The time we are meeting right now. And more than 22 million initial unemployment claims filed in the past month. Some regions of our country have lost as many jobs over the last month as they did during the worst year of the great recession. These statistics are not just numbers on a page, madam speaker. These are our neighbors. They are our family, they are our friends, their health is at risk and their economic reality has changed overnight. Since the start of this pandemic, congress has provided more than 2 trillion in emergency relief. To get Small Businesses the financial help they need to survive. To help hospitals and Health Care Workers on the frontlines. To expand testing. To provide every american access to an affordable vaccine when it is developed. I could go on and on and on. We need to make sure that these resources are going where congress intended. That they are helping struggling americans, Small Businesses without any rampant fraud or accuse and companies arent taking
The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers rooms, washington, d. C. April 23, 2020. I hereby appoint the honorable kathy castor to act as splote on this day. Signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. 7 the speaker pro tempore the a prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. Chaplain conroy let us pray. Merciful god, thank you for giving us another day. Send your spirit of peace and comity among the members of the peoples house. These are days of great political, social, and economic stress in our nation, and those whose work is to legislate through this pandemic are naturally under considerable pressure. Give us all patience, especially with one another. May all our citizens in the midst of great turmoil be filled with gratitude for those in our nation whose work must go on when it would be so easy not to assume their responsibility to do so. Continue to bl
An hour and 45 minutes. [indistinct conversations] good morning. In congress, and your recognize, my friend. Mr. Hill chairman mast, thank you. First, let me start out before i do opening comments and welcome our families and provide introductions for the family members who are here on this very tough, emotional day for them. And a quarter, her husband ryan is a humanitarian aid worker who has been imprisoned in afghanistan since 2022. He is the father of three kids and has been away for 600 days. Deborah, her son is a freelance journalist and was kidnapped in syria in 2012. This august will mark his 12 and hopefully final year away from home. My dear friend marion, her father is a texas psychologist who traveled to syria back in february 2017 to treat refugees and establish a clinic. A day after arriving, he was stopped at a checkpoint outside of damascus and has not been seen since. Giselle, her father jimmy is an iranian journalist and Software Developer who has been detained by the
An hour and 45 minutes. [indistinct conversations] good morning. In congress, and your recognize, my friend. Mr. Hill chairman mast, thank you. First, let me start out before i do opening comments and welcome our families and provide introductions for the family members who are here on this very tough, emotional day for them. And a quarter, her husband ryan is a humanitarian aid worker who has been imprisoned in afghanistan since 2022. He is the father of three kids and has been away for 600 days. Deborah, her son is a freelance journalist and was kidnapped in syria in 2012. This august will mark his 12 and hopefully final year away from home. My dear friend marion, her father is a texas psychologist who traveled to syria back in february 2017 to treat refugees and establish a clinic. A day after arriving, he was stopped at a checkpoint outside of damascus and has not been seen since. Giselle, her father jimmy is an iranian journalist and Software Developer who has been detained by the
Good morning. ]. Good morning. I want to thank you for taking the time to join us today. I want to thank my colleagues for paying attention to this important issue as well. I am going to defer any remarks from myself other than to say it is an important issue to speak about and keep in the face of everybody americans detained abroad. It is something that we pay vigilant attention to, the chairman, and i am going to yield to my colleague and friend mr. French hill who did all of the heavy lifting in putting this round table together and say thank you, mr. Hill for every bit of work you put in on this. Not just for this round table but consistently throughout your time of congress and you are recognized, my friend. Chairman, thank you. Thank you for your persistent leadership on behalf of americans wrongfully detained or held abroad. First, let me start out before i do, welcome our families and provide introductions for the family members that are here on this very tough and emotional da