Transcripts For MSNBCW MTP Daily 20200421

Mumbled something through the mask. I couldnt understand what he was saying. So i took off the mask and he said, i do not want to die alone. Frankly, were tired and there is nobody to be able to do our jobs. If you want to live, stay home. My god. Dont open up this country. It needs to be closed until at least june. Please. Those are just some of the voices from medical workers on the front lines thanks to the video diaries in the epicenter of the citys battle with coronavirus. Welcome to tuesday. Its meet the press daily. Good evening. Im continuing the special coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Were roughly 30 minutes away from the scheduled start of todays White House Task force briefing following the president s meeting with new york governor andrew cuomo. While were waiting to see if cuomo decides to speak at the white house itself, we do know he just finish that had meeting and called in to msnbc to give his headlines from the meeting. He told my colleague Nicole Wallace that it was productive. He said the president was receptive to his concerns that the federal government needs to give more help with funding and testing. He said the president did not test for new york reopen on any kind of time line. As President Trump publicly pushes other states to ease restrictions, there are kernels by some that some of these governors may move too quickly. Georgia is a prime example. Georgia is allowing gyms, barber shops, tattoo parlors and Bowling Alleys reopening. Subject to certain social distancing restrictions, it is under clear what that means in practice. Because if youre like us, youve gone through many of those businesses we just tallied there. Depend on people being in very close contact with one another. Thats hard to do tattoo in a social distancing area. The governors actions would appear to be in defiance of the white houses own guidelines which recommend states have more robust testing and Contact Tracing programs set up before they begin the easing of some of these restrictions. In georgias case, less than 1 has been tested for the virus. Theyre still reporting hundreds of new confirmed cases every day as you can see on the screen. And the number of confirmed deaths per day has been jumping around. But yesterday was one of their deadlier days. They dont really have that 14day period of decline. Some mayors say in georgia, they were blind sided by the move. Well speak with the Atlanta Mayor in a moment. In addition to georgia, South Carolina and tennessee are also allowing some number of businesses and retail shops to reopen. Theyre all, yes, in the south in red states which speaks to an uncomfortable political divide in this country on the virus right now. A clear majority and an overwhelming percentage of democrats more worried that the dangers of reopening too quickly while republicans are more worried about restrictions being kept in place too long. With roughly 800,000 confirmed cases and more than 43,000 deaths nationwide, we have an emerging debate about Public Health being waged along partisan lines. There are no easy ways for leaders in this country to balance Public Health with the economic costs. With peoples lives and livelihoods both hanging in the balance. But complicated matters further, trump up for reelection. To give you a sense of where his head was at, last night he used the virus as reason to tweet that hes suspending all immigration. Joining me from the white house as we await the White House Task force briefing, with us, for a scientific perspective, a virologist. Let me start with the president meeting today with Governor Cuomo. You know, the face to face do we think this will persuade the president to take over the Testing Program in this country . You know, chuck, it is hard to tell. I suspect well get more clarity in about a halfhours time when this Task Force Briefing kicks off. I was particularly struck by what Governor Cuomo told our colleague in the last hour. He said it was his idea to come down here to washington to have this face to face meeting. Governor cuomo is among the most sophisticated communicators. Clearly believed there was something he could convey in person that he couldnt on the phone or Via Video Conference xxt it was this notion that the federal government needs to step up and help alleviate the supply chain issue connected to the overall testing quagmire. Governor cuomo has articulated the underlying problem here so well. He said yes, President Trump is right when he says states are responsible for the testing. Governor cuomo said the states regulate the labs but the labs buy critical components they need to conduct tests from national manufacturers. And the resources are finite. Thats where the federal government can come in to help. It shouldnt be that governor larry hogan, governor of maryland, is having to do it directly with stouk acquire 500,000 test kitts. But you heard in the interview in the last hour, he believes, hopes, anyway, that President Trump heard him out. The question is, will the federal government disrupt the supply chain, to use the phrase they used a couple months ago. And they said they didnt want to do that when it came to alleviating the issue getting supplies and ppe out to hospitals. There is something to Governor Cuomos thought process. Going to trump, going to his office, he likes that. He likes the idea of paying him some respect. One other thing before i move to the science, how quickly, is there anything serious to this immigration tweet or was it something for the