Let me take you through some facts today because we have some new facts, changes in circumstances that are not encouraging. I want to make sure people understand them and we react accordingly. The increase in the number of cases continues unabated. As a matter of fact, the rate of increase has gone up. We have the most sophisticated people you can get doing projections on this. Theyve been studying projections from china, south korea, italy, places all across this country. And what theyre now seeing is the rate of cases, the rate of new infections is doubling about every three days. That is a dramatic increase in the rate of infection. And this whole discussion all along has been how fast does the rate of increase spread and can we slow the rate of increase. Were not slowing it, and it is accelerating on its own. One of the forecasters said to me, we were looking at a Freight Train coming across the country. Were now looking at a bullet train because the numbers are going up that quickly. And the most challenging point about the increasing numbers is where the numbers will apex. What is the high point of the numbers. And the apex is the point where we have to be able to manage the capacity. We projected the apex at about 110,000 hospital beds. Thats the number ive been talking about. The new projection suggests that the number of hospital beds needed could be as high as 140,000 hospital beds. So flatten the, flatten the curve. We havent flattened the curve, and the curve is actually increasing. That means the number of hospital beds, which is at 53,000 beds, 3,000 icu beds, the anticipated need now for the height of the curve is 140,000 hospital beds and approximately 40,000 intensive care unit beds. Those are troubling and astronomical numbers. As i mentioned, theyre higher numbers than had previously been projected. We are exercising all options as aggressively as we can. That rate of increase, that apex, they project at this time could be approximately 14 to 21 days away. So not only do we have a spike in the increase, when you spike the increase in case, it accelerates the apex to a point where it could be as close as 14 to 21 days. Were exercising all options, doing everything we can on every level to, quote, unquote, slow the spread, flatten the curve. Weve closed businesses, reduced street density. We had an issue in new york city. I spoke to mayor de blasio and cory johnson. Well have a plan i believe will be in place by noon today. We have increased testing to the highest level in the United States and the highest per capita level on the globe. No one is testing more than we are testing. So in many ways, we have exhausted every option available to us. Weve closed all the businesses. Weve reduced the street density, and weve increased testing to the highest level in the country. Were also trying all the new drug therapies, the hydroxychloroquine which the president speaks about and is optimistic about. Were hoping for optimistic results. Were actually starting that today. The president and the fda accelerated that drug coming to new york. So the hospitals will start using that drug today. The fda also authorized an experimental procedure by the new York State Department of health where we the department of health actually takes plasma from people who are infected, who have the antibodies and will try putting that plasma into a person who is still struggling with the disease, hoping that the antibodies make a difference. Were also pursuing a new level of testing which will test peoples blood to see if they have antibodies for the coronavirus which means they may have been infected and resolved and never knew it. But if you had the coronavirus and resolved, you now have an immunity to the coronavirus for some period of time. Most experts suggest its a significant amount of time. That would be very important for us to know because these are then Health Care Workers who could go back to work. These are workers who could return back to the private sector. But the inescapable conclusion is that the rate of infection is going up, its speaking. The apex is higher than we thought, and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of fac facts. So slow the spread, well still keep doing everything we can. Its clear we must dramatically increase the Hospital Capacity to meet that highest apex. We have to do it very quickly. Again, the apex could be here in as little as 14 to 21 days. Talking about a very significant logistical Operational Movement to increase that number of hospital beds and do everything you need to do related to the increase in hospital beds. There are three elements that are necessary to increase the Hospital Capacity. First are obviously the availability of the beds. A bed without staff is virtually useless, and a bed and a staff without the right equipment is virtually useless. So you have to complete all three at the same time. As farr as beds, we have told to the hospitals im going to speak to every Hospital Administrator today. Hospitals must increase their capacity by 50 . The goal is to ask them to try to increase it by 100 . Remember we have 53,000 beds. We need 140,000 beds. Even if they did increase it by 100 , youd only be at about 100,000 beds. You need 140,000 beds. Emergency hospitals like the 1,000bed facility thats being built here will be helpful. The Emergency