Transcripts For FBC After The Bell 20240713

Meeting, many of us have been talking together but we cannot get done what needs to be done, only you and the administration can critically given attention of the saudis and flooding the markets adding insult to injury at a time when our economy is suffering anyway because of the coronavirus. So this meeting could not be more timely. I agree with whats being said about the importance of Affordable Energy to our standard of living and really we change the world as a result of the production of Domestic Energy here in improve the quality of life for a lot of people. Thank you very much. Youve done a great job. John, i agree, we were talking the other day that weve all done well and weve also kept energy very affordable, very, very affordable and a lot of it, we never had any problems, we will keep it that way. Do i see dan back there, i was lucky and i thought that look like dan. I want to thank you for convening this meeting. The Trump Administration working with the congress in the u. S. Has become the world energy superpower, it is unbelievable, these companies have done it, obviously its a very important issue in my state, the great state of alaska but these are great jobs as john cornyn just said, for all of her states were really important for the National Security of our country to and we have been, number of senators have been reaching out and having disgusted with the saudis saying if you are a longstanding ally of ours, right now you are hurting a lot of our citizens and a lot of people that we represent, you should not take this for granted. We have a great military that is protected saudi arabia for decades and senator cramer and i have legislation that could possibly change that if they dont start to cooperate. Again we appreciate your leadership with the crown prince, with the russians in calling this meeting. But this is a great sector of the u. S. Economy that once we get through this, we will, this pandemic, the sector will take off again in your administration has had a lot to do with the u. S. Energy sector and we need to keep a strong. Thank you very much. Kevin cramer, north dakota, people dont realize how big of a producer you are in north dakota. [laughter] mr. President the people around your table are part of the renaissance of oil and gas in this country. As you became president we went from the renaissance to security to independence to dominance. That dominant insecurity right now are in some danger. A quick example, north dakota says saudi arabia and russia announced a price work, we have had 6 billion of xuppercaseletter taken out of our state plan for this year. So that is significant and represents not just cap acts but lots of jobs, lots of people in the value chain and i will add one word to saudi arabia, by one report 2018 that we spent a minimum of 81 billion defending global oil supplies. We can use that money and natural defense and other hotspots in the world. If our friends are going to tweet us this way, we appreciate your outreach, we think were happily there with the success of your diplomacy. Thank you. It has gone up and we have to order we would lose a lot of jobs, a lot of job producers anywhere kevin. You have anything to say. Mr. President , mike sommers, president and ceo of American Petroleum institute. Looks around the table represent the energy revolution. We want to thank you for everything that you have done to support that revolution and we want to make sure that revolution continues after this pandemic crisis is solved. Thank you. [laughter] what are you doing there. [laughter] mr. President this is an important meeting and the time as you know, crisis all across the country, Public Health crisis and economic crisis. As you know and as you have heard from everyone around the table the Energy Sector has been a big part of the economic success that we have enjoyed over the last several years. In the combination of the economic Coronavirus Crisis combined with the saudis and russians waging economic warfa warfare, its been a perfect storm in the Energy Sector. I will tell you, theres a lot of jobs, millions of jobs in texas and across the country that represent men around this table and Energy Producers and there are small producers throughout texas and throughout the country who are on the verge of being driven out. So this meeting is important, i think everyone of the senators in this room has had multiple conversations with the saudis leading in your leadership and with the crown prince had a big impact getting them to stop flooding the market and taken advantage of the crisis and i would underscore one other issue with a number of the folks around this issue im very concerned about is ensuring that those in energy in this time of crisis have access to capital. There are jobs in the Energy Producers in this country that have made america the number one producer of oil and gas in the world cannot Access Capital to get out of the crisis, we will see bankruptcy at a level this country has not seen in decades. So this meeting with the continued leadership in your administration is hugely important. Thank you remote. When youre up, the concept versus oil reserves, storing oil, filling up the National Reserves as you know, getting a really great price. But these prices that kevin and i have been speaking about and john and i, these prices, you would think you would want every cabinet that we have in this country and in louisiana and other areas and can be filled up, they hold a lot of oil. But at these prices it would be good and keep everybody working. But you