Up to us. And then there are things that are left up to the local level. Things to determine in a local Community Whether things should be opened or not, what kind of activities should be the activities where you draw the line in terms of crowds, much likely to be better decided at a local level by the state or by a mayor or county executive then by somebody here in washington. And then at the National Level we are moving towards our third package and the last few days to try to deal with this. The first package was about 8 billion, really focused on the Immediate Health response, supplies, developing a vaccine, trying to figure out what the right therapies were, understanding the things we needed to do to further help hospitals get ready and to further help people encouraged to go other than hospitals, all of those things are part of the first package. The package we sent to the president that the set president signed last night about 100 billion by almost any standard, a huge amount of together in a that 100 billion, while he continues to work on the healthcarese side, also it was very focused on keeping people on a payroll if they are on a payroll. That 100 billion focus to a great extent on how you keep people who have decided they need to be quarantines or have been quarantined by a doctor, or byy a business that infected was quarantined because it was closed up, keeping those people on that payroll, continuing to keep that part of our economy going. Now today, we moved to the third package, which is 1 trillion. 8billion, 100 billion, now 1 trillion. That trillion dollars to design to continue to do all the other things we talked about, but also designed to keep this economy at a point where we get through this, we will be as nearly to where we would have been otherwise as possible. Its interesting as we are going into a situation where we are trying to protect an economy that did not have any systemic problems with it. It was an economy that was by all measures unbelievably good, and then suddenly people are encouraged, sometimes required to back away from that economy. To cease participating and lots of that economy, partly because we have encouraged part of that economy to cease being part of the active economy and what do we do there, this is going to be a different kind of response, more focused in many cases where in the past we need more of your money, many of the questions we just need to have an access to more money that we can easily pay back when we get through this, we are willing to have securitized loans, where willing to have lots of things and figuring out how to deal with that liquidity issue. And then there are some things we need to put in this package that simply, the government is going to have to look at in ways we have not looked at before. I want to spend a few minutes talking about one of those thingsly today which is just frankly securing our medical supply chain. In the past, the idea that we would h worry about the supply chain, would not have been at the top of the list of things the American People would be thinking needed to be on the first list they needed to look at when they think about Public Health. But what we see happening now, is a direct reminder that medical supplies we use can come from all over the world and in a pandemic, everybody in the world may think they need what you think you would have received and expected to get more than they think they should send it to you. We depend on manufacturing and other countries, approximately 40 of the finished drugs and 80 of the active pharmaceuticalal ingredients are manufactured overseas primarily in china, and in india. The ongoing global corona virus outbreak, has really highlighted, for the first time in todays supply chain, what happens if you might not be able to getd what you need when you need it. There is also a spot on our supply chain challenges, generally, and i think as a result of this we will look at that sooner rather than we would have, but right now, in this bill, i am hoping we include an immediate look, because we have quickly gone through a series of warning signs now, that make us understand why we need to look at this and look at it now. On february 27, the food and Drug Administration announced the first corona virus drug shortage. On march the tenth, the fda halted its routine overseas inspections of drugs and devices. Last week, state Health Departments and the center for Disease Control and prevention raise concern about the looming shortage of corona virus extraction kit, reagents needed to actually conduct the diagnostic tests, not to mention concerns about the swab you might need in some cases to take just the normal flu exam. It is more and more clear that protecting our nations medical supply chain is both a priority for Public Health, and for National Security. Obviously, the supply chain has become more global, now economic efficiency makes sense, being more competitive makes sense, its fine to buy things from other countries but its better if you have multiple options. Its a better if you have other options including domestic production. It is especially true when it comes to vital options like of medical devices, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, products we need for Public Health and safety. Now, we see now that this is a problem. It is a problem that is come upon us and this pandemic environment in a way that we had not thought we would have to deal with it before. Butg we do have to deal with it and are hoping in this bill, this is one of the places we can deal with it. And oures supply chain generally, if you are making something and it takes 300 parts, and