Hospitals were building in westbury and stony brook and the Westchester Convention Center will be helpful. Theyre nowhere near the number of beds were going to need. I have no problem using our dormitories, our cuny and suny state campuses. Im speaking to hotel owners about taking over their hotels to put patients in. I will turn this state upside down to get the number of beds we need. But we need the staff for those be beds. Were calling and contacting all retirees in the health care field, calling all professionals in the health care field, whether or not they work in a hospital. They can work in an insurance company, a clinic or whatever, but we want to enlist as many staff as we can and as many backup staff because Health Care Workers are going to get sick. This is going to go on for weeks. You cant ask a person to work for 14 days consecutive or aroundtheclock shift. Well need a backup reserve staff. Equipment, equipment, equipment, masks, ppes and ventilators. Of those three, the greatest critical need are ventilators. Ventilators you say ventilators, nobody really knows what youre talking about. The people who are going to come in, people with acute needs, these are people who are under respiratory distress. They need a ventilator. The ventilator will make the difference between life and death literally for these peo e people. This is a piece of equipment that in the normal course of business you dont have a need for high levels of ventilators. Our Hospital System has about 3,000 or 4,000 that has always met the need. This is a dramatic increase in the number of ventilators you need. We have been working around the clock, scouring the globe. Weve procured about 7,000 ventilators. We need at a minimum an additional 30,000 ventilators. You cannot buy them. You cannot find them. Every state is trying to get them. Other countries are trying to get them. The capacity is limited. Theyre technical pieces of equipment. Not manufactured in two days, four days, seven days or ten days. This is a critical and desperate need for ventilators. Were going so far as trying an experimental procedure where we split the ventilator. We use one ventilator for two patien patients. Its difficult to perform, its experimental. At this point we have no alternative. Were working on this experimental application. Picture two hospital beds, two people in beds, one ventilator between the two of them, but with two sets of tubes, two sets of pipes going to the two patients. Again, its experimental. But necessity is the mother of invention, and we are working on this as we speak because life has options and we dont have any other options. There is no other way for us to get these ventilate eors. Weve tried everything else. The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the federal government, period. Theres two ways the federal government can do it. One is to use the federal production act. The federal government can say to manufacturers you must produce this product. I understand the federal governments point that Many Companies have come forward and said we want to help and General Motors and ford and people are willing to get into the ventilator business. It does us no good if they start to create a ventilator in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks. Were looking at an apex of 14 days. If we dont have the ventilators in 14 days, it does us no good. The federal defense procurement act can actually help companies because the federal government can say, i need you to go into this business, i will contract with you today for x number of ventilators. Here is the startup capital you need, the startup capital you need to hire workers to do it around the clock, but i need the ventilators in 14 days. Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me. Volunteerism is nice and it is a beautiful thing. Its nice that these companies are coming forward and saying they want to help. That is not going to get us there. And i do not for the life of me understand the reluctance to use the federal defense production act. Also, the federal government has 20,000 ventilators or thereabouts in the federal stockpile. Secretary azhar runs an agency called hhs health and human services. I asked the secretary, look at the first word in the title of the agency you run. It is health. Your First Priority is health. You have 20,000 ventilators in the stockpile. Release the ventilators to new york. How can we be in a situation where you can have new yorkers possibly dying because they cant get a ventilator, but a federal agency saying im going to leave the ventilators in the stockpile . Have we really come to that point . Also, we have to be smarter about the way this is being done. The federal government has to prioritize the resources. Look at where the problems are across this nation. California has 2,800 cases, Washington State, 2,200 cases, florida, 1,200 cases, massachusetts, 800 cases. New york has 25,000 cases, 25,000 cases. It has ten times the problem that california has, ten times the problem that Washington State has. You prioritize resources and your activity and your actions to where they are needed. And new york, you are looking at a problem that is of a totally different magnitude and dimension. The problem is the volume. Dealing with 2,000 cases is one thing. 