think you would want to fill up those areas, what do you think of that. I think thats exactly right, i think it makes sense in terms of easing the pressure that is that in these jobs. It also makes sense for the taxpayer. The Strategic Petroleum reserve is there intensive crisis and usually the way the federal government works, we buy when its expensive and we sell when its cheap. We actually have an opportunity to buy when it is cheap. I think it was inexcusable the democratic leadership in the house and senate brought that in the bill that we passed last week and i think Congress Needs to go back and address it. The speaker came in and thats the one thing that she held the below twentydollar. There are many demographics. I think they should go back, i think you should go back and see john, if you guys can go back in the bill and beyond that i think its 75 billion barrels right now. That is not that much. So its really pretty good shape. But we have other areas that are bigger frankly that we could fill up but at those prices we should be pumping it out. Maybe you guys can check in to see what you can do. I dont think anyone can reject it. Nobody can reject it. Ted can you work on that. Absolutely. Anybody else, david you guys okay . One thing, mr. President. The department they manage a large portion of land, one other case we have done over the last 15 days, to slow the spread, we have really had our specters out on the front line, we will make sure that its incurring and save in a responsible manner and think of her buddy for the cooperation. These jobs are so important to the American People and its important that we make sure hes the biggest landowner in the country. The meeting is called interior. Great job youre doing. Mr. President , thank you, thank you, sir. Im the secretary of energy, the announcement for 30 Million Barrels this week, now is standing they presume under pursue the alternative financing mechanism. I think you will. I was not worried about appearing. What are you paying per barrel. We could pay out. [laughter] were going to go negative. Like industries. Mr. President , i want to know, so the industry players can hear, were moving very aggressively and using every tool that we have at the u. S. Department of energy not only to provide immediate relief for this industry and the economy itself but to look at technology over time for the structure for the entire industry. Were moving as aggressively as we can, thank you for your leadership. Check out other areas where you can store oriole. There are some very good ones, bigger than what we have now and at these prices you should do it. Fill it up. Fill up the tank. You guys have been so great, this is not your meeting but bob has the best trade deals in the country and one of them loans on april 1 with china and i hope they are buying a lot. I hope. Im a question mr. President. He just wants to make deals that is all. And youve done a great job. Thank you very much. We will have a News Conference at about 5 00 oclock, 515 maybe and we will see you in a little while to answer questions. This is a great group of leaders and we have to make sure that we are preserved and make greater our Energy Industry and i want to thank all of the senators and congressmen and the boss here for being here and working so hard. I will tell you what, they are calling me constantly, they want your industry to be successful and they will make it that way per we will all make it that way. I will see you at 5 00 oclock, same place and we look forward to it. Thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] would anybody like to be tested. I would love to be tested i think we all would. I like it, lets test these guys, theres millions of jobs, they give us millions of jobs, if anybody wants to be tested we will test them. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] connell President Trump meeting with Energy Executives a short time ago, returning to coronavirus at the end, the most part the discussion over issues impacting the allimportant industry with officials from exxon mobil, chevron and other Companies Represented as well as members of congress. This all comes in what has been another busy day news wise in this country. We learned for example that more than 700,000 jobs were lost around the country in the month of march. We will talk about it all with the market down as we welcome you to the show a little bit later than usual. Its good to be with you on a friday. I am connell mcshane. Melissa i am melissa francis, this is after the bell, moments from now we are going to get reaction from eugene scully at the labor secretary on this months jobs report but we begin with fox Business Team coverage, blake burman with the latest from the president Lauren Simonetti is on markets and Edward Lawrence from washington, lets start with blake. Let me give you three headlines from President Trump in the cabinet room. I will start with where we ended off, there was a question about testing those in the vicinity of the president , the reason thats an issue because theres any policy at the white house that those income in close contact with the president will not need to be tested for the coronavirus. The way it had been or still is at the white house when you enter the gates they take your temperature whether youre a member of the media or white house staff as those now entering through the same building and entrance rather, but now the white house is stepping up those procedures as those who will come in the immediate vicinity of the president whether this staff, those a meeting, those who meet with the president et cetera will be tested for the coronavirus. We know last night the president said he took a test, most recent and it came out for the second time as well negative. That is the first headline, the second as it relates to oil, the president continued to talk up the idea of filling up the strategic for petroleum reserve, something the president talked about initially a few weeks ago. Something that republicans and those in the room can clearly as you heard want to do but it became a political issue in putting together the 2. 