Work hard and we go home. This is going to be weeks and weeks and weeks. This is going to be a long day. And its going to be a hard day. And its going to be an ugly day, and its going to be a sad day. This is a rescue mission that youre on. The mission is to save lives. Thats what youre doing. The rescue mission is to save lives. And as hard as we work, were not going to be able to save everyone. And whats even more cruel is this enemy doesnt attack the strongest of us. It attacks the weakest of us. It attacks our most vulnerable, which makes it even worse in many ways. Because these are the people that every instinct tells us were supposed to protect. These are our parents and our grandparents. These are our aunts, our uncles. These are our relative who is sick. And every instinct says protect them, help them because they need us. And those are the exact people that this enemy attacks. Every time i have called out the National Guard, ive said the same thing to you, i promise you i will not ask you to do anything that i will not do myself, and i will never ask you to go anywhere that i wont go myself. And the same is true here. Were going to do this and were going to do this together. My second point is, you are living a moment in history. This is going to be one of those moments theyre going to write about and theyre going to talk about for generations. This is a moment that is going to change this nation. This is a moment that forges character. Forges people. Changes people. Make them stronger, make them weaker. But this is a moment that will change character. In ten years from now, youll be talking about today for your children or grandchildren, and you will shed a tear because you will remember the lives lost, and you will remember the faces and you will remember the names, and youll remember how hard we worked, and that we still lost loved ones. And youll shed a tear, and you should, because it will be sad. But you will also be proud. You will be proud of what you did. Youll be proud that you showed up, you showed up when other people played it safe. You had the courage to show up, and you had the skill and the professionalism to make a difference and save lives. Thats what you will have done. And at the end of the day, nobody can ask anything more from you. That is your duty to do what you can when you can. And you would have shown skill and courage and talent. Youll be there with your mind. Youll be there with your heart. And youll serve with honor. And that will give you pride, and you should be proud. I know that i am proud of you. And every time the National Guard has been called out, they have made every new yorker proud. And i am proud to be with you yet again. And im proud to fight this fight with you. And i bring you thanks from all new yorkers, who are just so appreciative of the sacrifice that you are making, the skill that youre bringing, the talent that youre bringing, and you give many new yorkers confidence. So i say, my friends, that we go out there today and we kick coronavirus ass thats what i say. And were going to save lives, and new york is going to thank you. God bless each and every one of you. [ applause ] good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in new york. Governor andrew cuomo has been briefing from the Javits Convention center, now being converted by the army corps of engineers as a Field Hospital for noncoronavirus patients. The governor announcing now 519 deaths from new york from covid19, up from 385 just yesterday. More than 44,000 people have now tested positive for coronavirus. Schools will remain closed in new york through at least another two weeks, through april 15th, an extension of the previous deadline. The governor now says the state is predicting what he calls an apex of need in 21 days. Hes trying to ramp up capacity before them. All hospitals are being told increase capacity by 50 but encouraged to increase, if they can, to 100 . The governor also new york is looking to build four new hospitals and will speak to President Trump about constructing a new hospital in each of five new york city boroughs later this afternoon. The government said the state is shopping literally around the globe to try to buy and stockpile equipment to deploy to any hospital that needs it around the state. Once again, Governor Cuomo said the state is most in need of ventilators. Meanwhile here in Washington House members, many driving overnight from around the country, from as far away as kalamazoo, michigan, to get back to the nations capitol, are expected to vote on the 2 trillion economic package after one republican congressman, Thomas Massies tweet, announcing he would force that action instead of allowing a voice vote. At least he will if he can avoid procedural efforts by both sides to try to stop him from doing that. Moments ago the d. C. Mayor announced at a press conference, george valentine, Deputy Director of the Mayors Office of legal counsel, died after he was hospitalized wednesday. In a few moments well have a report from london on the first world leader to test positive, britains Prime MinisterBoris Johnson. Joining me now though, nbcs ron allen outside elmhurst hospital in new york and nbcs Garrett Haake on capitol hill. Before we get to the drama playing out, tell us the situation at elmhurst, which the borough of queens, the borough home for andrew cuomo and the whole cuomo family for several decades, tell us about elmhurst, which has been so severely hit. Well, they will be glad to hear in elmhurst and queens generally the governor is trying to put an Emergency Hospital in each of the five boroughs. That was one of the concerns here in recent days. They didnt want to see these Emergency Centers built at the Javits Center in manhattan, places that were far away from here and, frankly, places that were wealthier than here. This has been called the center of the epicenter. Behind me you can see whats left of a line of people here from 6 00 this morning coming in for