Over 20 Million People are out of work because of the coronavirus. It is urgent that we come to agreement to crush the virus, put money in the pockets of the American People, and to honor our heroes as state and local workers, our healthcare workers, fire, First Responders and our transportation, sanitation, food workers comp are teachers, are teachers, are teachers, all of whom who make our society run. Many of who risk their lives to save lives, and now they may lose their jobs and over 1 million already have because we have not honored then. Thanks empanadas that i wish them well if we do not want to allocate the resources necessary to compensate for the money outplayed the fight the virus, to meet the health needs of people and their communities as well as the revenue lost because of the virus. So we need to protect the lives, the livelihood and the life of our democracy. We continue to be engaged in negotiations, and i am hopeful that we will be able to reach agreement. We have made Good Progress this week on the subject of crushing the virus, crushing the virus. We are so long overdue to have a National Strategic plan based on science, funded adequately in order to get the job done. I dont know what, who or what the administration was relying on since february to avoid or to decide not to crush the virus. But we had made progress this week, because we will not go forward unless we get to the heart of the sadness of the matter, and sadness of the matter. Were not going to be our schools, our economy safely unless we crush the virus. So i pleased that weve reached a point where we at least, they still havent completely signed off on it but i think were just about their, that we will allocate against the resources and the policies necessary to do that. Testing, tracing, treatment, sanitation, separation, mask wearing, all the things that science tells us wouldve stopped the spread, would have stopped the spread of this virus. In fact, report this morning says well over 100,000 people could have been saved if we had engaged in those practices as science dictated but was not followed. So it is how we fund the healthcare providers, that is something where reaching agreement on as well as how we fund the vaccination, the vaccine and the distribution of the vaccine. And how we meet the health needs of people that lost their jobs and, therefore, lost their health care, unemployment, how we come up with some assistance for health care to did. Thats the healthcare package that a think we are at a good place on. The issue of educating our children, i mentioned safety in the workplace and safety in our schools, essential to crush the virus to make that happen. But in the meantime, our schools should be the safest places in america for our children come for our children to learn. Children learning, parents earning. As children can go to school, parents have an easier time of it to go to work. The workplace has to be safe, and thats part of our discussion here. But let me spend a moment on the schools because it relates to everything we need to do for our children. It only takes, in other words, we can make our schools safe. It only takes money. And really not that much more money than they had in the bill, but its not just the money. Its how it is spent. For our schools we need more space, more classrooms and more teachers, more support staff. We need better ventilation, technology to address some of the learning responsibilities that we have for our children. Its hard to understand why we would shortchange our children by holding back on what we need to do for our schools. So that remains one of our questions, and im hopeful, we Just Exchange tax and we sent them the most recent text. And that text we talk about why we need those resources. Well documented institutional, academic, scientific basis as to why we need more resources to make our schools safe for our children. It seems to me that should be our highest priority. Because children are affected so drastically by not being able to go to school. In many children are affected by the virus. You heard me say again and again, if youre an africanamerican child you are five times more likely to go to the hospital for covid and a white child. If you are an hispanic child you were eight times more likely to go to the hospital for covid than a white child. More people of color have died of coronavirus than white people, and thats why our crush the Virus Testing tracing treatment is so important because we have to do what we need to do to make it happen and to see the impact in a minority community, which they had to erase from the bill but now it is back. So the children, again from the standpoint of covid are affected, from the standpoint of school safe, safety are affected. Affected. At another point that affects the children is one thing that weve not received a positive answer yet, but i have been hopeful, well see, is to help children and families who lost their jobs because of covid, or children who are in families that are falling into poverty. The figures range from six to 8 million families more have fallen into poverty because the cares act benefits are running out. This cant happen in our country. How can we have a bill that sustains a cares act provision that gives 150 billion, 150 billion to the wealthiest families in our country, and we give a third of that to the neediest families intercountry so that they can get back on their feet in our country. The economists in every place on this scale in terms of philosophy and experience, whether they are secretaries of the treasury or some other academics, they have told us that the best way, the best dollars we can spend all the dollars we spend on the neediest, the neediest. They need the money the most and, therefore, they will spend it the fastest, injecting the man into the economy creating jobs, stimulus, stimulus. Its also the right thing to do for our families. That is also stimulus. Thats also true of what we had in the earned income tax credit refunds of italy, the child independent tax credit refundable, the child tax, makes a tremendous difference in the lives of these families as they hopefully return to work and in more work. Some of them are still working. These are the working, working for. Are essential to our childrens wellbeing, whether its the education or the health or the Economic Security is honoring our heroes. I have talked about them before, and again were not going to have safe schools unless we have strong support not only from the federal government, but also from state and local government who largely fund well over 90 of what education is funded, Public Education is funded at the state and local government. The money from the federal government is largely about helping children who are in economically disadvantaged situations as well as children with disabilities. So again, you are hurting kids if youre not doing state and local. You are hurting kids if youre not doing enough