Robert next. Annocer this is Washington Week. Funding is provided by life isnt a straight line. And sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here to help you work through thexp uted with Financial Planning and advice for today andro tom announcer additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and Patricia Yuen through the Yuen Foundation committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. The corporation for public ouoadcasng and by contributions to pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, from washington, er moderator r costa. Robert good evening. We begin with the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. United states is quickly becoming the new epicenter ofl the glo outbreak and now leads the world in confirmed cases. Governors and doctors from new york to louisiana to Washington State areth sounding e alarm about shortages of medical supplies. Joining us is one of the reporters, Yasmeen Abutaleb a post. Er for the washington for being here. What is the significance of the in terms of the number of cases . Yasmeen i think it signals the epicenter of the outbreak has sort of jumped around the worldi it w china. Then it was italy. Then it was europe. Now it seems to be the United States. The number of confirmedth d from coronavirus in the United States still lags behind italy d spain. But of course, that could quickly change in the next couplef days. Ihinkt signals the seriousness of which the United States is and needs ttake the outbreak you know, this is the new epicenter and how b quickly itn able to spread all over the world. Obert as you look at the map, yasmeen, where do you see emerging hot spots in the u. S. . So Health Experts are concernedbout citie you would expect as hot spots. You know, major metropolitan cities. The death rate in new orleans is the high glest he country a in the world. Boston is emerging as another h potentia spot. Chicago, miami. Its making its way through the country and you would expect to through. Thing spreading quickly rt what are the biggest problems for Health Professionals . We hear a lot about ventilators. Is thathessue . Yasmeen theres a lot of panic ether there will be enough sven lay or thes to see the crush of patients that hospitals expect to see in the coming days and weeks. Not justhe ventilators but the workers who can operate them. Thats a specialized skill. Thats a big conern. And hearing these desperate pleas from healthcare rkers about facemasks, about gowns and the protective uipment they need. They keep sing theyre sent to war without protection, without equipment. And equating themselves to that sort of thing. Robert so so Many Americans are rking from home tryin to stop the spread. How successful has the United States been so far in stoing the spread . Yasmeen i think the United States, the connsus is, of course, has done much better in the last couple of weeks with significant social distancing. There was a poll today that 910 amerans are practicing social distancing. So thats a great thing. There is some concern that the u. S. Has taken a patchwork approach to it. There hasnt been a nationwide twoweek shutdown like youve seen in italy and in spain. You know, there are certain states that have fullon lockdowns and other states that much. Enforcing it quite as so its still not consistent across the country. The fear is in the places where theres not a stringentre irements that youre going to see the seeds of a big outbreak being planted. Robert when you look at the food and Drug Administration that has final approval over any drugs to combat covid19, what are the issues youre looking at . What matters in youreporting there . Yasmeen one thing weve observed coming up a lot, the two drugs called hydro chloroquine. Some doctors are bribing that. Ose drugs are in clinical for coronavirus because theyre prescribed for another use, doctorsan prescribe them for whatever they want. Were looking to s how the f. D. A. Trials progress on the drug. Anecdotal answers from doctor whare prescribing it. And theres another drug thats al in early clinical trials. But its still pretty early and scant and mixed data. Its unclear whether they work or not. Robert thank you, yasmeen for your time and for your reporting. Let us turn to capitol hill. The house approved a 2 trillion economic stimulusge pac that comes as the economy is shuttering due to the jobless aims are skyrocketing. But the bill was passed by voic vote following hours of contention sparked by Kentucky Republican tom massy who tried and failed to force a roll call vote. President trump derided him as a grandstander who should be tossed out of the g. O. P. Later ony, fri the president signed the bill. In brief, it will send 1200 check to Many Americans and billions of dollars to Small Businesses. Plus, 250 billion to boost Unemployment Insurance offering 600 per week for four months for laid o workers. Joining us now are four reporters w are covering washingtons response to the virus. Yamichese alcindor, white h correspondent for the pbs newsur. Eamon javers for cnbc. Manu raju for senior Congressional Correspondent for cnn. And susan beige, page, from usa today. Eeis itas a full solution for this economic trouble or just a bandaid . Solution, but it is seeas a good solid first step. You saw the market respond very favorably this week, although we were down today. But in in anticipation of thisl we saw a big rally. Investors look that as a very od step. But they acknowledge theyre going to have to see more. And you heard that from ngressional leaders. Its a 24 trillion economy. I tha 2 trillion bill. The economy has gone something close to zero. When you see these unemployment claims,on 3. 