coronavirus testing. The line is kind of dwindling now. Theyve been going at it for hours. Some of the people here have been waiting for hours. Some we talked to in life said they felt feverish, coldlike symptoms. They were worried for their family so they came here. One person told us he spent time with someone who tested positive and he wasnt feeling well. It just goes on and on and on. Its almost like where the disaster is unfolding in slow motion. These people waiting hour after hour to get tested. Further down the street there is the emergency room where there is has been just a parade of ambulances arriving over the past few days. The hospital, we believe, is at 125 of capacity. The icu, as the mayor said, has been operating three times its capacity for the last couple of days. They resupplied this place a number of times. Upped the staff by dozens of people, but theyre still overwhelmed. That gives you a sense of whats happening here. And were not even at the apex. Were 21 days away, according to the governor. Here theyre already holding on. One of the point about the ambulance workers, emts, fdny who staff those ambulances, weve heard stories theyve been hit too. Theres about 10 absentee, sickout rate, amongst the emts or firefighters, including civilians who work there. So this is really taxing the capacity of everyone, especially here. And this is for everyone. The governors family is from here. More recent immigrants are it from other parts of the country. Its a lowincome neighborhood for the most part. The hospital is 60 years old, not the newest here. This is really where people are vulnerable and they will be glad to hear help is coming. Andrea . Indeed. We should point out fred trump and his family grew up in queens originally as well. Thank you very much, ron allen. I know you will be staying there. Garrett haake, the drama on the house floor, the president called on a republican from the kentucky to be removed from the gop for saying now hes going to block this vote. The president yesterday at a briefing didnt call him out by name but called him a grandstander by implication as well. That is, of course, massie named later by colleagues. What has happened there . Do they need the roll call vote that has prompted members to drive from all over the country . And the president tweeted even further calling him a third rate grandstander and appears massie will do whatever he can to force a third vote here. Let me be clear, this is not going to stop the passage of the bill. The most it will do is delay it. The bill will have overwhelming bipartisan support. Louis gomer, governor of texas who spent a few reservations, just said on the floor he will ultimately vote for it. Without getting too bogged down, what it appears he can do is force a vote or row core up call that will do the same thing, require at least half of the members of house are here, 216 will be required. Perhaps they will get through a recorded vote but they have to have number people to have a quorum. How we will do this is a little uncertain. We never tried to do Something Like this before. The house planned, if they had to do a recorded vote, bring in members of small groups. 16 different groups of members across a period of time to make sure you didnt have the whole body or large group of them in the chamber at the same time. I have been out of the chamber all morning. Theres probably been 80 people on the floor all told at any given time. But as we get closer to the vote, that number may go up. We do expect to see massie try to delay this with one of the other moves here, calling for a recorded vote for quorum call. We will see if there are any procedural tools in the speakers kit to deny that but it looks likely we will see the count of members before the vote. I guess the only real drama is if we cant hit that 216count threshold and we have to sit and wait for members to get here from the rest of the country. To reemphasize, this is bipartisan. I was watching the number three in the leadership calling out for support for this. People on both sides are calling for this compromise, where every side had to give up something. This is what the senate passed. The house has to pass it before it can get to the president s desk. Its clear, massie cant get this changed. There wont be amendments. There wont be changes to this bill. Hes trying to delay it out of principles he says he has with the bill and the way its put together. Hes gotten some cover from some republicans who defended him on twitter, including texan chip roy who in an extraordinary tweet told the president to back off in his criticism. But hes probably not going to be here to vote because he cant get back from texas. An interesting arm chair stance for someone to take from halfway across the country. Garrett haake, thanks so much. Thank you for being there. Joining us now, new jersey congresswoman and michigan congresswoman debra dingell, cochair of the white house policy and communications committee. Debbie dingell, congresswoman, youre in michigan because people were told to go home and it would be a voice vote. We will talk to you from there. Mikie sherrill, where are you coming in from . Im here in washington. Youre a military veteran as well. Lets talk about the need to get this done quickly. People need the relief. We have so much need for relief in new jersey. We have the second highest number of cases. Theyre rising every day. We dont have enough personal protective equipment. We have people losing their jobs at an alarming rate. We need direct checks and support from the hospitals. We need to get relief out to people immediately. Debbie dingell, theres fear of a major spread now from detroit and the area around detroit. Thats becoming one of the hotspots, that and chicago in the midwest. Talk to me, i know one of your close colleagues and friends, fred upton, a republican from michigan was driving in from kalamazoo. He was one of the closest friends of your late husband, john close. Hes