>> good morning. thursday, march 11th, 5 a.m. exactly in new york. i am christine romans. president biden gives his first primetime address to the nation tonight. the american rescue plan becomes law when he signs it tomorrow. he calls the measure a historic victory for the american people. there are stimulus checks, unemployment help, tax credits to lift children out of poverty. money for schools, states and local governments. support for schools and small businesses. >> more, help with rent, money for vaccines, internet for kids stuck with remote learning. bottom line, a lot of help for the poorest americans. biden is now armed with his first major legislative achievement. cnn has new information about what we will hear from the president tonight. our congressional reporter daniella diaz is live. good morning, daniella. now the president taking this on the road. >> reporter: that's right, laura. president biden is going to talk to americans directly tonight in the primetime address marking the one year anniversary since the covid-19 shutdown. he is going to speak with americans and level with them. he's going to tell them he understands the sacrifices they've been through. he's going to speak about the 500,000 americans that have died and the millions of americans whose lives have been up ended by the pandemic. he'll speak about how the pandemic has been the greatest operational challenge the country has ever faced and he's going to lay out the next steps that the administration is going to take to defeat the virus. he'll level with americans and be honest with them about what they need to do to defeat this virus. he's going to try to provide a hopeful vision. here's what he has to say. >> i'm going on to primetime and address the american people and talk about what we've been through as a nation this past year but more importantly i'm going to talk about what comes next. i'm going to launch the next phase of the covid response and explain what we will do as a government and what we will ask. american people. >> reporter: as you heard there from president joe biden, that's what he plans to announce tonight in the speech he will make directly to the americans. jen psaki said they are full speed ahead in implementing the massive $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. biden plans to appoint someone who will work full time to implement this in the country. he's using the two now nine stimulus as a cautionary tale. he didn't think obama did a good enough job promoting his stimulus package. biden plans to do just that with the covid-19 legislation. he plans to meet americans directly and promote this legislation. >> passing it was one thing but implementing is another thing. >> implementation will be the next part of the story after the signature from this president. for airline workers, this law means thousands of them can rip up their pink slips. american airlines and united airlines canceled 27,000 furloughs after the american rescue plan was passed and payroll funding was extended. the bill also puts amtrak's finances back on track for now. the struggling railroad said it secured $1.7 billion in funding and was going to bring back furloughed workers. the relief bill has critical funding for small business. there's another $7.25 billion for the paycheck protection program making for capable loans available. the loans will be forgiven if 60% of the money is used for payroll and the rest for mortgage, utilities, ppe or other expenses. the program wasn't extended and is still set to expire march 31st. banks have to decide how long they want to accept new applications. there's $15 billion for businesses in under served areas, 29 billion to create a grant program giving direct relief to restaurants. that is key. another 15 billion for venue operators and additional funding for small business administration. now to the situation at the border. the biden administration is looking at a vacant nasa site in california for temporary housing for migrant children. staying in places that are simply not equipped for kids. just for comparison here, at the peak of border crossings back in 2019 there were around 2600 children in custody. so a real uptick here. here is president biden's coordinator for the southern border. >> we've seen surges before. surges tend to respond to hope and there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of pent-up demand. the idea that a better policy would be in place led people to make the trip. we're relying on every method we have to get the message out. that leads me to reiterate like i did before. >> traps lags, the border is closed. officers encountered more than 100,000 migrants at the u.s./me u.s./mexico border. under the biden administration, unaccompanied children can remain in the u.s. merrick garland will be sworn in as attorney general after a senate confirmation of a huge margin, 70/30. he'll try to heal a work force that's been demoral lieszed and deliver on president biden's progressive priorities like policing reform. they'll oversea some of the most high profile investigations in a generation. two other cabinet nominees confirmed by the senate. martha fudge of ohio will be the next secretary of housing and urban development adding another african-american woman to the cabinet ranks. the new epa chief is michael ragan. the biden administration pledging to prioritize and diversify judicial nominations. democrats are flooding the white house with names trying to capitalize on the slim democratic numbers. there are 69 vacant spots and 27 others that will soon open up as judges have announced their intent to retire. the white house is keeping an eye on the seat of justice steven prior should he decide to step town and give president biden a supreme court pick. she was killed fighting for endangered democracy in myanmar. a young woman who has become a symbol of the resistance there. renae is not an influencer. she's more of a groundbreaker. 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schools are preparing to open as coronavirus cases drop and vaccinations rise. in missouri some students are urging schools to deal with the mental health impact. >> you feel stuck and alone all the time. >> i could barely get up. i would have six mental breakdowns a day. >> they don't give us any resources to -- for mental health. they're just like social distance, save lives, whatever, they're not saying, hey, this is a really tough time for everyone. >> important message there. the daily average of case ss at the lowest. hospitalizations the lowest since october. still, all of these variants you hear about, they are the reason to stay vigilant right now. new york city health officials say they make up more than half the new cases. >> be vigilant. today marks one year since the nba suspended its season due to the pandemic. reshaping the world of sports. andy scholes has this morning's bleacher report. what a year, andy. >> good morning, christine. i think a lot of people remember the night of march 11th, very well. that was the night that everything changed. the jazz and the thunder were getting ready -- set to tipoff for their game when they learned that utah center rudy gobert had tested positive and the nba called off the game and suspended the season indefinitely. the ncaa tournament was canceled. for gobert, it was a tough time. he had mockingly touched reporter's mikes during a press conference and unknowingly exposed his team. gobert said he learned from that. >> when you go through tough times, it makes you grow. that's exactly it. everything, you go through life, i think it makes you or breaks you. you learn and grow from it. >> happened to the nba and sports and the world. the biggest thing, this was a year of when you sit in quarantine, you sit in your room for as many days as we did, you have time to reflect on a lot of different things. >> nba commissioner adam silver is encouraging people to get the covid-19 vaccine. the league has produced a number 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laura, we just talked about how this is a one year anniversary of sports completely changing. come april 5th the texas rangers could be the first team in the u.s. to have a full stadium since the pandemic started. >> i don't understand the scaling back of it. if you're doing 100% capacity, the damage is going to be done when you do that. we'll wait and see what you do. president biden hitting the road to sell his pandemic relief package. it starts tonight in primetime and will hit every corner of the country in the weeks ahead. we sweat the details. ask for what we want. get what we need. and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. living longer is possible and proven with kisqali when taken with a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor in premenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor alone. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, 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