base to consume. Senior Administration Officials tell us this notion of suspending immigration had been under consideration for a while. But that the president s late night tweet last night, im told, caught immigration officials off guard. That you had a white house official scrambling now to finalize this executive order. To have it go under legal review. That it might not suspend immigration policy, there could be carveouts for workers deemed essential, that it doesnt change anything because immigration has already decreased dramatically as a result of the pandemic. Broad travel restrictions imposed across the board. Visas have been suspended so the president is formalizing something that in essence could be a quick political play to the energize his base, to focus immigration which as you know his Signature Campaign issue. On. All right. Let me move over and get the analysis on the science of what georgia is doing in particular. The reason i want to focus there. It is pretty clear the guidelines that the white house set out last tweak move from phase one to phase ii to phase iii, georgia has not met those guidelines and theyre going with this anyway. I know where you are about whether this is the right decision. How do you tell workers . I would say it is a case by case issue. Every Grocery Store needs to examine how they do their business. What is their flow of traffic . Each lane being a traffic lane one way and going the other way, that way. That way you can maintain social distancing and keep your business open as well as limiting the number of people they have in the business at a time. The same will be true for barber shops. You listed barber shops as one of the businesses opening friday. That will have to be one of those businesses where both the client and the barber themselves are wearing ppe. So that will be a different process than it normally has been. And i imagine some things will be off the menu for a while like straight razor shaves and things like that. These businesses will have to do a case by case review. I imagine, i hope that at least some of the resources will come online for each business. How they should best go about doing their business safely but it will be a case by case basis and each business will be different. This is a lot faster. Even with the federal guidelines opening, with the different 14day phases. That was considered aggressive. This would in my opinion beheimer aggressive. What georgia is trying to do. So well see the results of that in approximately two weeks of what that will do. Speaking of georgia, the cdc is in atlanta. And Robert Redfield said the following today. Ill read this to you and give you more context. There is a possibility the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through. When ive said this to others, dr. Redfield says, they put their head back. They dont understand what i mean. What hes saying here is the idea that well have to deal with two respiratory viruses at the same time. The regular flu and this. And that this could make the winter much worse. Absolutely. In some ways we like to reference the flu when we talk about this, and then we criticize President Trump when he does so. When you look back at the 1918 influenza and the pandemic in 1918, there was the first wave of the pandemic which happened in the spring time just like were having now with covid19. Kind of mild, not that many people died. A number of people died one that many. It went away during the summer but then came back and ravaged the fall. Up to 50 Million People died with that pandemic in a little over a year. So there is the possibility that could happen with covid19. And they can always be worse in that second wave. Plus, what you just said. Combining with it other normal seasonal viruses. If we happen to have a particularly bad flu fall, or flu season this next fall or regular cold season this next fall, that could be particularly bad when you combine it with covid19. One other point, i said it will be making a flu shot a patriotic duty on that front. Thank you both for getting us started with the news and facts of the day. Joining me now, the mayor of the largest city impacted by the virus. The mayor of atlanta. Madam mayor, thank you for joining me. The thing that caught me off guard when i read about this yesterday, the governor made this announcement before calling you and letting you know about it. Because in here, this would supersede any order of yours for the city. Have you and the governor spoken since . If so, do you have any sort of working relationship on how to do this Going Forward . So the governor and i worked together regularly. We speak regularly. Thats why this was even more surprising that we didnt receive a call. Not just from the governor. He is the governor so certainly, hes very busy. But perhaps even from a member of his staff to let us know that this was coming and give us an opportunity to ask questions and discuss what it means for our communities. And not just as the mayor of atlanta but also, the mayor of augusta, georgia. The mayor of savannah, georgia. Al banny, georgia, our biggest hot spot in the state also didnt hear from anyone in the governors team. So it has left me with more questions than anything. I dont understand the rationale and the science and data that the governor used to make such a big decision. Is there any reason he wants this to be equal across the state . Did he explain why he doesnt want to give regional or local leaders like yourself the power to do something stricter if necessary . Reporter so the governor quite