for education. You are hurting kids if youre giving tax breaks to the rich and ignoring their families. You are hurting kids if you are doing, unless you are doing wt we need to do, crush the virus. And then putting money into peoples pockets, thats one way, and the other is with, i think to terms on the direct payments. But we still havent come to terms on and upset about this because its so central to who we are as a people, and called for in a constitution and that be the census in the election. So thats what we are on that. And again, having to make a case to crush the virus at the same time as they are crushing the Affordable Care act. They are in court. People talk about, its 12 das until the election. Its 19 days before we go before the Supreme Court for the oral arguments to overturn the Affordable Care act, a a goal f this president and republicans attorney general across the country, and the republicans in the congress of the United States. Senator feinstein asked of the nominee if she believed that medicare was constitutional. And she could not respond. She did not give an answerto that. She said she could not answer that question in the abstract. Here we have a nominee endangering one of the most sacred american pillars of Health Security for seniors and their families. I cannot answer that in the abstract. Is medicare constitutional . Its no surprise to any of us here because for years weve been hearing republicans say medicare should wither on the vine. We have a lot at stake in this nomination and therefore all the more at stake in this election. One of the things most concerning about the hearings was when she was asked about climate, the climate crisis. She said, she was asked if it were happening and she was asked about the Scientific Evidence that Climate Change is happening. She called it controversial. Im certainly not a scientist. Ive read things about Climate Change. I would not say i have strong views on. Really . The science of science, you see it throughout everything we do. If science is science and not facing up to the coronavirus, so many months to go which with so many lives that that have been saved, if science science in recognizing the need for the Affordable Care act to meet the needs, health needs and affect the financial needs of families. And thats exactly what is on about. The Affordable Care act. The Affordable Care act and Preventative Care benefits that are in, they will be gone and no longer required, insurance summaries will no longer be required to cover essential Preventative Care services which are some of the most popular assets of the bill. The most wellknown that will be gone is the preexisting conditions protections. That benefit will be gone and insurers will be able to deny people coverage for preexisting conditions and now covid19 has added millions of people to that list. Already 150 million families are affected by the preexisting conditions challenge and therefore benefit from the Affordable Care act. Medicaidexpansion , states will lose their funding for the Medicaid Expansion and listen, people think of it as a Childrens Initiative and it is. Thank god it is also a middleclass benefit because much of the money that is spent in longterm care for x seniors comes frommedicaid. Not so much anymore. At if the republicans have their way and have a course that does not believe in protections. Again, all the other things that a woman is no longer preexisting medicalcondition , back to that. If a child is on your policy up to 26 years old , forget about that. But the list goes on and on and we talked about the fact that those of us involved in this are so proud that the 20 million more people would have access to quality affordablehealthcare but its not just that. Hundred 50 million families have better its because of the Affordable Care act. Let me name them again. A benefit of having a preexisting condition protection, Preventative Care, benefits, Medicaid Expansion. Women paid more because of the affordablecare act. So in any event, this is, this election comes very very important because no matter what the court bought now that they lined up against americans could help, we in congress can change all of that. Weve already introduced legislation to enhance the Affordable Care act as we know any bill and always be better and any legislation and always be better people have to know the the upgrade of support, as scary at it as it is aswe approach halloween. Understand the election, the election has ramifications. When the house the senate and the white house are able to have an Even StrongerAffordable Care act, to overcome what the Supreme Court dangerously did. Even knowing, medicare is constitutional, and again, criticizing the justice for his boat in support of the Affordable Care act constitutionality when that boat came. One other other subject i wanted to bring up is subject of the foreign interference in our elections and here i will go through everything from the dni and others. And ill be very interested to hear what they have to say classified everything because everything we have seen in the Public Domain has not justified a statement that we heard yesterday. We dont want any interference in our elections from anyone. We think intimidation inthe election is wrong. Foreign or domestic. To get equivalents to one country over another, when we knowthat russia has for a long time , 24 seven in the past election and this one are there to undermine our election. They tried to make an equivalence with china. I take second place and no one in this congress in my criticisms of china whether its trade violation or proliferations of Weapons Technology that are dangerous and sending it to rogue nations. I know what theyre doing, i combat and every day for 30 years a little bitmore. In the Public Domain you can see that what they are doing is their usual trying to infiltrate people in our country to be sympathetic to china. A lot less to do with the election. Russia is the villain here. And that weve seen in the Public Domain around is a bad actor. But in no way equivalent and they always try to find some equivalent to protect their pressure and i have confidence in the director of the fbi, that both will be protected, that laws will not be violated and we dont want this message coming out the and i now get the impressions that they should be afraid that their vote will not be held. Ill be eager to hear what they have to say. Im glad in having this meeting because everything ive said you now is in the Public Domain. Elections are safer andshould be treated with respect. I dont know what should be denied with this. That remains to be seen. Again i urge everyone to vote theres a lot of poison out there. Lets the best antidote to the poison is a vote. Over 30 million will have voted by now and mark 42 million have voted already. Whoever they voted for, thats a lesson for exercising theirsacred right to vote. To do so in such a patriotic way , and i hope that