2 trillion dollars relief package, the president saying at one point that he wants a separate bill, standalone bill to come out of congress to address this because of how cheap oil prices are right now, the president saying check out other areas where you can store oil and at these prices, you should do it, fill up the tank. Third headline which i will leave you with, we heard the president talk about his desire for an infrastructure package, something is talked about throughout the week what would be a phase for 2 trilliondollar infrastructure package. Why that is so notable is while the president continues to talk up this idea and so does nancy pelosi and democrats the need for an infrastructure package, there are many republicans in washington who are a bit hesitant on the idea but also within the white house, everything i have been hearing over the last few days is right now, they are focused on implementing phase three and how massive it is, for example larry kudlow told stuart varney, operational execution, that is our number one job right now. He went on to say there is all kinds of proposals speaking of a phase four, i am not saying we are pursuing any right now, he also told us do, right now we need to execute the phase three. Why you hear the president talk about his desire for a phase four within the white house right now those on the ground working on implementing phase three say that is the biggest need at this moment. Back to you. Melissa thank you blake, no doubt it is very complicated to get all of those loans out to Small Business. Lets get to Edward Lawrence who has a breakdown of the job report. Reporter nobody expected the job report as bad as this one. All the estimates that i see did not come anywhere close to this, the academy in march losing 701,000 jobs, this only covered the first two weeks of march, not the second two weeks thats why folks mightve thought this number wouldve been better. If you look under the hood, job losses in the area that you thought there might be. Hospitality, leisure and hospitality lost 459,000 jobs, construction lost 29000 jobs, retail lost 46000 jobs, the under white house Economic Advisor larry kudlow did not sugarcoat it. Obviously this comes from the exponential spread of the virus and the containment and mitigation measures that are help team has put together which in effect has shut down the economy or shot in the economy. Reporter as you look at it, there were surprises when you look at the job number report, specifically in the healthcare industry, healthcare lost 42500 jobs in the hospital actually added 200 jobs. This report comes out in the first two weeks of march, i have to believe that the second two weeks of march where the real surge of patient came to the hospital and hospitals will probably add more jobs in the next jobs report, also good news, the average hourly wages rose 11 cents in march. That is 3. 1 increase over the past 12 months, thats a huge number, strong number showing how strong this economy was going into this coronavirus shock. We will have to see what happens on the other side. Back to you. Melissa thank you edward. Here is Eugene Scalia the secretary of labor. Thank you for joining us. First of all, how bad do you think this will get. Look, we have never seen numbers quite like the numbers yesterday where we had 6. 6 million unemployment claims filings from the week before and then we just heard 700,000 jobs lost in really the just the first part of last month, but then we never done anything before like redoing now with our economy, and so what is happening now is intended in a sense and its also been anticipated and i think there is some good news and the fact that its been anticipated that we have a really important legislation that the president signed last week to help pull us out of this, we are doing something weve never done before as a nation and unfortunately its taken a lot of people out of their jobs for a while. Melissa you say that it was anticipated but we heard from a lot of people who are trained to file their unappointed claims and having a lot of trouble doing it. We heard from a lot of people calling in and all they get is a busy signal, they cannot get through to anyone. They are really concerned as they try to replace their paycheck. What do you say to those people. What i say is that the president and congress didnt dissipate that americans would need significant relief from what we are asking them to do as a Public Health measure. As we know the legislation that the president signed last week includes important new Unemployment Insurance benefits that covers gig workers as well as others and payments to individual americans. But there is a great, great demanding more from place on the state, unappointed agencies right now, they will do their best to process the claims, the legislation the president signed two weeks ago including another billion dollars in funding to help support those states unappointed offices. So they can higher up and bring on people who have retired and the like and stuff up. It is a heavy