often references local control which has been very help envelop ma , helpful in many ways. We didnt have statewide guidelines and it was very frustrating because each city was making its own decision. As mayor of atlanta, we were very aggressive in shutting down the city. And then ultimately, other metro cities followed us. So what that has meant is that we have more than half the population in the Metro Atlanta area but less than half of the infections in the state. What also happen, ill give maconbibb count as an example. One of the hot spots in the state. They were not aggressive in shutting things down and we now see whats happening on the back end. To the extent that there has been any relief in our state, it is because of the decisions we made to close our city and the surrounding cities. So i am extremely concerned that with some of the highest asthma rates in the country right here in atlanta, that if this comes back around, it will come back with a vengeance. What do you expect are atlanta residents to do on friday . What i would say to atlanta residents, as mayor, my power does not super seed that as governor but i have the power of my voice. I am using my voice to encourage people. Follow data. Look at the science and the Health Care Professionals and use your common sense. This virus has not gone away. We have nearly 20,000 infections in our state. Nearly 800 people have died. Our numbers are not going down. And simply because we have hospital beds available doesnt mean that we should work to fill them up. I am asking people to please stay home. Avail yourself of the services that we have through the city. Whether it is through our food program, our Small Business loan program, we need to as government leaders step up and give people the incentive to stay home. There is nothing essential with going to a Bowling Alley in the middle of a pandemic. Im curious. You hear in washington, d. C. Theyve tried to coordinate particularly because of so many shared borders. Im curious with you and the leadership of surrounding counties. Gwinnett, cobb. How many have you been acting together and how much has there been unilateral Decision Making just in the atlanta region . Well, one of the things did i. Ive been listening very closely to information that i received from dr. Del rio, one of the leading Infectious Disease experts. I called for for at least a phone call to hear what i was hearing. And i believe that when other leaders got that information. That they would make decisions in the best interests of their communities and thats what they did. They heard from dr. Del rio and we began to see other municipalities, some led by republican leaders, so this is not a partisan issue. They made decisions on close their municipalities down. It is extremely concerning that we dont have input in our local communities. Im hearing from restaurants that they will not open. They will not put their people at risk. But you have people who are torn. When you fill out an unemployment application, the question is asked, have you refused to to go work . So people are concerned that they wont have any financial support. But also, that they are putting their health at risk. Have you spoken with the governor today . I have not spoken with the governor today. And i can say, ive not reached out to the governor today. I will do that over the next day or so. But i have not spoken with him. Thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective on whats going on. Stay safe and stay healthy. Good luck out there. Thank you. We are awaiting the start of the White House Coronavirus Task Force Briefing. Once it begins, well of course bring it to you live. Were also keeping our ear on senator Mitch Mcconnell speaking now. Were expecting to hear from House Speaker pelosi, democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a few moments as well. Find out whats in this deal. They struck a deal. The congressmen did exactly what we expected them to do. Eventually agree on another funding package for this Coronavirus Relief bill but it is sort of an adenied up. And will it last more than two days . Well find out. When taking a break from everyday life is critical to everyones health, there is one thing we can all do together complete the 2020 census. Your responses are critical to plan for the next 10 years of health care, infrastructure, and education. Lets make a difference, together, by taking a few minutes to go online to 2020census. Gov. Its for the wellbeing of your community and will help shape americas future. Wont be a new thing. And it wont be their First Experience with social distancing. Overcoming challenges is what defines the military community. Usaa has been standing with them, for nearly a hundred years. And well be here to serve for a hundred more. Welcome back. A deal to provide Small Businesses with more billions of dollars in loans could be on President Trumps desk by the ends of the week possibly sooner. Minutes ago the senate pass ad short term bill by unanimous consent. They reached the deal this afternoon. Most of the nearly half trilliondollar measure would essentially replenish the Small Business Paycheck Program which randal out last week. It would also go toward hospitals and extended testing. None right now would go toward state and local governments. Republicans need to work with us to give their states the help they need. They should be eager to do it. Secretary mnuchin committed and the president tweeted today that they will support state and local funding in the next round of legislation. We should have passed