Food stamps. They had 250,000. 60 billion, 250,000. I dont know how many people they think live in america, but that doesnt even begin. Theyre nickel and diming it. And when you talk about children and families who are in fear of eviction, this means a great deal to children to be insecure about their housing. Some of them will become homeless because the republicans are nickel and diming our children. These families are crying out for the 600. Theyre nickel and diming the Economic Security of childrens families. The list goes on and on. We are saying in our bill, children learning, parents earning. If we want parents to be able to go back to work, we need children to be going to school safely. And if they cant, and parents have to work, we want them to have child care in a significant way. Dont nickel and dime us, our children, on the child care issue, either. So again, if you look at it and how people are affected by this, the families of our heroes, as i said earlier, you know who they are, health care workers, first responders, transportation, sanitation, teachers, teachers, teachers. Probably 5 million of them will lose their jobs theres already 1. 5 million projected to be 3. 6 million more people will lose their jobs if we do not honor our responsibilities, state and local governments. These are people with children, with families. And what happens . They go on Unemployment Insurance. So what is saved there . What is saved there . What is lost is the dignity of work that these people have many of them risk their lives to save lives in this pandemic, and now they have lost their jobs. Why . Why . Because Mitch Mcconnell calls this, what, progressive wish list. I do wish we can protect our workers, we can feed our children, we can house our people, that we can have elections that enable people not to make a choice between voting and their health. With that, any questions you may have. Yes. Mark meadows said youre trillions of dollars apart. Is that an accurate assessment on the state of the negotiations . Also, did you guys reject the offer of 400 a week of Unemployment Insurance . We have said that were going to have the 600. We have documented by yale university, ucla, and other authorities that this is necessary. Today, the university of chicago put out what the cost would be to our economy if we dont have that 600 in terms of purchasing power and the rest. So its not a question of we, again, wanted to see a whole package, and they know that we want this 600. You want to speak to that . Yeah, there are a couple points here. Number one, yeah, the 600 has kept by economic estimates at least a million and probably many more people out of poverty. Out of poverty. Were trying to lift people out of poverty. Its done it. Second, the number one probability engine that the economy isnt doing worse is consumer spending. One of the biggest incentives for consumer spending, additives to consumer spending, is the unemployment. Third, you changed the rules. It will take weeks in some states and months in most states before new unemployment can be added. That will hurt the economy dramatical dramatically. They say all these people are staying home. Because they get more money than if they go to work. That is not the American People i know. They want to work. And if they have a job or are offered a job and with the benefits and with the dignity of work, they take it. But theres its 11 unemployment. Not everyone who wants to work can get to work. So its not that theyre staying home because theyre lazy. I mean, thats a very harsh view of american workers. Theyre staying home because they dont have a job. Were with the 600. Heres the thing. When they come to the table and are like, 600 . How could it be . Theyre just demonstrating their condescension to americas working families. There are all kinds of reasons that weigh in on this pandemic. People have to stay home if their children are not able to go to school or if they dont have child care. There are a number of reasons. But none of them is i want to stay home because i make more money this way than other. Maybe some of these employers could pay their workers more, but not to go to that place just because i wouldnt paint all of them with that brush, we shouldnt be warring about how much its going to cost. I said to the secretary, the plural of anecdote is not data. You have some examples. Write them down, and lets add it up. And ill show you my list of money that has been squandered, given to businesses who should not have gotten ppp and the rest. Why are we Holding Americas working families who are struggling, who have children to care for, elders to care for, and the rest, and make it as if theyre, my goodness, theyre not worthy of this. And i want to say to the American People, just take pride in who you are. And dont let them think that youre not worth what were talking about here. Why dismantle a program that almost all economists say is working, and put something new in its place that will take months to go into effect . Three months at least in california, which has a relatively efficient system. Some places say they dont even know how they would get it to work. Its either this or the greater or lesser of 70 of that. Come on. Come on. By the way, i dont even know if the 400 has the support of most republican senators. They didnt even have the vote. They didnt even have the vote for 200. So its a game. The white house says that the president is going to sign an executive order today requiring the u. S. Government to only purchase essential medicines and medical supplies from u. S. Companies. Do you have any reaction to that . I dont even know what youre talking about i mean, i know he has all these schemes that he wants to make it look like hes trying to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The way to do that is to negotiate for lower prices. And that is in the hr3 that we had passed and then our aca enhancement. So i think that i dont know what the president i cant speak to it. In general drug prices or just needed drugs for covid . Essential drugs and also medical supplies. In other words, if we dont have an adequate supply right now, i mean, were all for buy america, and he should have been doing that by invoking the dpa four months ago and he wouldnt have to do this. When i asked him on i think it was march 6th. But to say if theres an essential, essential supply thats going to keep americans alive and not get sick, and were not going to buy it because its overseas and we dont have it made in america, that is harsh, callous, and wrong, and ill bet hell have to back off it. The president and the administration have talked of possibly doing an executive action if theres not a deal in the next few days. And what is he going to act upon . Thats what im asking about. I have been told, and this is what they did with the border wall. Move money around, money that was allocated, something from the Disaster Relief bill. What would you think if they started to try to move sums of money around