2,000 cases frankly we could deal with in this building with the capacity that were providing. We have 25,000 cases. We need the federal help and we need the federal help now. Also, there is a smart way to do this. Deploy the ventilators around the country as they are needed. Different regions have different curves of the infection. New york is the canary in the coal mine. New york is going first. We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to new york is going to wind up happening to california and Washington State and illinois. Its just a matter of time. Were just getting there first. Deal with the issue here. Deploy the resources. Deploy the ventilators here in new york for our apex and then after the apex passes here, once were past that critical point, deploy the ventilators to the other parts of the country where they are needed. Im not asking for 20,000 ventilators and they stay in new york and they live in new york and change their residence. As soon as we finish with the ventilators, then you move them to the next part of the country that has the critical problem. And then after that region hits its apex, then you move to the next part of the country that has its critical problems. I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want once we are past our apex. But dont leave them sitting in a stockpile and say, well, were going to wait to see how we allocate them across the country. Thats not how this works. Theyre not simultaneous apexes. They are a curve that is individual to that region. Deploy to that region, address that region, and then move on to the next. Im not only talking about ventilators. We get past the apex, we get over that curve. That curve starts to come down. We get to a level where we can handle it. Ill send ventilators. Ill send Health Care Workers. Ill send our professionals who dealt with it and who know all around the country. Thats how this should be done. You know its going to be on a different calendar, going to be a different sequence. Lets help each other. New york, because new york is first, and after new york and after the curve breaks in new york, lets all rush to whoever is second and lets rush to whoever is third. And lets learn from each other and help each other. Im going to make a point on the president s point about the economy and Public Health. I understand what the president is saying, this is unsustainable that we close down the economy and we continue to spend money. There is no doubt about that. No one is going to argue about that. But if you ask the American People to choose between Public Health and the economy, then its no contest. No american is going to say accelerate the economy at the cost of human life because no american is going to say how much a life is worth. Job one has to be save lives. That has to be the priority. Theres a smarter approach to this. We dont have to choose between the two. You can develop a more refined Public Health strategy that is also an economic strategy. What do i mean by that . Our Public Health strategy was a blunt instrument. What we said at a moment of crisis is isolate everyone. Close the schools, close the colleges, send everyone home, isolate everybody in their home. In truth, that was not the most refined public strategy. Why . Because it wasnt even smart, frankly, to isolate younger people with older people. But at that moment, we didnt have the knowledge. We needed to act. Thats what we did. You can ask now to refine that Public Health strategy. You can say, look, the lower risk individuals do not need to be quarantined,shldnt be quaran older person who they may be transferring it to. People who are recovered, you test them, you test the antibodies, you find out that they resolved themselves of the virus, and i believe once we get that test, youre going to find hundreds of thousands of people who have had the coronavirus and resolved. Once theyre resolved, they can go back to work. Develop that test. Its in testing now. Once theyre resolved, let them go back to work. Let the younger people go back to work, let the recovered people go back to work. Its even better for the older, Vulnerable People who youre trying to protect. And then ramp up the economy with those individuals. So youre refining your Public Health strategy, and at the same time youre restarting your economy. Those two can be consistent if done intelligently. Restart the economy with our younger recovered tested workers. Dont make us choose between a smart Health Strategy and a smart economic strategy. We can do both, and we must do both. Its not the economy or Public Health. Its restarting the economy and protecting Public Health. It is both. But i understand restarting the economy. The crisis today. Focus on the crisis at hand. Focus on the looming wave of cases that is about to break in 14 days. That has to be the priority, and that is Hospital Capacity. Thats about providing hospital beds, providing staff, providing equipment and providing ppe and providing ventilators, coming back to that number of 30,000, and needing federal action to address it now. If the federal government said today i will deploy all 20,000 ventilators, it will take us two weeks to get those ventilators into hospitals and to create icu beds and to locate the staff so there is no time to waste. The time to do this is now. Fema is sending us 400 ventilators. That was on the news this morning. Were sending 