support for state and local governments, democrats had see to it that it gets done in the next package. Steny hoyer said to return to the house thursday morning. The vote in the house will get interesting once they pass this bill, then they vote on creating a remote ability to vote remotely. With me now, the Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence committee which made a little news today. I want to focus on this deal here. I have to say, watching this for the last week, we knew we were going to get here. It seemed like it was awfully stupidly pain tofl watch politically as we got here. I think we all realized we wanted to fill the ppe program west knew there were problems with the program. There were a number of business thats had shown no Economic Loss that were getting these grants. These loan grants. A number of Small Businesses, something that would help the barber shops and the beauty salons. If they didnt have great banking relationships, they werent getting those funds. I think the program has been improved. Frankly, republicans agree. We thought the immediacy of the hospitals in states needed to be included as well. We got hospital money and the health care money. We didnt get state and local governments and i dont really get that. There are plenty of states that have republican governors and republican mayor whos are also struggling with these same exact issues. I want to, the parameters on loaning this money, i know set aside a chunk of change just for actual true Small Businesses. But apparently nothing has been changed in how the big banks handle it Going Forward. So other than their word and you sending a strongly worded letter that they ought to do better, there doesnt seem to be anything that restrains them from just handing their best clients money. Well, my hope is that those a he are at the front of the line were able to get those funds and candidly, i would have liked to have seen more changes but i think secretary noox effectively said, if we open the whole program, you would have been working. Longer than it was. I think there will be a greater review at the sba level. Ive been pointing out this problem from day one. I think the intent is good. There is a challenge of lets get the money out versus some level of oversight. Remember, 1. 7 million of these loans have come out of the first 350 billion. Thats good news. In the universe there are more than 11 billion business under five community is that doesnt count ought nonprofits and religious portions could also apply for these funds. At the end of the day, there is agreement that this isnt enough. You may have replenished this for all of 48 hours. I say this with respect, has not fully grasped the check damage unfolding before our eyes . Well, lets step back. The cares package was 2. 2 trillion. In reality it was more like 6. 2 trillion. The Federal Reserve created a Lending Facility that was part of an outgrowth of the cares package. Thats seven times greater than tarp. What weve done with that, it is not a stimulus. It is trying to keep the economy on life support. Did we all underestimate . Absolutely. Were talking about close to another 500 billion. In normal times that would be a record amount as well and were talking about a stopgap effort. There is some interest from the left and the right. Particularly as we move into this next bill, the effort of this week, maybe we ought to step back and look at the model in europe where theyve not had the 22 million type of unemployment numbers and do direct support to pay rolls and cut out some of the, cut out the middle men in a lot of these initiatives. What is interesting, i laid out a plan with actually Bernie Sanders last week. You have josh holley on the right laying out. I was just going to bring him up. Yeah. You have josh. Thats interesting. Us and its Bernie Sanders. Thats a trio. No thats a legitimate representing all parts of the United States senate. Let me ask but our oil sector. Unlike any challenge ever. How are you going to sell bailing out Energy Companies . I feel there is something the government has to do. That will be politically very, very charged. Well, what this crisis play present just as we ignored concerns about pandemics, both parties way too long, and now were paying the price for this. I think there may be a moment in time when americans realize, we cant continue to ignore the threats around climate change. The Scientific Evidence in terms of the ultimate destruction is as great, if not greater than around pandemics and maybe we take this moment of enormous disruption and make the kind of commitment toward a Clean Energy Future that i think is long overdue. You and i have spent the majority of years talking about one topic. The russian interference in the 2016 election. Your final report was released today. Five different reports that you did. This was one on specific will you did the Intelligence Community get it right about russias intent with our elections . And youve determined you did. If you were to tell the American People, the whole point is to understand what the hell happened in 2016. If you were to the tell American People theres one of your reports they really should read from soup to nuts, which one is it . I have to correct you. This is only our fourth report. Our fifth one is coming. That will be the one you want to spend a lot of interest in. I think what women, and we say this in a bipartisan way. The Intelligence Committee represents again from the left to the right. That we confirm what the the exerts there the Intelligence Committee, the