you have 299 of them, you are ind really good shape except you cannot make what you hope to make because you dont have that one essential 300th part. If you are relying on factoriess in china or south korea or someplace that is shut down temporarily, suddenly your factory has become too dependent on a partner that is no longer there. So a Bipartisan Group of senators, including myself and senator alexander and senator durbin and senator murray, have written legislation to figure out how to access our vulnerability in the Global Supply chain for medical supplies. We want National Academy of sciences and engineering to look at this issue and look ato it now to look at this issue and determine how dependent we have really become on supplies and other countries and then make recommendations as to what some of our options might be. We also would like to hear their views on how we can make our supply chain more resilience for critical drugs and equipment, what kind of backup plan we need to always be thinking about if our front line plan may continue to be that other partner in another country, what is our quick go to backup and how essential is it that we have that backup. That would include asking how we can encourage domestic manufacturers of some things to build a step up and reorient what they do when they need it, and in a crisis. The president , to some extent address this idea yesterday by talking about a defense strategy. Ing that defensive manufacturing strategy may need to be more robust in some areas just simply because it is Component Parts to medical device, or pharmaceutical ingredients, or simply the gloves, masks, swab sticks and things you need for basic health care when youre trying to determine what your healthcare environment is and then deal with that. We need to look at it. One example may be again the daily dependence on the Daily Protective equipment that our Healthcare Providers have. We are interested in knowing what we need to do and what we need to do over the next 60 to 90 days. What we need to do over the next two or three years, but what we are going to be asking this commission to look at, we want to look at it quickly. Priority, it has become an immediate priority we need to know as we now look at another one of these is a series of epidemics where this has been a concern. Whether it is ebola or swine flu, bird flu, or sars or there have been to many of these into short of a p period of time. And at that same period of time, the globalization of the supply chain has dramatically changed. So as we prepare for future hazards, we want to assure they supply chain is in place to provide the kind of healthcare we need, the kind of response meaning, that kind of protection we need. This should be part of the bill, we need to send this to the president hopefully between now and no later than the end of next week. It is one of the things to set us on a better direction and create Better Health security as we look at our other security concerns, and with that, mr. President , i would yield the floor. The senator for virginia. Mr. President i also rise like my college from missouri to the nations response to the covid19 virus. In particular i want to discuss the next steps we need to take at the federal level to deal with this Health Emergency and the severe economic dislocation resulting from it. Before i offer my comments i would offer some thanks. I want to thank the senate staff and all in the capital who are working under tough circumstances i notice the pages are not here and that is because the senate is wisely decided that while we ought to be here during the peoples business, even at some risk to ourselves the young people should be home with their families. I want to thank healthcare workers all across the United States. Theyoi are doing very difficult work right now, and they are doing it under very stressful circumstances. So many people who work in our Healthcare Facilities are there trying to protect patients, they have kids in schools that have been closed and they are grappling with where their own children are during the day. Can they find childcare what would normally be the school day, i particularly want to thankin them. And finally want to thank the American Public. I will return to this point at the end of my comments common we are not an authority terry and nation there are steps that other nations are taking respect to this virus where they can sort of order or quarantine in ways we cannot do that here. What we do here depends upon the consent of the governed. The guidelines about social distancing for example require some significant sacrifice. Overwhelmingly i see americans taking steps to make that sacrifice and i want to thank them. I applaud the bipartisan work that congress is done with the white house in the past two weeks to pass to important laws. We passed the supplemental appropriations bill with 8 billion to invest in our Public Health response with resources for state, territories and tribes, and vestments development and other key health priorities. And just yesterday, the Senate Passed the second piece of legislation to provide emergency relief to workers and their families, paid sick leave, Unemployment Insurance and otherve measures. But we still have so much more to do. Im going to be very candid about this. I offer these thoughts is a former mayor and governor who has overseen significant Emergency Response efforts in my city and in my state. Hurricanes, floods, mass shootings, the h1n1 epidemic, the economic collapse of 2008 and nine. While those give me a perspective on what must be done, i have to acknowledge that the current challenges is a