demand and they will work to mediate. Melissa what do you think is going to happen over time in terms of companies furloughing their employees to polarity. I know some of us do not believe even though they said they will bring those workers back. You look at examples like i dont want to pick on anyone but when you look at macys or the Larger Department stores that were already struggling and thinking about the fact that they had too many locations, this hastens the transition away from some of these jobs that were getting ready to disappear, is there support out there in the long run as it seems like we have sped up this transition from a lot of retail and brickandmortar jobs that even if the employees are saying theyre going to come back its hard to believe that is true. What you guys when you do about that to help. I think the most important thing that we can do at this moment, i say this as much as anybody to the individual americans that are having a hard time right now, be very disciplined about the majors being advocated by the Public Authority so we can get out of this quickly. We came into this faster than any economic downturn we have ever had. It was purposeful, if we are disciplined now, we have the opportunity to get out quickly, today as you know we launched the Small Business Administration Loan program which is meant to help Small Businesses stay afloat but also help them keep their workers on payroll. I think if we can help Companies Hold onto their workers and be disciplined in the Public Health measures being asked of us, we have a far better chance of enabling companies to get back up quickly and letting the economy get back up quickly. The longer this goes, we know the more longterm the sum of the effects will be on what our economy looks like. Melissa what are you guys modeling right now. You must be looking at scenarios of when you think people can go back down work and when we heard Steven Mnuchin say he thinks will see the economy rebound in the third quarter, do you still think that is a realistic expectation. I think it is realistic to see the economy turning around really quickly if we are disciplined now with the Public Health measures, it all really depends on how effective we are in that in the weeks ahead and i think if we are disciplined and adhere to the guidance then we can get this economy back to a strong position quickly, whether that is in the third quarter, we will see. But this should not be the kind of downturn we are accustomed to because it did not start in a way that we were accustomed to, we had a vibrant economy, weeks ago and we can get back there. Melissa we are not holding you to it but im sure you guys have had discussions about what it looks like to turn the economy back on and certainly i understand that we cannot predict what is going to happen and things change over time because we are ready seen that. What does it look like to turn things back on, where you start in the economy and what kind of businesses will go first. That will depend on part on how we end up defeating the virus. You can see it might be and part regional. It might be an part certain people are prepared to come back to the workforce more quickly than others and obviously theres some parts of our infrastructure and our economy that are especially key to getting the economy up and running again, i think there is a number of factors but places where we see less risk, were likely to see get back to work more quickly and were seen some sectors hiring, we are seeing amazon hiring, as was mentioned in the lead into this, we see hospitals hiring more two. Melissa thank you so much for your time i hope you will come back soon. Thank you. Thank you. Melissa. Connell standby for the secretary reaction steve forbes, live at Lauren Simonetti at the root markets reaction today and for the week. Reporter where to begin, so many negative headlines coming out us today, starting this morning with the jobs report. That just scratched the surface, seven times worse than expected and does not pay the full picture. Then the ims chief came out and said the financial crisis is way worse, the coronavirus is way worse than the financial crisis, the new york governor saying weve never seen a rise in the number of deaths in new york overnight, this is bad news, the market reacted, down at the end of the day by 360point, if you look at the week, all three major averages lower, lower now for three weeks in the past four weeks. Having said that, i do think something changes week. First of all the fixes at 47 and not 80 and we did not have the huge swings that we have had in previous weeks. I dont want to use the word calmed down but it does seemed like things were a little less volatile despite the bad news this week. I wanted to bring that upgrade the look of the dow winners on the week, there were some winners, chevron, fisa and walmart, and on the s p 500, energy was the big winner today, if you take a look at the price of oil, the best week ever of 31 on the week, traders are expecting production cuts, we will see, Virtual Meeting opec class on monday. Airlines typically like cheap oil which means cheap jet fuel but right now they are struggling. The department of transportation telling airlines that you are obligated to refund tickets to passengers when you cancel the flight or made significant changes. Is that happening, not really. We are seeing the delta and southwest are issuing vouchers and extending the time for which you can use them, will the department of transportation take action against the airlines, that remains to be seen. But american did hit a 