Spkr. Pelosi good afternoon. Here we are in our new arrangement of social distancing. Thank you for being here. It is a very important day for us for a number of reasons. It is heartbreaking, but we have passed the milestone of one Million People in our country who are sick, and nearly 60,000 who have died from the coronavirus. The American People expect congress to do all that we can to protect the lives, the livelihood, and the life of our democracy in what we do here. And they expect us to ensure that the nearly 2 trillion of historic relief that we have passed in a number of bills is widely and effectively used. That it goes to those who need it the most. And so today, just to put this in historic perspective, at the dawn of world war ii, thensenator harry truman, with a democratic administration, but he was a senator, and he basically said, i knew that after world war i there had been 116 investigative committees after the fact, and i felt our committee before the fact would preve
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
First actions of the committee is we are going to take over the roles and Means Committee to make this a rules committee but first let me say that i appreciate, wanted to say this from the beginning i appreciate the flexibility of our Ranking Member mr. Cole. Im incredibly proud of how we have worked together here in this congress. We have examined a lot of things in the committee and no matter how politically alike we are doing things in the constructive when and i look forward to working with you mr. Cole in a bipartisan effort that was announced today and we will examine how congress can better adapt to the emergencies of the coronavirus pandemic pandemic. I know we both care deeply about this institution in one way or another congress is going to have to adapt to whatever the future may bring. The cdc said this fall could be worse than what we are going to right now. And we need to be prepared and that may mean working remotely. Changes when we operate should be done whenever possi
First let me say that i appreciate, wanted to say this from the beginning i appreciate the flexibility of our Ranking Member mr. Cole. Im incredibly proud of how we have worked together here in this congress. We have examined a lot of things in the committee and no matter how politically alike we are doing things in the constructive when and i look forward to working with you mr. Cole in a bipartisan effort that was announced today and we will examine how congress can better adapt to the emergencies of the coronavirus pandemic pandemic. I know we both care deeply about this institution in one way or another congress is going to have to adapt to whatever the future may bring. The cdc said this fall could be worse than what we are going to right now. And we need to be prepared and that may mean working remotely. Changes when we operate should be done whenever possible in a bipartisan collaborative way and i know we can get there together but i really believe that maintaining the status q
Discussion and theres a lot to do so please stick around. I believe time for questions at the end so please think of some and if anything occurs to you we will give at least we 10 minutes. This will run very quickly because i had a chance to meet a. J. Baime, author of the arsenal of democracy fdr, detroit, and an epic quest to arm an america at war. I had a chance to read it and i recommend it to you. It is a topic that covers politics, business, even some art design, incredible personalities. I learned a lot from reading it. I am a world war ii buff. Do we have any other world war ii buff . I am a history buff for sure. A. J. Baime writing about a subject from the 30s and 40s. How did you do it and what does the young guy like you know about world war ii . It is wonderful to be here. My wife rochelle is here and my son clayton running the arsenal writing the arsenal of democracy fdr, detroit, and an epic quest to arm an america at war. I was born in 1971. My last book took place in t