bleach it at home and i clean the door handles off, knobs and everything and when i handle money, every time that i handle money i put my hands in the bleach water and disinfect my hands because you dont know where that money has been. Robert, what would you like to see the federal government do, if anything . Caller well, i think theyre doing fairly decent but i think one thing that needs to be looked at, where are we getting our drugs . Good questions. I have to tell you i have many farmers in the agriculture industry, in my district and my state, if you ever need some good effective horse sense, common sense, ask a farmer. So thank you, sir. I appreciate that. Yeah, youre doing the things that you need to do that make you feel comfortable during this to avoid catching this contagious virus. Keep in mind on this, though, somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 of the people who do actually test positive or have the virus have no symptoms, particularly those that are young. They dont even have any symptoms. So thats number one. And then 10 lets sake 100 . 80 feel no symptoms, 10 to 15 do feel the symptoms. 5 of that have to be hospitalized and then youve got about less than 1 . Less than 1 that are dealing with fatalities, much less than 1 , particularly here in the United States. But the numbers that youll see on the media take into account all of the deaths that occurred in china in a very small area and thats why some of those numbers are as high as 2. 5 to 3 . Again, data matters and statistics matter. This thing is likely going to get worse before it gets better or i should say more people will be tested positive for t but now were engaged. Everybody knows more or less how to handle things and im not talking about shutting down schools and shutting down businesses. That to me is extreme, particularly if theres no cases at all within the region or the area. The numbers right now from Johns Hopkins university their dashboard theyve been keeping up on this is what weve been referring to this week. 1,039 confirmed cases in the United States, 29 deaths so far in the United States. So just under the 3 number. Yes. The 3 number. Im taking the as more testing takes place more people will be confirmed. Will have it than yeah, you have the numerator and denominator there. In this case the numerator is higher and the testing and the cdc has done testing that they actually believe in. They did some random testing in washington and they came back with about a. 6 because washington had a significant flareup, particularly in the Nursing Homes. Nursing homes should be very cautious here, okay, even a very heightened level of caution. If this contagious vaccine gets into a nursing home it can be extremely problematic. So thats one area and my office and many district offices we sent out notices to the Nursing Homes. But i will tell you this, sir, a number of problems did get exposed, your question about how much of the derivatives of the pharmaceutical industry and the drugs being made in china, yeah, most people were not aware of that. So some well, maybe some positive things will come out of this, but first we cant talk about that, we have people getting sick and we have fatalities so we have to address this in the most serious way possible. Should note coming up in our 9 00 a. M. Eastern hour we will be joined by David Gifford senior Vice President at the American Health association, the largest trade association for Nursing Homes in the country so a lot more to talk about. But one more call before you go, congressman. Richard has been waiting out of con da in montreal. Richard describes himself as a republican. Richard, go ahead. Caller good morning, congressman. In 20092010 we had the swine flu hin 1 blue where americans died. And i follow the news very closely, i didnt hear the news covering this story every day and obama did not assemble a task force or give us a briefing every day. 13,000 is a huge number and the corrupt media and the corrupt Democratic Party are trying to blame the president for the spreading of this virus when 13,000 americans were killed and they didnt even inform the public. I was traveling in the United States, i didnt know about this, they put my family at risk and they are blaming the president , i think its outrageous. I have the numbers on the swine flu, the n 1 and it was, right, 12,500 fatalities just in the United States, 700 Million People worldwide infected and that was just in 2009. Youre correct. And this thing is being carried out in many cases in the worst possible manner possible. I dont want to call anybody corrupt, but the American People do need to know the facts. Thats why what you are saying sir s important so people can put this into perspective. In 09 it was frankly a lot worse. Now, we have an unknown here so i can understand peoples concern but we have to put things into perspective. You know, it can also add to the fact that the tens of thousands of people every year that die from the flu and whether they get the flu shot or not. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 deaths a year in the United States from the flu and more or less and that covers a wider spectrum of age, but it does affect those who are ill or elderly more so. This is again, this is still something that has a lot of unknowns to it, but im glad you helped people know this information so they can put things into perspective. Do you think the Obama Administration should have done more than in political fact with the fact check on this issue, the Obama Administration declared swine flu a Public Health emergency six weeks before it was declared a pandemic and no deaths had yet been recorded in the United States when that happened, but by six months after that declaration more than 1,000 deaths had occurred. I dont know. I wasnt there and frankly i was in the Business World and like this gentleman i barely remember it, right . And i think everybody is going to remember this who is alive today because of the constant News Coverage on it. And thats okay, right . But, again, the American People need to take these things into perspective and just know this isnt the first time that we dealt with Something Like this, even in a reasonably short period of time and we got the full resources in the United States, federal, state and local governments looking to combat it. Congressman dan muser, republican from pennsylvania. Appreciate it. Always appreciate when you stop by. Thanks a lot. With Washington State being one of the first and continued focal points of the coronavirus outbreak, we appreciate the time this morning of congressman kim shreyer. Whats the status of coronavirus back home in your eighth district . Well, people in king county and in Washington State are understandably concerned and this is spreading. Now, the numbers youre seeing in the news escalating pretty rapidly. Reflects two things, one is spread of the disease but the other is really the more availability of testing and testing people with milder