400 ventilators to new york. 400 ventilators . I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 40 o 0 ventilators. What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators . Youre missing the magnitude of the problem and the problem is defined by the magnitude. Thighs are the numbers today. The testing rate, over 90,000 people tested, the highest rate of testing in the country per capita on the globe. We did 12,000 new tests since yesterd yesterday. Number of positive cases, state of new york, 25,665, 4,700 new cases of those tested. You see the entire state county by county, more and more counties are being covered. We have 3,000 people currently who are hospitalized. We have 756 people in icu units. Those are the ventilated units. Thats 23 of the hospitalizations. Thats the problem. As the number of cases go up, the number of people in hospital beds goes up, the number of people who need an icu bed and ventilator goes up, and we cannot address that increasing curve. Again, you look at the number of cases in the country, youll see that new york is an outlier in the number of cases. Its not even close. What is happening in new york is not a new york phenomenon. People in new york dont have a different immune system than other americans. Its not higher in new york because we are new yorkers. Its higher in new york because it started here first, because we have Global Travelers coming here first, because we have more density than most places, but you will see this in cities all across the country and in suburban communities all across the country. Weve just the test case. Were just a test case. Thats how the nation should look at it. Look at us today. Where we are today you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future, and what we do here will chart the course for what we do in your city and in your community. Im not asking you to help new york just to help new york. Im asking you to help new york to help yourselves. Lets learn how to do it right and lets learn how to do it right here, and lets learn how to act as one nation, and lets learn how to act as one nation here. We learn the lesson here, we will save lives in your community. I promise you that. New york city has had a critical problem. I spoke to mayor deblasio. Hes right. He had a critical problem on gowns, masks, et cetera. The equipment were bringing today will resolve that immediate need. There will be no hospital in the city of new york who will say today their nurses, their doctors cant get equipment were addressing that need not just for new york city but also long island and westchester. We have acquired everything on the market there is to acquire. Weve had a full team purchasing from companies all across this globe buying everything that can be purchased, and were bringing that here to distribute to new york city, long island and westchester, because that is the greatest need. This number of supplies will take care of our immediate need. It does not take care of the need Going Forward three, four, five, six weeks. The burn rate on this equipment is very, very high. I cant find anymore equipment. Its not a question of money. I dont care what youre willing to pay. You just cant find the equipment now. But this will take care of the immediate need. I dont want our Health Care Workers who are doing gods work they are doing gods work. Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, deal with people who have the coronavirus. Theyre thinking all day long, oh, my god, i hope i dont get this. Oh, my god, i hope i dont get this and bring this home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals, extraordinary, and its the nurses and the doctors and the Health Care Workers. Its the Police Officers who show up every day and go out there and walk into a situation that they dont even know what theyre walking into. Its the firefighters and the transportation workers and its the people running the Grocery Stores and the pharmacies and providing all those essential services. Most of us are in our home, hunkered down, worried. Theyre worried and theyre going out there every day despite their fear, despite their fear. Overcoming their fear, and not for their family. Theyre doing it for your family. When you see them on the street, when you see them in a hospital, please just say thank you and smile and say i know what youre doing. What happens, all these facts, all these numbers. Am i strong in my language visavis the federal government . Yes, i am. But what happens at the end of the day . What does it all mean . Thats what people want to know. What does it all mean . What it all means is what we said it all means the first day this started. The first day i went before the people of new york state and i said im going to tell you the truth, im going to tell you the facts the way i know it. Those facts have not changed. Those facts are not going to change. This is not a new situation. Weve watched this through china. There are hundreds of thousands of cases. 80 will selfresolve. Thats why experts say to me, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people have had the virus, didnt know they had it and resolved thats why we have to get the test that shows you had the virus because you have the antibodies and you did resolve. Once we do that, thats how you get the economy back to work, the backup Health Care Workers. 