csa, the director of flnational intelligence, rusa massively intervened tlerks do it help trump and hurt clinton and they will be back this 2020. Now we have the challenges with our focus on other issues. Appropriate when i the coronavirus. The integrity of our system, we still need to be on guard. And russia and other entities will try to intervene because it is clean and effective. I misspoke. I thought this was your fifth one. I guess, its like the Michael Jordan documentary. One more to come. Good. I need something new to read. Were all running out of stuff to read and consume here so i appreciate it. Senator mark warner, i home youre staying safe and healthy. Thank you for coming on and sharing your views. Thank you. Take care. Up ahead, the growing mystery surrounding the health of kim jongun. Whats the condition of the north korean dictator . The latest from the pentagon on that plus the latest on the coronavirus outbreak aboard the uss theodore roosevelt. During trying times. Today, being on your side means staying home. Nationwide office of customer advocacy. But we can still support you and the heroes who are with you. Were giving refunds on Auto Insurance premiums, assisting customers with financial hardships, and our foundation is contributing millions of dollars to charities helping with covid19 relief. Keeping our promise to be on your side. 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Tell your doctor about any infections and if you are or may become pregnant while taking rinvoq. Ready to take on ra . Talk to your rheumatologist about rinvoq relief. Rinvoq. Make it your mission. Welcome back. In the midst of this Global Pandemic there is something of an International Mystery going on and it will remain a mystery about kim jongun for a while because well take to you Speaker Pelosi who is doing a quick press briefing on the deal. We thought we would dip in and take a listen. Leader mcconnell is bringing this bill to the floor. He wanted our support for it. We had to have our consultation about what we would propose. The next day, the 8th of april, working together, Congressional Democrats came together described by the distinguished leader already on how we address the underbanked, those rural nativeamerican veterans, women. Small businesses being considered the underbanked. How they could be, it was a principle for us that we would not spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to harden the disparity to capital that exists in our economy. And this was a way to open that door. And then as the leader said, funding for hospitals and testing that he described. I said that his characterization of all of that. So here we are today, two weeks from that tuesday of the request. When the republicans and the administration replied that there was no way they would join us, that they had the 250. Thats the way it was going to be. There would be nothing else. They took defeat on the floor because the Congressional Democrats stuck together. Then there were objections and then proposing our proposal. It is almost exactly what they passed today. So in terms of holding up the works, they held up the works for a package that is more effective as we go forward. They like the say, we held up no. We didnt hold up. They held up. Now we have prevailed. This is a real victory for smaller businesses, as the leader has said, who really didnt have the banking relationships. They dont need them under this legislation as it is passed. The one thing we have to insist upon in the next package is how we support our heroes under the framework of state and local government, we have health care workers, transit workers, police, fire, ems, all kinds of Public Employees who risk their lives to save lives and now lose their jobs. And this is most unfortune and it cannot stand. They have huge loss of revenue because of what is happening to the economy. They have huge loss of revenue because of what is happening in their Public Hospitals in terms of other procedures and they have enormous coronavirus cost. And we want the legislation that we pass in the next bill to reflect the need for them, to have that recognized both with corona, covid 3 cares 1 bill, and cares 4. Corona 4. Are we going to call them covid 4 . Is that the thing . Okay. Covid 4. Everybody knows what that is. Thats what weve been working. On some of which, we havent been able to get the other bills. Under the framework of our heroes, our health care workers, our police and fire, et cetera, our teachers who teach our children. The list goes on of our Public Employees lou are so essential to the success of our society, under that, we want to be sure that there is safety in the workplace. That people are not lady of, theyre not laid off. That they are healthy. That we have the ppe to protect them as they do their jobs. That we do so in a way that is value spaced as we go forward. We have legislation, for example, the osha legislation which they have rejected before. The snap to feed American People which they have rejected before. That we would hope to incorporate this. This is about the lives and the livelihood of the American People. So from the chronology of it all. Two weeks ago they asked for a quarter of a trillion dollars with nothing that has been put forth to improve the situation. On thursday of that week, they were rejected. Them they would bring it up the following monday, then the following thursday and then the days cynic this past thursday, they have seen the light. We have a great victory for the American People. But we certainly need to do