we will continue well up until the closing of polls on election day. 12 days and, 10 hours from now and in california and i have to always think of california, with that ill take any questions youhave. Forgive my cynicism but i dont understand your optimism on relief. Your 12 days out from an election with the president expected to see, you need to convince anybody in his party senate to vote for this thing, they dont have any appetite to vote foranything bigger than the 500 billion package on the senate side. Your months into this and i dont understand, are these talks going just to keep the talks only at this point after mark i dont see how this happens. Let me say this, if this talk did not have a purpose and if we were notmaking progress , i stopped in five seconds in this conversation and i say that. Why would i even betalking . He says the same thing to me, why would i even be talking . This is not anything other than i think a serious attempt, i believe that both sides want to reachan agreement. I cant answer for the disarray from the senate side. One day the leader says i dont want to do it before the election, another day hell say send it over and ill put it on the floor. Another day he says other things. Its not up to me to fight that, its about the president of the United States engaging in a discussion thats up to him to deliver what can happen on the senate side. But again as ive said toyou before , were not going to make theworld straight in this bill. What we are going to do is finally take steps and do other things and we cant pass a bill that makes matters worse which is what every time they do something, they have something in there that one step forward, two steps back and we want to keep moving forward. Im open to these negotiations and when you get to the end its the hardest part but weve sent more paper over. Ill tell you, one of the big issues iseducation. We have a different view of how money should be spent on education. Again, grounded in what we are told by the association of superintendents of school, other associations with no political test, no objective message of what is needed. And we can do a great and im so optimistic that we can do that. But will have to compromise, we cant swallow either side can swallow a poison pill and were narrowing those differences. If over the next 72 hours you can make a bill, would you run into the for next week ordo you think you need to wait after the election. Is hypothetical, if we can get in area i think that we can, but again, were legislators. We understand how long things take area theyre not in the white house, like you say its just not a question of agreeing in a room. Its a question of the cdl weighing in with the score. The legislative counsel raising their questions and putting it in legislative order. That takes time. I want to take the opportunity its given me to salute my chair close before meetings i thought and after i report to them asking what happened in their particular arena. And theres theres so slight and their staff is so shall we say professional in getting what we were talking about you so it takes time because this is not slamming down that were going to have dinner next week, this is about establishing a plan to cross a virus and to protect our heroes, to put money in the pockets of the American People and do soin a way that does not harm our children. So it can happen. Its up to them. Its really up to them. When people say video,there is no deal. The deal is onesided, no deal. It wasnt possible. Itwasnt passable. Do any of the things it was supposed to do. So im pretty happy, im please of where we are now. And ifwe can , resolve some of these thingsin the next few days , it will take a while to write the bill but we could be writing now and we are putting pen to paper and certainly easier part of the bill its close. Its close and the question is where will the president beat any given moment. Hes been all over the map. All over the rock but i think weve gotten into a good place especially on questions about this is a major, major event. Have you come to an agreement on state and local funding . And on liability . These allegations of corruption involving joe biden , im not answering those questions but hey, were talking about the coronavirus. I dont have all day for questions, thats what were takingnow. Anybody else have a question on coronavirus negotiations . Im wondering how confident you are that senators would go over given that the Senate Majority was going about not having it out and have you had discussions with nguyen about convincing republican senators . Im not interested in a bill , we have to have strong bipartisan support in the legislation that we come together on. I would hope that we have bipartisanship in the house and in the senate. The last bill, the cares act was corporate trickledown, we have our bill, taking responsibility and we brought. We didnt get everything we wanted, they still got there under 50 billion for the richest people inamerica, but nonetheless , we got a bill that made, made a difference, not everything but a difference. So thats, getting republican votes is not my job. Thats up to them. Effectively and again, they know. I think they come to the table with some level of precedents butif we can reach an agreement, that we can , the president wants the bill. So thats the opportunity. Yes maam. You say the president want todeal, the president wants a deal until the minute he decides he doesnt want to deal so how do you deal with that . Mitch mcconnell, the president. Youre also running up against logistics in terms of you still do things you got to work out on state and local, still got things you got to work out and get it done so that comes up against actual election day so is it more important to get it done before election day or is it more important to get it done and you dont really carewhen that happens as long as it gets done. Are you willing to wait until after to get what you want or do you need it before. Were not going to leave a bill that is not acceptable to my chairs. Effectively written five euros at. I think theyre talking about the same thing, its only about time. Comedy may want on their side they dont want it before the election, its incumbent on us to pass it before the election but is not opted to me to decidewhat the senate does. At the conversation between the president and themajority leader. But we would take less of a bill sooner, we want the best bill in range and again, that said, ill end with this. What i say is help is on the way. It will be bigger, it willbe better , it will be safer and it will be retroactive. Thank you all. Alive picture outside of Belmont University in nashville tennessee, this is where the second president ial debate to president from Vice President joe biden will be held tonight. You can watch live coverage of the debate darting at easter on cspan. Yesterday former president Barack Obama Campaign in philadelphia on beha o