80 are going to self resolve. 20 are going to need hospitals. Its not about that. Its about a very small group of people in this population who are the most vulnerable. They are older, they have compromised immune systems, they are hiv positive or they have emphysema or an underlying heart condition or they have bad asthma or theyre recovering from cancer. Those are the people who are going to be vulnerable to the mortality of this disease. It is only 1 or 2 of the population, but then why all of this . Because its 1 or 2 of the population. Its lives. Its grand mothers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers. You start to see cases on tv. Its a 40yearold woman who recovered from Breast Cancer and had a compromised immune system and four children at home. Thats what this is about. Its about a vulnerable population. I called the executive order i passed matildas law, my mother. Its about my mother. Its about my mother. Its about your mother, about your loved one. And we will do anything we can to make sure that they are protected. Again, keeping it in perspective, johns hopkins, 387,000 cases, study ied 16,tot deaths. 100,000 cases worldwide, 268,000 pending. Last point, it is about the vulnerable. Its not about 95 of us. Its about a few percent who are vulnerable. Thats all this is about, bring down that anxiety, bring down that fear, bring down that paranoia. Its not about 95 of us. Were going to get through it, because we are new york and because we are smart. You have to be smart to make it in new york. We are resourceful and we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united, and when you are united theres nothing you cant do. Because we are new york tough. We are tough. You have to be tough. This place makes you tough. But it makes you tough in a good way. Were going to make it because i love new york and i love new york because new york loves you. New york loves all of you, black and white and brown and asian and short and tall and gay and straight. New york loves everyone. Thats why i love new york. It always has. It always will. At the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long day, and this is a long day, love wins always, and it will win again through this virus. Thank you. The Javits Center, is it going to be used to handle covid19 patients or is it going that was new york Governor Andrew Cuomo. Quite sobering to say the least, the governor starting by pointing out that the changes in circumstances in new york are not encouraging. The rate of increase has actually gone up. What was described as a Freight Train has now become a bullet train in the governors words. He also issued a new projection on the number of hospital beds that will be needed statewide saying that now he believes that new york state will need roughly 140,000 hospital beds. The governor also spent a fair amount of his News Conference taking the federal government saying new york needs some 30,000 ventilators. So far hes managed to get his hands on 7,000. A situation so dire that they are going to start im going to step in here. I think weve lost my colleague craig melvin who was giving a summary of Governor Cuomo really giving a stark yet at the same time compassionate assessment of the situation in new york. What he really gave us sort of was this timeline warning other states, other cities that its not that new york has some sort of unique reason why were seeing the numbers go up. Its just that it hit us first. Hes also pointing for us to look internationally, how china has faced this, how south korea has as well as italy. Remember, in the last 24 hours theres been a lot more talk about the balance between how do we handle this health crisis, how do we handle the economic crisis. What was interesting there, he reiterated what others have said. There are people right now Walking Around with it. But whats essential is to get this testing. It was a week ago Vice President mike pence was talking about having millions of tests available. Were still in approximately three to 400,000. He talked about his mother matilda, and the importance right now that we must know who the carriers are so we can figure out how to quarantine. Once we get that handled nkts we can have more people out, more businesses operating. As the governor said, as weve heard from the president , we dont want to put ourselves in a state of economic peril. But if we act too quickly, if things open up, if businesses reopen, that will be a big problem. At the same time the governor was speaking, the ceo of marriott spoke. Just a couple days from now, were going to be getting unemployment numbers. He said their revenues are down, no surprise, 90 . Thats not just one industry, but if you think about the trickle down impact. So youre hearing from one ceo saying revenues are down 90 . The governor is speaking at the Javits Center who has over a million square feet of space, one of the largest commercial spaces in new york that is now going to be a makeshift Health Center to address the coronavirus. On capitol hill we heard from Speaker Pelosi in the last hour were getting closer to this rescue deal, this fiscal deal, almost 2 trillion. Thus far its been a backandforth between democrats and republicans, obviously pointing the finger at one another. Democrats saying that republicans are looking to line the pockets