more. Our first bill on this, ill just close with this. Our first bill, three bills we passed in march. All bipartisan. This bill is bipartisan. The next bill will be bipartisan. That is important for us to work together. But we have to, we have to insist on the truth. On march 4th, we passed a bill we had worked in february. March 4th, we passed it in the house. Testing, testing, testing. The recognition that that was the key to everything. So as we close off with this bill, as the leader said, testing, 25 billion in there for testing. For hot spots and for others, for initiative thats will enable us to test, to recognize we must fiend out the contacts, those who tested positive have engaged with, and we have to have isolation, quarantine. Testing, contacts, and isolation. That is why were going to open up our great economy, everybody is restless, cabin fever has set in in many ways. Im so proud of the American People theyre so careful about their health, of their loved ones and their families. Overwhelmingly, they have said they dont think we should open up until were ready from the standpoint of the health and well being of the American People. And again, we want to facilitate that with testing, testing, testing, Contact Tracing, isolation, treatment, prevention, first and foremost. Im sure the leader would be happy to take your questions. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead. Yes, maam. He said just before you came to the podium, he would require the full senate to come back before considering legislation. Any reaction to that . I think, look. We have to put the American People first. Thats for sure. We have to listen to the medical experts. We set an example. So if we were to come back prematurely and that were to set a bad exam for people, thats a bad thing. I would like to be guided by the medical experts. I would rather be here in person voting than doing it in an isolated way. But there is a balancing test. We have to be careful and listen to the experts. Thank you. To make sure that Small Businesses rather than Large Businesses get Small Business loans. He said that was a good question for the administration. It is a good question for senator mcconnell. He resisted the changes. Weve taken a jeenlt step forward. Have we done everything for Small Businesses, rural businesses, minority businesses . No we taken a huge step forward . Today theyll be in. Better shape than before the bill passed. Absolute will he. And leader mcconnell didnt propose a thing. He wanted to propose 250 for the ppe the Grant Program better serve Small Businesses and they had no increases for those. We got significant increases for those. Im very proud of the work of two of our chairman. Maxine waters and the chair of the Small Business committee. Chairs of important committees who proposed working with their counter parts in the senate that were mentioned by the leader. This legislation that would benefit these underbanked smaller businesses. So there is a setaside for this particular purpose. It would not have been there without the democratic proposal. Without our sticking by it on the floor of the senate. But this is designed on how to interrogatory vitality of our economy. It is about Small Business. We plant a flag with Small Business. The entrepreneurship. Youve heard me say again and again, nothing more optimist than starting a smaulg business except getting married. The fact is there are many Small Businesses that do not have the same kind of relationships with bank thats make them to a first come first serve basis be able to benefit. This is such a drastic change. As the leader said, will make a difference for the future as we deal with it. Will you allow proxy voting for possibly the First Time Ever on thursday . We have to pass a rule the enable proxy voting. So the ppe will be on the basis of present and voting. Then well go from there. It would be strictly related to the coronavirus. How we have a discussion further is when were more fully present to do so. And to your question about coming back, its not just about us. It is about the staff before the the press. Its about the security. It is about those who run the building thats we have to look out for their well being because of their, we care about them but bls the people they go home to. Their children and families as well. That was nice little timing will. We heard Speaker Pelosi give a more specific answer about profly voting. It would only believe coronavirusrelated bills. Heres the president. We continue to be with those who lost a friend or cherished Family Member from the virus. Were making tremendous strides against this invisible enemy thanks to our Aggressive Campaign against the virus and the extraordinary talent of our medical people. Our mortality rate is one of the lowest of any country in the world. And thats due to a lot of things. But our medical professionals have been incredible. Sense we announced our guidelines on opening up america as we call it, opening up america and we add the word again. I think we can add the word probably again. Thats the what it is. 20 states representing 40 of the u. S. Population have announced theyre making plans and preparations to safely restart their economies in the very near future. So thats about 40 of our country, 20 states. Three announced today, as you know. Theyre going to be doing it with tremendous passion. The country wants to get back to work. A short time tag Senate Passed the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement act with additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, hospitals, and