massive one. Argued tivoli bigger than any ive seen in my life because it is so big it will require unusual degrees of innovation and cooperation. And the need for that innovation and cooperation is urgent. Mr. President , i got a phone callmo this morning and im sure all 100 of my colleagues are making calls like this. The phone with my fellow virginia jim virginia senators to talk to hospitals. Virginia is a state thats economically well off. It generally tends to be top quarter. Capita income significant metropolitan areas. But the stories for my hospitalsy were just frankly shocking. They cannot get test. To test patients who are presenting with symptoms of covid19. Yet they have tests they dont have the swabs to administer the test. Or they dont have some of the chemical components needed so that once a swab ismp taken, they can run the test to determine whether somebody has the virus are not. They dont have masks. Hospitals were telling me that masks which they would normally buy for about a dollar apiece are now being charged at 9 apiece with severely limited quantities. Major hospitals in major Northern Virginia on the testing front, one of my hospital said they got enough test from their main supplier to test 40 people. That lasted about two days. When is it waiting more test, the supplier said well look, we only have so much that we can distribute around, thats all you get. When i heard this story, one after the next, and i know i live in a nation with not only the best Healthcare Providers but the best healthcare institutions in the world, i had to ask myself where am i . Is this United States of america were a hospital treating people in a Global Pandemic cannot get a mass . Can i get a swab . Cannot get a test . Why do nations like south korea and australia and the United Kingdom why are they so much more able to do things which this country should be able to do . I dont think we should become normalized or just accept that, i think this is so profound a question about why this nation with the best Healthcare Providers and the best healthcare institutions in the world, is so far behind other nations . So let me offer these recommendations, blunt recommendations for the road ahead. First, and the words of the hippocratic oath do no harm, the administration lost six to eight weeks responding to this crisis. Critical time that was used productively by other nations because the president continually downplayed the threat of covid19. No american has a louder microphone than he does and again and again he downplayed the threat, suggested it was contained, suggested everyone been tested, suggested as a host, suggested the democrats of the chinese areug the media were blowing it out of proportion. Whether his comments were due to agnello and trent ignorance of the desire for bad news it was irrelevant. I was shocked the president submitted a budget to congress on february 10 when the virus global spreadbr was clear off the dramatically cut funding for key Public Health agencies, the nih, the cdc, hhs and our investments in global partnerships like the world health organization. The white house foolishly eliminated the global Health Security team at the National Security council that was set up after the ebola crisis to proactively deal with pandemics like covid19. And i remain stunned, stunned that the president s lawyers are still in court all over this country attempting to repeal the Affordable Care act and take healthcare away from millions of americans. Puere is never been a good time, never to take an act for athe Public Health infrastructure and scheme to take away Peoples Health insurance. But there is surely no worse time tose do it. To take an act to the Public Health infrastructure and take away Peoples Health insurance during a Global Pandemic. So my recommendations here pretty simple. Quit lying andnp downplaying the threat, let the trusted akientists and Public Health leaders in your administration take center stage. In recent days, the president seems to have adopted this veapproach, thank goodness and it is long overdue. Congress should ignore the president s budget that urgent foolish cuts with our Public Health infrastructure. The administration to cease efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care t act. One more thing, quit the inflammatory china bashing. Did this virus originate in china . I yes. But mr. President , that does not excuse your weeks and weeks of tweeting lies and misinformation about l the virus while leaders of other nations were taking steps to make sure their population could be safe. The fact that the virus originate in china, does not excuse the massive missteps that have led to the United States being so far behind other nations in the world and the ability to provide testing, basic testing to citizens including citizens whosi have serious signs of illness. The president s decision to call this c china virus or wuhan virus or other that he and his members of his team use are across effort to deflect blame. Away from the acceptance of responsibility that a president w should do. The buck stops with you mr. President , you cannot blame this on anyone else, you have to own responsibility should stop inflammatory china passing that is exposing Asian Americans in this country toth prejudice. The second thing we need to do is continue to focus first and foremost on managing the Public Health crisis presented by covid19. The economic dislocation is significant we are working on a package onal that now and im going to talk about in a minute. But no economic intervention will work at the American Public continues to lack confidence in our Public Health