of big business and republicans saying that democrats are being obstructionists trying to put forward their political agenda. We have heard theres possible some movement with one of the biggest sticking points, this 500 billion that secretary Steve Mnuchin was going to have access to. I want to bring in my colleague Garrett Haake on capitol hill. Garrett, what more are you learning about this . Reporter stephanie, still no text of a ball and still no official announcement of a deal yet. We are hearing more and more details about whats been worked out in this package including significantly expanding Unemployment Insurance for workers, possibly lasting for several months at the full amount of their pay. Were also hearing about additional assistance for hospitals, 100 billion in total including as much as 75 billion in pure cash payments. Then the question you were talking about, as assistance for larger companies. Democrats have been concerned about the oversight of that into how that money would be spent. One of the solutions that appears to be emerging is essentially an Oversight Board that would work with the treasury secretary on how those decisions are made and having the secretary himself potentially come and testify about how and when hes planning to spend that money to help larger companies. Theres a significant sense today, even more so than yesterday, of the dire need to get this done today. You heard that from Mitch Mcconnell when he opened the senate floor. Take a listen. Im not sure how many ways to say it, madam president , but the clock has run out. The buzzer is sounding, the hour for bargaining as though this were business as usual has expired. Reporter stephanie, it does sound like the finishing touches are being put on this deal again. This is largely negotiated by Chuck Schumer, the democratic leader in the senate and treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin. All the usual caveats apply, theres not a deal on anything until theres a deal on everything. The president remains a wildcard here. Anything thats going to get to his desk, youll have to have Something Like unanimous consent to move this through the Senate Quickly and potentially the house. Both parties are going to want to know that the president has bought in. Stephanie. Well, garrett, i realize its no deal until we have a deal, but hearing progress rather than a stalemate is good news for individuals and for businesses small and large. Thank you so much. I want to go back to Governor Andrew Cuomo who is speaking now at the jacob Javits Center being converted into a Medical Center to address corona needs. Hes taking questions right now. You have to ask the federal government. What do i know . [ inaudible question ]. I dont know. Their answer is we dont need to do it because companies are coming forward who want to do it. By the way, i am sure that is true. Its just the timeline doesnt work. I dont need ventilators in six months and i dont need ventilators in five months, four months or three months. By the way, california is not going to need ventilators in six months. It is now. So youre asking a business to produce what is a sophisticated piece of electronic equipment, a ventilator, and do it in 14 days. Thats an enormous undertaking. They cant do that on a voluntary basis. If you use the defense procurement act, then you say ill pay for it. Ill give you the startup capital. Ill fund you buying the equipment. Ill fund you hiring workers. Otherwise it doesnt work on a normal business timetable. And the businesses want to know, look, if i go through all of this, somebody has to buy 40,000 ventilators. A ventilator is on average 20,000, 25,000 per ventilator. This is an expensive item. Nobody is going to build 40,000 ventilators unless they know someone is buying 40,000 ventilators. Thats what the federal government can give them with the dpa. I buy 40,000 ventilators. Caveat, they have to be here in 21 days. And then use them here, we hit the apex first. I will transport them anywhere you want in the country. Im not asking you to give us 40,000 ventilators ad infinitum. Address the curve here and then that curve is going to be going all across the unto can. You hear what im saying here today . Youre going to have the governor of california several weeks from now saying the same thing. Youll have the governor of illinois saying the same thing, the governor of the state of washington saying the same thing. Do it right here. Were just the first case. Were just the first template. Do it right here and then well move the goods. Ill move the professionals. Ill move the doctors and the nurses who can say we can teach you how to do this because we went through it. We saw this in new york. We can actually help one another. Thats smart. Thats right. Thats the american way. [ inaudible question ]. I spoke to the mayor this morning. I spoke to the mayor yesterday. Whatever need he has, well figure out how to address it. You have a lot of situations that develop here that nobody can address. Were smart, quick on our feet. Were agile. Whats the problem. Well figure out how to solve it and do it together. [ inaudible question ]. I havent even thought about it, zach. [ inaudible question ]. Multipart question. There are two different types of facilities here. One is an Emergency Hospital, four separate components equalling 