testing. A lot of money for it. Especially for our workers, and our Small Businesses. My administration has worked aggressively with do know negotiate this critical 482 billion funding package. We reached a deal that includes 382 billion in crucial Small Business support to keep workers on the pay roll. 75 billion to aid hospitals which really need the aid. And very badly. Very proud of that. And 25 billion to support coronavirus testing efforts i urge the house to pass the bill and theyll be voting on it i imagine very soon. Hes a very sbibusy man, secret mnuchin. Well talk about that now and take a couple questions only and then he can go and start the phase 4 as the ink is drying. Probably theyll be voting tomorrow in the house. But shortly, shortly, i think we have tremendous support. Thank you for all your work with us to get this passed. I would like the thank meche mcconnell and Chuck Schumer and the entire schumer and the entire senate for passing this. Id also like to thank Kevin Mccarthy and nancy pelosi who have been working with us around the clock as well, and our chief of staff, mark meadow, who is also very instrumental in this. Let me just comment. Weve had tremendous support for the ppe. That gives us another 310 billion for the ppe. We look forward to the house passing this tomorrow and being up and running quickly after that. This also gives us 50 billion for disaster loans, loans that will allow the sba to make 300 billion of disaster loans all for Small Businesses. Also allows us, as the president said, more money to hospitals and unprecedented amount of money for testing. And, again, i think we understand hospitals not only the hospitals that have been impacted by coronavirus, but more importantly many hospitals that have been shut down in making sure that the doctors and nurses get money. Now let me make one more comment on the program. We have over a Million Companies that have received this with less than 10 workers. So there is very broad participation in really Small Business. I will comment there have been some big businesses that have taken these loans. I was pleased to see returned to the money. Well be putting out faqs. There is a certification that people are making, and i ask people just make sure the intent of this was for business that needed the money. Well put out an faq. But the intent of this money was not for big Public Companies that have access to capital. So mr. Secretary, are you going to request that those other companies obviously shake shack was not a loan in being a big company. Im going request. Youre going to ask them to return that money . Harvard is going to pay back the money. They shouldnt be taking it. Harvard is going to. You have a number of im not going mention any other names. When i saw harvard, they have one of the largest endowments anywhere in the country, maybe the world, i guess. And theyre going to pay back that money. I just want to clarify. Certain people on the ppe may have not been clear in understanding the certification. So we will give people the benefit of the doubt. Were going to put an faq out, explain the certification. If you pay back the loan right away, you wont have liability to the sba and to the treasury. But there are severe consequences for people who dont attest properly to this certification. Again, we want to make sure that the money is available to Small Businesses that need it. People who have invested their entire life savings. We appreciate whats going on and theyre hiring people back. How are you going to assure those businesses, small restaurants, cafes, bars, who did not get the money last time around are going to get it this time . Well, as i said. There are a million of the companies that did get it. Were extremely pleased. The small banks did get. 60 by 20 billion and less. And the big banks also. We want everybody to participate. There is now a lot of money back in the program, and we look forward to all these Small Businesses getting access to funds. Brett, its great to see you here. Do you estimate how long this is going to take, that other money went quickly. Do you assume this is going to go quickly as well. Well, let me just say were pleased with the success of this program and how quickly this got up operationally. Weve put out more money in these sba loans than in the last ten years of sba. So i want to thank all the banks that have worked really hard. We knew that when we passed this originally, if there was full takeout, we wouldnt have enough money. Thats why weve worked with congress for more money. And weve already impacted about 30 million workers. There will be a lot more. So we look forward to having a big impact on the economy. Yesterday the president said he would look into an issue of criminal convictions, gaining access to some of these programs. I was wondering if you had an update on that. We worked with the white house on this. There were actually much more on rouse restrictions in the sba program. There are people who had misdemeanors that werent allowed to access the program. It was much longer than five years, and we very much because of the criminal reform legislation that was passed and the work thats been done in the white house by jared and others, we specifically designed the program in the five years was significantly shorter than what had been done before. We had already taken that into account. For now were not going do that. I just want to emphasize, we did take this into account. There are a lot of people that wouldnt have access previously, and we changed those