mrs. lowey: madam speaker, the government's greatest to keep ility is americans safe. this emergency supplemental the coronavirus and takes critical steps to protect american people from this deadly and expanding outbreak. colleagues to vote for this >> the senate is likely to vote on the coronavirus funding to build tomorrow. packagebillion dollar supports the federal response, allows medicare providers to offer telehealth medical services to patients who are at their homes, includes money to help prevent the spread of the virus, and offers assistant to state and local agencies.

talked about the impact coronavirus is having on the economy and the federal response to the outbreak. sen. schumer: madam president, as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the united states continues to grow, congress is taking swift action this week to provide our health experts, hospital health care providers, and state and local governments the funding they need. a bipartisan negotiation between negotiators in the house and senate is very close to an emergency funding bill that would provide between $7 billion in a billion dollars to respond to the coronavirus. this is close to the amount i thought was appropriate when i requested it last week, $8.5 billion, and is more than four or five times what the administration requested. if we pushed them, they would have been totally inadequate to the crisis, as they have been in preparation and planning. the administration requested

$2.5 billion, which was half. only half of that was new funding. the rest came from pulling it out of other things like ebola which were very much needed as well. the bill be put together here in congress is far more appropriate and will address the country's short-term and medium-term needs. this is good news, and i would like to complement democrats and republicans, house and senate, for making efforts to come together, for being the adults in the room while president exaggerates,hly points fingers of blame, latches on to conspiracy theories, and most of all does not lead. this is an example where america needs leadership, and president trump's lack of leadership is glaringly apparent to americans. crucial legislation provides funding for very specific and timely needs. millionll be 350 dollars for hotspots, areas affected by the outbreak.

there will be 500 billion dollars to procure pharmaceuticals, masks, and other medical supplies to distribute to states, local governments, and hospitals. there will be 100 million dollars for community health centers and funding for training and beds we are replenishing the cdc's rapid response fund so it can respond quickly to local areas that experience in outbreak. in total, there's over $950 million in funding for state and local governments to undertake the many activities they need to respond to the spread of the virus. surveillance, laboratory testing, contact tracing to identify anyone who may have been affected by a person -- infected by a person known to have the virus, and more. this is only one piece of the bill. the rest will give desperately needed funds to cdc, hhs, usaid, and fda, and others to do

vaccine research and development in much more. the funding levels in this bill and their specific uses very much reflect the needs of the country as health care professionals are crossed america work to confront the spread of the virus -- across america work to confront the spread of the virus. i want to thank those of us on the front lines. while the trump administration's response has been slow and halting, congress has taken action. playingesident trump is fast and loose with facts and blaming everyone, congress is taking responsibility and acting like adults in the room. democrats would like to see the package passed through the senate by the end of the week, and we will work with the majority to make sure that happens. i urge all my colleagues in the interest of time, understanding the urgency of the matter, to help us in achieving this goal.

yesterday, vice president mike pence and his team from cdc and hhs met with the democratic caucus to answer questions about the administration's response to the coronavirus. we appreciated their willingness to come to our caucus, and they stayed, unlike some of the previous briefings, state and addressed a lot of our questions. the only problem, they did not have as many answers as we needed, answers the american people would expect at this stage of the epidemic. one of our top priorities at the moment is testing. we need to know who is infected in order to contain the spread of the virus and treat every american affected by the diseases. we ask the administration about the availability of testing kits, but they could not answer how soon labs and public health centers would receive the tests, and if they would have enough of the to do the testing we hired fast enough. -- required fast enough.

the best way to do it is let people go to their local doctor, and get an chc answer quickly. unfortunately, the vice president and his team had no answers to that. it's a real problem. one of our questions at the meeting yesterday should give and urgencyration to figure it out as soon as possible. i would like to plead with president trump to show leadership on the coronavirus. so far, the president's main concern is to tamp down concern about the virus. he gives broad assurances that everything is under control. when you show up at your doctor's office because you think you might have coronavirus and there was no test and he does not know what to do and says to not go to work, that's not everything under control, mr. president. if any member of his administration tells the president something optimistic, he repeats it and usually exaggerates it.

the disease will magically disappear when the weather gets warm. a vaccine will be ready soon. all misstatements from president trump. in a televised meeting, the president repeatedly failed to comprehend that a vaccine would take over a year to develop and test. this is the president during a crisis. he does not even understand the basic rudiments of what is going on. he suggested blithely that we could just use the influence of vaccine for the coronavirus, and he was quickly corrected by one of our health experts -- the influenza vaccine for the coronavirus, and he was weekly corrected by one of our health experts. there was a claim that pharmaceutical excerpts -- experts would speed up the vaccine. the country is being wreaked havoc by this virus and you look at it as a favor to you? it is not about you, mr.

president. it is about america, the crisis, and what our federal government is doing to help. the president stating such blatant mistruths was a shocking demonstration of just how little the president listens, how little the president learns, how little leadership he shows at a time when desperately need leadership. during the public health crisis of this magnitude, we need steady and confident readership from president trump -- leadership from president trump. so far it has been totally lacking. yesterday, the senate passed my resolution to honor the life of the chinese doctor who heroically tried to warn his fellow citizens and the world about the wuhan coronavirus late last year. victim tragically fell to that very disease, but not before he was victimized by his own