52 week low so the airline is struggling in all this. Connell thank you lauren. Steve forbes, this is interesting when melissa was interviewing secretaries eugene schoolyard, she opened with a important civil question that everybody wants to know which as we see the job losses, how bad will things get. I wonder what your perspective is on that. They will get worse, we know that, only 25 of school Small Businesses have closed on, that can rush to 40 rate there is eight out there but it got off to a rocky start with the aide will be flowing but these are just stop gaps, these are rescue packages, which Everyone Wants to know weve been asking from day one when the economy can start to return to normalcy. That is in the hands of healthcare officials, i think clearly there will be pressure to ramp up testing, were only doing 100000 120000 a day. I heard an expert say we should do 500,000 a day, we went to get our arms around this thing and make informed decisions on when we can stop to open up the economy. The meantime, will this try to be keeping up people, businesses alive and you will see also in more conditionality saying with the airlines, they will have to make those refunds that you are talking about. So we are in a Holding Action but we expect the numbers to get worse, a horrible 10 million in two weeks but we have to expect we will have that in the next two weeks sadly. The rescue programs are not going to be able to revive a real economy. 2 trillion is only 10 of the 20 trillion economy. Connell we always want to make historical comparisons and is it like 2008, the post9 11. The great depression, whatever it may be, i wonder if there is any historical comparison in terms of speed of Economic Activity we have seen here and how that impacted and how quickly we can come out of this as well. No, there is no real precedent as people have said economically, this is a medical equivalent of a coma induced, inducing a comb. We put there economy and a deliberate attraction. Its never been done before. How quickly can we recover, that is going to depend how quickly we get the testing done so we can inform the parts of the economy moving again with testing we should be able to know who is invulnerable to the disease because they may have had it because they did not know it. More effective treatments, that technology is out there. Laboratories has a fiveminute test, why are we not ramping that up in a really Manhattan Project like way. Not in a matter of years but in a matter of days, if we have to license it to other manufacturers that get the job done. In other words it has to be a sense of emergency and we have had so far. Somebody who can follow through, or the Laboratory Spaces capacity after the have not been utilized. Somebody has to be in charge with specific authority to make real online decisions right away so American People can feel and that are suffering through it now, but by golly, there is a real plan to get our arms around this thing and start to get parts of the economy up and running in a productive way instead of hoping for help from washington to keep things alive. Connell right. Steve forbes as always, we thank you for your time on a friday. Steve forbes with us. Melissa adapting to a new normal, one new york city Restaurant Owner is finding a way to stay afloat while delivering thousands of meals to hospital workers. Plus were waiting an update from the white house on the coronavirus and we will bring you any breaking News Headlines from the president s this hour. And protecting those on the frontline, whatever produces right here on after the bell, her friends raised over 27000 in six days to purchase protective gear for medical workers, this morning they donated over 2000 n95 masks and 100 pairs of goggles to three hospitals in new york. A second batch including 3000 n95 masks, nearly 2000 pairs of gloves and several hundred protective grounds is shipping next week, serena, great job. Thank you. You are making us so proud. Yes im stuck in the middle with you, no one likes to feel stuck, boxed in, or held back. Especially by Something Like your cloud. Its a problem. But the ibm cloud is different. Its the most open and secure public cloud for business. It can manage all your apps and data from anywhere. So it can help take on anything, from rebooking flights, on the fly to restocking shelves on demand. Without getting in your way. My agerelated macular degenso today i made a plan with my doctor, which includes preservision. 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Nuplazid can increase the risk of death in elderly people with dementiarelated psychosis and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinsons disease. Nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. Tell your doctor about any changes in medicines youre taking. The most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. We spoke up and it made all the difference. Ask your parkinsons specialist about nuplazid. We will work this out and we will get our Energy Business got, im with you 1000 is a great business in a very vital business and you kept Energy Prices reasonable for a long period of time. Melissa President Trump wrapping up a meeting with Energy Executives at the White House Joining us now is chief Investment Officer at Pickering Energy partners. Thank you for joining me, he mentioned there are a lot of facilities that could be filled whether talking about filling up more of the spr and i was under the impression that there was not that much capacity left in the u. S. In order to store oil. Is there a lot of capacity left . I think theres a