3 mil people applied for unemployment this week. Thats the biggest ever, and the previous record was in 1982. We are way past that. Were in uncharted territories d congress is beginning to get its arms around the size that its dealing wit here. Robert manu, how close was the congressman of kentucky to scuttling this entire bill . Well, he was close to delaying this a little bit further. Nancy pelosi, the House Speaker and the House Republican leader, Kevin Mccarthy worked behi the scenes to prevent that from happening. What tom massy was successful in doing was getting half of theus to return to session. And members were not happythbout. Because what he wanted to do was to prevent the house from approving it simply by a vce vote. When you have a voice vote in the house you canave a handful of members in the house to do that. But what he wanted was a full recorded vote. They had to cast aoll call vote. But in order for him to get a roll call vote h would need a second support about a fifth of the chamber to go that way. But in order for nancy pelosi and the republicans leader to deny that from happening, they had to goac intal quorum to deny thomas massy theatecond he needed in order to forceol thatcall vote. That means republican and democratic members from all over the country hado travel ba to washington today just to preventhat f happening, and that infuriated members from both sides of the aisle who are concerd about their wellbeing, their familys wellbeing, concerned about traveling in ohe middle this Public Health emergency, and as a result, it was quick voice vote and thats what ultimately happened. Thomas massy got overruled here. And the bill went intoaw just hours later. Robert what a different scene in the senate, susan, a 960 vote. When you step back and look at thatipartisanship, what explains it . Based on your reporting. Crisis. Now but in previous i was thinking about the 2008 experience because you remember e first effort to pass a bill bailout bill fail. And the market tanked. And it was a real sense of a croris getting even. T the republican leader in the senate at that point, mitch mcconnell, the speaker of the house was nancy pelosi, they got a deal put back together and passed through the house. That was a critical vote that time around because they had to. And so we had two people who had dealt with a similar situation in the past knew it had toet done. We shouldnt lose sight of how remarkable it is. We have a dysfunctional congress. But in the space of a week or trillion, the biggest relief bill in American History and got it through alm unanimously through both houses. Robert yamiche, a as muchs congress has made congress on this legislation President Trump is still move forgot ward to defend the defense production act trying to nge General Motors and other companies toke ventilators. Why are they moving forward on the d. P. A. . Yache the preside is invoking the defense production act is when the government can direct america manufactures to make what the government says they need. In thinm case the govt is telling gener motors we really prioritize our contract. Have to this happened because the president and the white house says they wereegotiating with General Motors but they were ripping them off. Those were his wordsnd they were trying to essentially charge the government too much to make these ventilators to speed up those talks. The president did this. Whats interesting that both r governorublicans and democrats have been urging him to use it. They need masks, vtilators, gowns, were in dire shortage. And this is the president doing it for onepecific medical equipment. The president said yesterday on fox news that he doesnt believo that som these governors need all of the medical equipment that theyve been asspng for. Ific clirks i dont think that new york possibly needs 30,000 ventilators. And new York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been urging the president saying i need 30,000 ventilators. Its unclear even with the productionnving the defense production act whether he beliefs and will fill the orders and coming across the country. Robert many of the requests came and governors are paying attention to Small Businesses. And theyre wondering will this legislation enable th businesses to get the loans as soon as possible . Because the economy in their view is on a knifes edge. Yeah, theres an important provision here. And anybody who is a Small Business owner needs know this it is an expansion of the p 7a logram. What it does is somethi radical radical and new in american legislation and in the economy. Its in essence free money for b smallinesses if they agree not to lay anybody off over a period of time. You get an eightweek loan of up to 10 million for 500 employees or less. I andyou havent laid anybody off, you go get keep the money. Thats free money. Weve never seen anything like that before in american economics. Its going to be a fascinating moment. There are some particulars to the bill that Small Businesses are going to need to paynt atn to. But this is potentially huge. Its authorized up to0 billion or more in the bill. My suspicion ist will g much, much higher than that because a apply once realize its outng to there. The way to get ts is to go to your regular banker or lender youre used to dealing with, and ask them about a 7a loan. Eyll deal with the Small Business administration. Small Business Owners dont have to deal withovernment on this deal with your regular banker. Its going to be an enormou strain on the banking system. But thats how its going to work because theyre the ones who are touching tall individual businesses. Robert the market dipped 900 points. The Dow Jones Industrial average today friday. Are we going to see if they suffer a phase four, another round of legislation . How many options are left forss cong yeah, thats a one thing that the democrats and the house are alrea talking about phase four rescue package. Remeer, theyve passed an 8. 