1,000 in an Emergency Hospital that could be used for acute care. Theres a second facility which is 1,000 beds, a lower level of medical care for people who dont need as intense service. But let me ask the generals. Pat, you want to comment on that, pat or general shields . What the governor provided was exactly what it is your mic. The first phase of the buildout is the thousand beds from health and human services. It comes in with a kit. We lay medical professionals over the top of that. We go to phase two, continue to build out bed capacity so we can provide a higher level of care potentially as we move forward, but we have an immediate level. Then theres a third phase we continue to build out beds in the facility to get to the capacity that the governor is getting after which does not address the entire number, wu starts in that path and then the other strategies to go along with it. The basic number is 1,000 and 1,000. Were working towards being above that number by the time were done dressing it out. [ inaudible question ]. The hospitals will be staffed by federal medical pern nsonnel the 1,000, about 320 medical, federal personnel. [ inaudible question ]. How soon will that be ready to be used on that scale . Theyre working on it now. You dont have a hard answer now. Theyre working on it now, developing it. Its a fairly simple test. Its only testing your blood for those antibodies. So its a fairly simple test. I dont have an answer, but i can get you an estimate. These all come back to the same point. The reason ive always said to new yorkers relax is because this is not a major issue for 98 of the population. Its only those Vulnerable People, 1 or 2 of the population. This conversation about the economy, your question something we believe is important were turning now to Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer on the floor. They have new expenses, and without tax returns being filed until june, much of their income is not going to be there because states file in concert with federal government. Now, madam president , ill be brief. I just finished a very productive meeting with secretary mnuchin, the white house Congressional Liaison eric ueland and mark meadows, the president s acting chief of staff. Last night i thought we were on the 5 yard line. Right now were on the 2. As i also said last night, at this point of the few outstanding issues, i dont see any that cant be overcome within the next few hours. Here are the things weve fighting for, Senate Democrats, our hospitals, our nursing homes, our community Health Centers, our whole Health Care System needs desperately needed dollars. They need them fast and in a very large amount. Hospital beds have to expand. Expanding capacity is not easy. The need for ventilators, for ppes for the workers, for masks, even as thing as simple as swabs are not always available. And we in new york city and new york state but around the country, hospitals are going to be overwhelmed. Our big hospitals, our mediumsized hospitals and small hospitals. In the small and rural hospitals actually face the risk of closing if we dont help them. So we Senate Democrats have been pushing very hard for an increase, significant increase in money for the Health Care System and we are very, very pleased with what seems to be moving forward in the bill, in the bipartisan bill we hope will be brought to the floor. Second, workers first. The title of our democratic plan has been workers first. We believe we have to put working families, average americans ahead of anybody else. Theyre losing their jobs through no fault of their own. Their kids are being sent or staying home because theres no school. There are so many problems for the average people. We want to put them first. Thats our number one goal along with a marshal plan for hospitals. This bill as it comes forward, as it now at least is being agreed upon, has a lot of that. It has Unemployment Insurance on steroids. This is a great plan. What it says is if you lose your job in this crisis, you can be furloughed by your employer. That means you stay on that employers work list, if you have Health Benefits with the employer, you can keep getting them, but, and most importantly, the federal government will pay your salary, your full salary, for now four months. We asked for four months, and four months looks like what were going to get. When we come to this agreement. It will need two things. Most of auld, ll, it will put m into the hands of those who need it so much because they lost their jobs, as i said, through no fault of their own. So that is vitally important. That will pump money into the economy in probably a better way than anything else can do it. It also has the second benefit. It will Keep Companies intact. The small restaurant owner, the middlesize business, even the Large Business is worried that if they just had to remove their workers, fire them because they dont have any money coming in, that those workers would scatter to the winds, they would look for other jobs. And when, god willing, this awful crisis is over, these businesses would not be able to reassemble. But with our plan since they stay on the payroll of their employer, as soon as the crisis is over, they all can come back together and that small restaurant, middlesized manufacturing facility, the service business, will be able to