getting in his car and driving ten hours to get here for this possible vote. Oh, he was coming to get me. Unfortunately one of my staff people who tested on st. Patricks day for coronavirus and we still do not have the test results back. This is how stressed our Hospital Systems are. I called yesterday not asking for any special treatment but just checking and they were unable to give us the result yous. Out of an abundance of caution, im not there. We all need to do our part to mitigate the spread of this disease, which means we need to stay home. Talk to me about also whats happening in detroit. Because youre district, the areas around detroit and michigan are now seeing a very sharp rise. Detroit is now number detroit is now number three in terms of cities in the country. Im in wade county, which by cook county, is one of the counties becoming similar. We will be like new york is now. A week ago, its hard to believe a week ago, the very first death in coronavirus was last friday from my district and three deaths by the end of the day friday and were now at 60 and were almost at 3,000 cases. The governor did issue a stayathome order. Unfortunately, too many people did not take it seriously at first. My mantra has become, stay home, stay safe, stay alive. People dont understand that each of us have a responsibility to stop the mitigation. We dont have much. Everything she said was correct. My biggest concern and Investor Member of congresss biggest concern is the lack of ppe for these hospitals. Im talking doctors and nurses about their fear of being on the frontline, not having masks, gowns, respirators, ventilators. We have to get that to them. And the president , quite frankly, has to use the defense production act to start to get a plan to get this equipment to where it needs to go. I just want to to point out that aoc, congresswoman oscasiocortez was on the floor, and shes also speaking about the need for ventilators. She represents queens and parts of the bronx. Lets watch. I represent one of the hardesthit communities in the hardesthit city in this country, queens, new york. 13 dead in a night in elmhurst hospital alone. Our communitys reality is this countrys future if we dont do anything. Hospital workers do not have protective equipment. We dont have the necessary ventilators. But we have to go into this vote eyes wide open. What did the Senate Majority fight for . One of the largest corporate bailouts with as few strings as possible in american history. Shameful oscasiocortez talking about exactly whats happening in queens, where ron allen is. Mikie sherrill, this issue of ventilators, the president was suggesting last night, i think on fox, that Governor Cuomo is calling for ventilators and they really arent needed. Hes gone to hospitals where there are two ventilators and all of a sudden asking for 40,000. When you have the leader of the country disputing the facts that come from the governor of new york and coming from the ground and from the people youre talking to there where you live, your district, how do you the public is confused. Who do they believe . If you can find personal protective equipment, invite the president to come to new jersey and see what things look like on the ground. Im on the phone with Health Care Providers in our Hospital Systems every morning. Our morgues are full. Im in montclair, new jersey, much smaller than queens, and weve had nine deaths so far. Weve had people that are wearing trash bags because they dont have the personal protective gear they need. Our hospital workers are scared because theyre treating people and yet theyre not sure theyre safe themselves. We have First Responders who cant get the personal protective gear they need, as theyre transporting people with coronavirus through the hospital system. This is critical. We have to have the defense production act working for us. I have spoken personally to manufacturers in my district who want to manufacture the ppe who need some help with the supply change. I have spoken to some of our large corporations to figure out how were going to get ppe here and theyre weeks off. We need to speed up the production line. Its not soon enough. I have been calling the michigan delegation and debbie has been fantastic about trying to get our auto manufacturers to produce as quickly as possible the ventilators we need across the country. I can tell you, its a desperate need. Were already talking in new jersey, were getting to the point of capacity with our ventilators and we havent hit the height of this yet. Were talking about what comes next. Debbie dingell, i know you used to work before you were in congress for many years past, for General Motors for the foundation at least. I believe its a nonprofit foundation. Im not precise about that. I worked at gm for 30 years. I just want to point out the president was tweeting this morning against General Motors. He can order under the defense protection act, like Mikie Sherrill said, tell them what to do. And then now tweeting, as usual, things with General Motors, things dont work out. At first they were giving us 40,000 quicker. Now 6,000 late april. They want top dollar. Always a mess. Talking about Ford Motor Company as well. He with a stroke of a pen can just tell them you do this, you do that. And tell fema and fema will divvy the stuff up. So i have been talking to the Auto Industry every single day. I talk to the ceos every single day. Theres clearly a lack of direct communication between the president and General Motors. They are trying to produce ventilators in their kokomo, indiana, plant. They are working with somebody who produces it but not made the commitment. So i wish the president would do something to get them up. Ford looked at it, it was too difficult to get the ventilators produced quickly. So theyre now producing other ppe equipment and trying to find out exactly where it needs to go. Chrysler is making masks. All three companies and as mikie said, were all talking to othe