3 passed package that was by bipartisan majorities in both chambers of congress. An of course, there was a second major package that cluded more jobless benefits as well as medicaid, spending to the states and as well as paid leave that was approved that was a phase two. The biggest package in arican history. And right now nancy pelosi is talkin about a phase four. I asked her today what her time line is for that. And shehe said thats this week shes asking all of her chairmen of the key economies to submit proposals for how to move forward. Shes talk about fundingstor ement and local governments. Also to insure that people are getting tested ifer the coronavirus to get their things like food stamps and the like and more paid expansive id leave policies. I think the democrats did not think didot get to their satisfaction in the last couple of pieces of legislation, theyre pushing on this one. The question is if the republicans are ready to moveev forward, more contact thy said lets see how to2 trillion package how that isem imted first before we Start Talking about a phase four. Lo wants to push forward by mid april. Well see if the republicans wanto join. Robert you think about nancy pelosi, youre writing a biography of Speaker Pelosi she weve already spoken about republican massey. But you saw o cazz yo corte om the left criticize this deal. Wondering if it has enough oversight. Is she prepared to deal with that kind of critsfrism criticism from the left . Shes had that from the beginning. One of the remarkable thing is this debate over the role of government has been settled to some degree. We have nowccepted as a country in the country a bigger role in the federal government. Who do you turn to to feed school kids to support small businees to even take equity stakes in airlines, to do all the things that s theseies of bills have done . People are looking to the federal government to do it with almost nou debate. Hink about what the prepercussions are going to be for the country, whether or not there is a fourth bill. The role of the government has shifted in a b way. Robert the ideological fault lines are scrambled. Theyre backing direct payments to americans, a plan that was only advocated by andrew yang. Well have bwback when we catch our breath but at the moment they have decided t gs is thernment we want and need. Robert this week President Trump said he is hoping to reopen the American Economynd adjust social distancing guidelin by mid april. T i would love have it open by easter. Oh, wow. Ok. Id prt trump i will ll you that right now, i would love to have that. Its such an important day for other reasons. But ill make it an important day for this too. I would love to have the country opened up and just rarring to go by easter. Robert but theyre relucnt to set a date. The next days increased dramatically. Ats not when you pull back. Thats when you have to hunker down. Mitigate, mitigate. You have to go with the data. Robert yamiche, is the decision about when to reopen the American Economy perhaps t biggest decision of his presidency . Yamiche i think so, bob. The president has been focused on making up this date in his own mind this Easter Sunday date that hes been talking about and urging. W this it i want. I want church packed on sunday. The president me it clear that that was something he felt. S since sixths hiss insix led him to that date. The other thing to note is there are some repn governors especially reporting from the Washington Post shows that there were some republican governors from mississippi and otherlaces and say maybe it is a little time to ease the white house restrictions a to ease social distancing. But for the most part you hear healthcare officials saying no. Thats not what we need to do. We need to figure whether were at the peak and most Health Experts say were not o d figu what we can do to go forward to find treatments and vaccine in about a year. But theres no one other than President Trump and a couple of republican governors t oking abouning up. This is going to be a big decision if he says there are parts of the country that i feel are o to open. He was talking about idaho and the farm belt. Its unclear whether or not the president will go through with that. But its going be a remarkable decision whenever he des to open the economy back up. Robert what willt mean having the economy shuttered through may . I mean, it devastating. The Vice President was on cnbc, he was asked about that easter timeline. He walked it back. He said, you know, that was an. Aspirational d it doesnt sound that he thought th was realistic either. And for the economy, its horrific. Were in the red zone in the economy. Weve never seen a decision like this a lot of policymakers are assuming that the economy is light switch. You can leave the room dark for a few weeks and turn it back on. But the analogy is better its more like a campfire, right . It takes a while to get it going. You put the kin a ling get the fire going. And then youre not going to be able to turn it back on automatically. Its going to take a lot of oustoking and eging and some time. The longer this goes on, the more time its going to take to get back to normal. Th ans a scary thing for the millions of american who is filed for unemployment wis week an will do it next week and the week after that and all the Small Business who are going under and declaring bankruptcy. All of that is terrifying. That