without the blessing of the congress . I dont think they know what theyre talking about. The one thing that the president can do is to extend the moratorium. And that would be a good thing, if theres money to go with it. And thats what we keep telling them. A moratorium as the leader fully explained, whats the use of a moratorium if youre going to have eight months of rent to pay at the end of the moratorium, a, and b, what does that mean to the landlord . No money. No money. Mr. Schumer grew up in a triplex, did you . Triple decker. You want to tell your story. Okay. We tell each other a lot of stories. You should have heard us singing before. We did. You did . We could hear something. Oh, golly. It was a song, because she was putting on lipstick. And it was a song, i want to ask how many of you have ever heard of the song. They havent heard. Lipstick on your collar. Anyone hear of it . Raise your hands. Now, were trying to figure out who sang it. Did you figure it out . Connie francis. Connie francis. Where the boys are. That was one of her movies, her songs. Now were finished with our trivia. You grew up in a triplex. In my neighborhood where i grew up, there were lots of what they call triple deckers. The landlord, it was a working family who lived on the top floor. They owned the building and then there was a family on the second floor and the first floor that rented. Well, if they cant pay the rent, if they have a moratorium on rent, this is not a big fancy landlord. This is a working person. Hes not getting or shes not getting money to pay the mortgage, the electricity, the property taxes, et cetera. If you dont push money into the system, it doesnt work. But they tie themselves in a knot to act like they want to try to do something without spending any money. And its impossible when you have such a huge recession and such a huge pandemic. In that vein, were talking about when i was hungry, you fed me. When i was needed shelter, you sheltered me. When i was homeless, you sheltered me. Were talking about the gospel of matthew. Were talking about fundamental values in our country. They dont want to spend the money to feed adequate amounts of money to feed, to alleviate Food Insecurity in our country, they dont want to give any money to help with possible evictions, which people are very, very afraid of. And thats instead, what do they want to do . Well, i always point out their commitment to the highend, their trickledown crowd. Paid nearly 3 trillion added to the National Debt to give a tax cut to those 83 of the benefits going to the top 1 , heaping mountains of debt onto our children, and instead of making investments that will stimulate the economy, instead of let me just say it this way. We have to think big. You ask the chairman of the fed, you ask some of the economists, you ask some of the previous leaders in the republican party, and the government of our country. Think big. Because this is a big challenge. And it will only get worse if we do not make the necessary investments. Pay now or pay later. Much more later. Move money around without congressional approval . Were talking about a major investment. We need to come to an agreement that meets the needs of the American People. Much better way. Thank you. Are you trillions of dollars apart . Also, understanding that you want longer term benefits for more people, however, unemployed americans have been without their 600 check for a week. They will go without it again next week. Can you talk to them and schools are getting ready to reopen. Do you think theres a possibility for any deal in the next two days to help them plan for the money they would beat getting . We would like to do that. There are many needs, so we should choose School Children and leave out starving families who cant feed their kids. We should choose renters and not choose Small Businesses that need help . Theres a broad scope of problems, and the worry we have is theyll want to do a little bandaid, as i said, vote for one thing, skip out of town, and leave the rest behind. And let me just make this point, because you seem to be, with all due respect, using their talking points. The fact is when they showed up last week, it was already too late to save the 600. Understand that. It was already too late to save the 600. And they went to the floor of the senate and put 200 on the floor, which they dont even have the 51 votes on their own side, much less the 60 votes that they would need. So it would be over by now, in a couple days, anyway. The point is that you must be comprehensive. You have to think big. And we cannot let them say, well, if you feed the kids, then you cant pay the rent. Were just not going to do that. But understand, this is the difference between the democrats and the republicans. Theyre a trickledown crowd. If it trickles down and theres some benefit, that would be good. If it doesnt, so be it. Thats the free market. Were a bubbleup crowd. Were investing in americas working families. When we go to that table for this conference this afternoon, every time we go to the table, its as if were pulling up a chair to americas kitchen tables where people are trying to figure out how they pay the rent, how they can buy food, and you see food costs are rising, and thats even more expensive for americas working families. What are they going to do if the children cant go to school or if they can, will they be safe . Can we have child care adequately funded so that parents are earning, children learning. One thing i want to add to that. Dont forget, we wanted them to start working on this months ago, long before the deadlines expired. They waited until the very moment and they dont have any votes, hardly any, for 600. So that answers your question. Are you ruling out a shortterm extension if the talks collapse . Were not having a shortterm extension. Thank you. Today at 1 15 p. M. Eastern, President Trump will be in cleveland, ohio, giving remarks on the economy. You can watch live coverage of this event on cspan3. And now a hearing on the role of the Strategic National stockpile during a pandemic. Including the importance of a nationwide supply chain and how to best prepare for future pandemics and biological events. From the Senate Homeland security and Governmental Affairs committee, this is just under two hours. I want to welcome and thank all the witnesses for their participation, and for their thoughtful testimony. Ill ask unanimous consent to enter their full testimony into the record, as well as the doctor has requested that the full ending of the crisis and complacency, their report be added into the congressional record, asual well as my openi statements. Again, i want to thank everybody for participating. Covid19 continues to inflict a terrible human and economic toll on the united states. Just over five months, the u. S. Has experienced over we120,000 deaths and 2 million infections and tens of millions have lost their jobs. As Congress Reviews their response to covid19, its important to take the