lot around the globe but spr, 70 Million Barrels that was mentioned, thats the right number. I think were looking at couch cushions after that. I think the storage is really more around the world and not as much here, we may dig some up but that will take a little bit of time. Melissa i wish i had storage on my apartment because oil is so cheap and theres one thing that you and i have talked about for decades, oil goes up and down and when it is down, boy do you want to stockpile. Talk to her audience about how hard it is to ramp up and down oil production, they were talking about the independent drillers and all the fractures that we have out there where you see rig count falling because prices are so low, how hard is that to turn it back on. It is difficult. This is an industry that has thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of people working in them. And turning it on and off quickly is hard. We will need Decisive Action coming out of this meeting with the president. There is a serious supply and demand imbalance because of demand but we have opec in russia that are not acting particularly well right now. We are going to have to see a solution where a pretty desperate industry acts quickly and effectively and that is not something that they are used to doing. It will be a task. Melissa what solution could they come up with in that room today. When they sell them altogether, what could the president do and what can the other executives do. Filling the spr is something that was signaled an easy fix, beyond that gets tough, i think you will need something where the executives agreed to scale back production, it will have to be fair and measurable and it will have to be quick. I think we need to come out of that room was some indication that the u. S. Is going to participate in Global Supply reduction because if we dont, it will be much harder to get the saudis and russians to do anything. Melissa i hear a lot of people talking about the idea of u. S. Refiner should only refine u. S. Crude but oil is fungible, if we dont buy the oil from the saudis or whoever else, somebody else a lot of our oil comes from mexico and canada, what is realistic, could we say were only going to refine u. S. Crude and what impact with a half. We can say that but its a very complicated global market. I think it could hurt us, it could trap our crude inner products in the u. S. Where we dont have a lot of storage capacity. We could wind up having a very depressed price in the u. S. While the rest of the world is much better. I dont think stockpiling or blockading the u. S. Is the right answer. I think its gotta be a reduction of supply in the nearterm because we have too much Global Supply. Our own oil companies, the guys in the room have to act like opec tries and pretends to move together to reduce the spy. A lot of them cheaper here would be measurable. Please come back soon. Thank you. Connell lets talk about Small Business, we know the lending to Small Businesses has been made available, as today we track the numbers that the day, we are told a total of 6000 loans that are said to be worth 2 billion and given out so far today, we are joined to discuss all of this by the archea the house fil services. That sounds good but weve heard many antidotal stories that people are getting access to loans for one reason or another, the system is crashing, the bank did not have the regulations, whatever the case may be. What do you say to people who are little bit frustrated by that today. Thank you for having me, im pleased at the program got started today and im pleased that treasury in the spa work tirelessly this week to get a program up that i think is attracted to Small Businesses and to our community banks. But as you say, your thousands of people in need right now and they are trying to get that request through a very narrow pipe and you have the starter problems that you always have with the new product. I am glad to see 6800 loan applications are being processed for over 2 billion, i think that is a good start for a few hours and i hope our bankers will be more comfortable as business opens on monday and i hope the sba has the portable capacity in their Internet Connection to process next week at a faster rate, i think that will be very helpful. Connell the demand is so high and to see the number that was included in the relief bill at 350 billion and i wonder when you see the demand so high, i wonder if that is enough. What do you say if we run out, the demand is so high that it exceeds that number. Applications start today, april 3 and they will be taken through april 26 and secretary mnuchin in the president has said they will work with congress to get the Payroll Protection Program if that is required. I hope our banks and a Small Businesses will work diligently this month to get the liquidity that they badly need to keep more americans on the payroll and on the on appointment system. Connell with that in mind are you prepared to support some other type of bill in the congress. We have been reluctant to use the word stimulus, weve been using the word relief, another bill that helps people, if so what would be the most importa t component of phase four. What we should do, we write up the Public Health crisis curve, as we see the curve peek across the country, it will not peek in the same way or the same place over the next month and then we see the reaction of the Family Support checks, the tax rebates, the acceptance of the unappointed insurance, the success of the Payroll Protection Program, the facilities of the fed and treasury put in place. Its look