regulations. A president talked about a phase four. I know we all understand the circumstances and why businesses need this. How many more phases can we afford to have or can businesses expect to have . Do you see a phase five, a phase six, a phase seven . Whats your thinking on this . First of all, i very much appreciate the president s support for phase four. He put out a tweet. As the president said, we would look forward to phase four. It would be infrastructure. The president has been talking about infrastructure since the campaign. Roads, bridges, broad bands, especially broad band now to Rural America is very important. Weve talked about incentives for restaurants, sports, entertainment, because these businesses have been impacted. The president has talked multiple times about a payroll tax cut. And were also talking about in the case of states, the states weve heard from the governors and the fiscal issues of the state. I think phase four will most likely be what wed need. I think based on what were seeing and the reopening of the economy and the amount of money were putting in and working with the Federal Reserve on 133, i think youre going to see a lot of liquidity, and look forward to business rebounding, especially later this summer. Just real quick to followup and the ppe program, is this the last tranche of money you think youre going to need for Small Businesses . We would expect this as the last tranche, but we can always reconsider that. This is a lot of money going out. Lets be clear. Its another 310 billion here and another 300 billion of loans. Thats over 600 billion putting into Small Businesses, which are the backbone of the economy. 50 of the private payroll. What do you think phase four will cost . And it will include all of those things. Its premature for us to talk what the cost. Well work with congress and consider it. Infrastructure would be a big investment. The taxpayer dollars that are going out the door, you come to a different way of spending for oversight. Independent oversight on and a half of the taxpayer . We have oversight. We supported it in the last legislation. We have a new inspector general. The president has already picked someone for that person. Well look forward to the person being confirmed. We have an Oversight Committee of congress that many of them have already been appointed. And let me say we put up last week for full transparency, we had no obligation to do this. We put up full transparency on the money that had been sent out across states showing all the big lenders, how it was distributed. No one lender did more than 4 . So, again, the president and i very much believe in full transparency. Were spending a lot of money, and we want to make sure its done effectively and fairly. Thank you. You started by thanking the leaders in the house and the senate. Can you tell us more about how easy or hard it was to deal with both sides. Well, weve been working around the clock. I think there has been very good bipartisan support to get this done. The congress is come together, understanding the importance of this. And weve been working around the clock for days. So this is important legislation. It was a lot. We spoke to a lot of people. Mark meadows has been fantastic, as i said. Its great to have him here in the white house. I couldnt have done this without him working on this with me, and the president and Vice President have been available to us around the clock. So this was a big team effort. Collaboration of the democrats. Absolutely. We couldnt have done this today without unanimous consent and the democrats being on board. And we look forward to this being passed on a bipartisan basis tomorrow. This is a real example of the country coming together to fight this virus. What is your best understanding of what Mitch Mcconnell wants from an infrastructure package . Again, i think were not at the point of designing that, like every other bill we will work with senators on both sides on a bipartisan basis. I can tell you, there is a lot of support, particularly for things like broad band and especially whats going on today. But the president has talked about i was on the campaign with the president. Weve been talking about bridges and tunnels and rebuilding this country for years. So the president wants to make a big investment in this. What will we see the 17 billion portion of c. A. R. E. S. Reserved for companies being critical for National Security, and also, will Oil Companies fit into that at all, part of the president s tweet . So were in the process of putting out guidance. That part was really designed for National Security, companies that are either major suppliers to the department of defense or companies that have top secret clearance. So that National Security provision was very clear when we did that. The president has asked me to work with the secretary of energy. Obviously the Energy Business is very important to us. This has National Security issues but different. And we look forward to both looking at what existing capabilities we have, and that may be something we need to go back to congress and get additional funding for. For the airline bill at all . A completely different situation. You with the airlines is we had a very, very good Airline Industry because of the virus, they basically shut down. We have a situation now the oil business, partially because of the virus, less demand, but partially because of too much supply. The president is determined. We want to maintain our energy independence, and the president has asked me to look at all of our options, a