reassemble quickly and we can get the economy going again. Thats another thing weve been fighting for. Weve been fighting very hard for any that any bailout fund, money to industries that have trouble have real oversight and transparency. Thats vitally important. We cannot say we cannot have a situation where when a company is getting money from the treasury, federal reserve, that they we dont know about it. And weve been pushing hard that any contract that the federal government makes with a company to give it loans, that we know of that contract in a very short period of time, that we can examine it. We in the senate, those in the house, the press and the American Public will see if these things are on the level. Because we all know there was a load of dissatisfaction with t. A. R. P. In addition were fighting for oversight, a new Inspector General to be able to look into these contracts. We would like very much, and believe we should have, a congressional Oversight Board as well. And were fighting for transparency, oversight, disclosure when the federal government gives corporations money. Were also wanting to make sure that workers are put first in these situations so when there are direct federal grants, direct federal loans to these companies, they either have incentive or mandate to keep their employees and their benefits. And were making very Good Progress in that direction as well. Small business. We all ache for these Small Business owners. Probably second to the people who have illness in their families, we ache for these folks. My father was a Small Businessman. He had a little exterminating business. Never very successful. He would pace the floor sunday nights at 2 00 a. M. Because he hated going to work. So i know what people go through. You put your blood, sweat and tears into your Small Business and all of a sudden it looks like its blown away. Well, theres a very fine proposal, bipartisan on Small Business that i believe will be in this package as well. So there are a lot of good things here. Not we all know that not everyone is going to want every provision. We all know there are many things that so many of us want are left out. But we all know that we must do these things. Were not looking for things that are extraneous to this crisis. And i dont believe that they are in this package. We are looking at things that deal directly with this crisis, and thats what we have proposed here as democrats in the senate. Whether it be workers first, helping our medical system, providing oversight and transparency on the boards, helping Small Business, those are all directly related to the crisis. We need them soon. We need them desperately. In the last few days weve made huge progress in achieving these goals. Again, i hope, i pray that we can come together very quickly and pass in large numbers a bipartisan bill that will help the American People who so badly, badly, badly need our help. I yield the floor. Good day. Im andrea mitchell. Were getting a little early start with the dire warning from new york Governor Andrew Cuomo, who just said the apex is higher than they thought and sooner that they thought. Thats a bad set of facts, adding state cases are doubling every three days. You just heard Chuck Schumer on the hill say theyre on the 2 yard line and believe they can resolve the gridlock over that 2 trillion stimulus aid relief package, and it could be breaking in the next few hours. Aroundtheclock negotiations today between democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republicans and treasury secretary steve ma mnuchin continuing at this hour. Some compromises have been reached, leader schumer saying theyre at the 2 yard line. President trump tweeting this morning that Congress Must approve the deal while hes also putting back on shutdown orders arguing the economy needs to get restarted sooner, rather than later. This is against the advice of his own Scientific Task force and other experts. Any bipartisan deal with the white house cannot become law, of course, without agreement by the democratically controlled house of representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlined her chief concerns today and the speaker joins me now from capitol hill. Madam speaker, thank you very much for joining us at this critical time for government. Its important to hear from leaders. You just heard Chuck Schumer say theyre on the 2 yard line. From your perspective, and House Democrats have yet to be heard from, what needs to be in this bill that is now being negotiated between Mitch Mcconnell, secretary mnuchin and democrats in the senate in order to get house approval . First of all, we have written our bill that we put forth that contains some of the features that are now in the senate bill, that will be in the senate bill. I commend Chuck Schumer. Hes done a remarkable job along with the Senate Democrats in holding the line until some changes were made that retlekt both house and senate concerns. One is more funding for state and local governments, since you mentioned Governor Cuomo, i will begin with that. The robust Unemployment Insurance initiative that is in there. The initiatives for Small Business are very essential, so that people can get paid and businesses can stay open and survive. I agree with chuck that its Small Businesses are so important to our economy. I always say t