back in four weeks and see where we are and assess if we need to do more or not. I am not willing to project that it is too little or too much, lets see what the reality is over the next four weeks and reassess in early may of what might come next. Connell is sounds funny to say this but dont you think four weeks is a long time and just the circumstances for what weve been dealing with with how quickly things have been moving. I dont mean for weeks in a sense that it will be better or worse, if you look at the Public Health projections, were projecting that the peak will happen in arkansas sometime between april 20 and april 30, so we will know a lot more about the Public Health crisis over the next four weeks and if we know that we will know the impact on the economy. That is how fast if we can get this economy headed back to full capacity after we begun to victory in killing the virus. Its not that im proposing delaying, we have a lot of money, trillions of dollars to be put out over the course of the next month, lets put the money out in assess where we are in the period of time and do what we need to do. Connell thank you, republican from the state of arkansas. Melissa after reporting the high single day increase in deaths, florida is emerging as a potential next hotspot for the virus, we will talk to one state official who is sounding the alarm in just a few moments from now, the task force will be giving a briefing on the pandemic, we will bring you any updates as soon we get them. Like salonpas patch large. Its powerful, fdaapproved to relieve moderate pain, yet nonaddictive and gentle on the body. Salonpas. Its good medicine. Hisamitsu. From anyone else. So why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills dont. Get allinone allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase. [ one morwoo me which mob[ laughing ]]. Woo play pop music no way dude, play rock music yeah woah no matter what music you like, stream it now on pandora with xfinity. And dont forget to catch trolls world tour. Lets party people one more time melissa walgreens announcing it will provide phase covers to pharmacy staff and other store members adding their expanding ondemand delivery with postmates to Service Consumers nationwide and waiving fees for all eligible prescriptions on next day delivery. Plus Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell telling Associated Press moments ago that congress will do another Coronavirus Relief bill with healthcare at the very top of the list. Connell very interesting. Lets talk about florida, that state quickly becoming a hotspot for the virus outbreak, confirmed cases in portauprince surpassing 9500. A lot of people worried about the curve there. We are joined by nikki the ford agriculture and Consumer Services commissioner. Let me start, i will back into some of your areas of expertise. Let me start with the most blunt question that will raise this week, why did Governor Desantis take so long to issue the stayathome order in the state of florida. I think he took so long because he was trying to weigh the economic downfall of our state and the health and wellness of our citizens. But the reality is, the longer he waited more lives were at risk. The only way we will be able to get our economy which is so reliant on tourism back up and running is to stop the spread, slowed on the curve and really make sure that we are doing everything that humanly possible to stop the spread of the virus in florida. Thats only way we could get our economy up and running, the only way that tourism will come back is if we in fact are able to beat the virus. Connell what are you personally most worried about, the year the agricultural commissioner, what are you most worried about in the next couple of weeks. Agriculture in the state of florida is a hundred 37 billiondollar industry, Small Farmers, large farmers and everything in between. When im talking to them and hearing them, they are concerned about the next harvest, they are concerned about the fact that so many restaurants are having to close down in the state and that has been the direct buyers. We have a lot of farmers im hearing from the have to plow over the Strawberry Fields and blueberry field and not able to sell so many heads of lettuce. If we cannot keep Florida Agriculture community and industry sustainable during the coronavirus, we can risk losing a lot of Small Farmers during the next harvest as we continue to have to see not only the state of florida but the entire country. The other big concern and hearing a lot about his unemployment website, weve heard stories last two weeks that its continually crashing, 2. 1 Million People in the state of florida just this week alone who have been reaching out to the unappointed hotlines and as of today, we have not heard that it is back up and running, we in fact have offered assistance as of a couple hours ago, to the department of Economic Opportunity saying we are here, we will train our employees to be part of the hotline but what so many people suffering and so many people not knowing where the next paycheck is coming, having the unemployment website and hotline up and running will be critical in order to get the paychecks to summoning overflow gradients who are hurting and make sure they got the money necessary to make it through. Connell it is unbelievable, we heard the stories here in new york and other states, there is so much demand, it tells you all the claims that we have seen, 10 million in two weeks, the jobless claims, so many more most likely in a totally that havent been able to be filed, the final question, no Mitch Mcconnell made comments, do you need more help from washington, the phase four relief package, are you doing enough on the state level, what would you like to see come next. We certainly need additional dollars, not only for the unappointed buffer so many people, this is not just the start, unfortunately in the state of florida tourism is an economic driver and if we are shut down our restaurants, our hotels and lodging establishments across the state, we will see more and more people unfortunately, not only unemployed but underemployed that will need assistance and same thing with so many of our smaller farmers that will need extra dollars. Another responsibility is to make sure all of her children in the state of florida are being fed, as time goes on, those numbers unfortunately will increase. We typically see 2 million of our kids throughout the year but we know those numbers will skyrocket as the parents are losing jobs are cut back hours. More money as fast a possible for all of the meal programs and not just for kids but our food banks and our seniors, we have a 21 statistic in the state of florida of individuals of 65 and above. If we cannot get the assistance that we need as fast as possible we will see a lot of people going hungry during these times and that is not something that will happen under my watch. Connell such a tough period of time for so many around the country, the state of florida like many of us now with the stayathome order hopefully that did not come to the agriculture commission, nikki freed thank you for coming on the program, we wish you all the best. Melissa lending a hand to those on the front line, how one new york city Restaurant Owner found ways to keep his employees working while keeping healthcare workers fed. My name is jonatan and i work for verizon. I totally get how important it is to stay connected. Were connecting with people, were offering them solutions. Customers can do what they need to do, whenever they need to do it online. Because it gives customers the ability to not come in to the store, they can simply tap and swipe. Something that they can use wherever they are. We care about keeping you safe. At verizon, we are here, and we are ready. We are open 24 7 online, so you can keep managing all you need from home and through the verizon apps and verizon. Com. Why do things that are supposed to make life easier sometimes feel so complicated . Ibm watson is different. Its ai that works on any cloud to help your business tackle problems. From building smarter cars to predicting sales trends to improving customer service. Without slowing you down. Melissa an act of kindness when andrew cuomo ordered the shutdown of restaurants except for takeout, our next guest saul an opportunity to give back, here is the owner in new york city, i have to say its one of my very favorite restaurants, people that are watching from outside of new york, when you come to the city when it reopens, this is one of the places that you absolutely have to go, it is not a tourist trap eczema replaces you hear about. Tell us about your story, you originally had to shut down your restaurants because you werent getting enough traffic as anyone in new york but you found a way to give back to local hospital workers and also keep a lot of your people in place, tell us about that. When the governor told us that we were going to shut down in 24 hours, a friend of mine contacted me from toronto asking if i can deliver to emergency workers in the hospital in new york. From that we pivoted and i had the idea that there were such need among hospital workers who are struggling these days that we decided to deliver food to them and our friends and customers purchase meals and we are delivering meals to 17 hospitals as of today, were delivering 1000 meals a day and that has been able to keep our lights on and ive been able to bring 30 people back to work and we are so happy to make emergency for new yorkers in icu workers happy with good food. They tell me every day. Melissa that is incredible. Some very good food without question because this is not what you would normally get the sandwich or whatever if youre on the hospital and working, this is were made fantastic food. Before we run out of time, tell me how people can help you where they can look to donate and second, are you taking advantage of the Small Business loans that are starting today so when this is all over i come back to your restaurant with my whole show team and enjoy . Melissa thank you. People can donate and purchase a meal going online nyc. Org and we are trying to apply for this Small Business Administration Loans, we have had a little trouble, my accountant was ready to go with all the information, we had contacted banks and they are very slow at getting back to us and we have not received an application form. I think it is part of the slowdown and it will take a lot. Melissa thank you for coming on. Go to the sba website, thats about under best advice i heard today, if youre having trouble go to the Small Business Association Website and they will show you a bank near you. Thank you for coming on. Lou dobbs now. Good evening everybody, tonight we will be hearing as we have each night this week from the president and the Coronavirus Task force about the latest efforts in the battle that is intensifying against the wuhan virus, the viral contagion originated definitively in china and the chinese virus it has now killed more than 6900 americans and infected at least 266,000 more americans. Worldwide cases have reached nearly 1. 1 million, more than 58000 people have been