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Pelosi Remarks at Bill Enrollment Photo Opportunity for Bipartisan Coronavirus Emergency Response Package

March 5, 2020

Contact: Speaker's Press Office,
202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Members of Congress for a bill enrollment photo opportunity for the bipartisan Coronavirus emergency response package. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. I guess I'll sit down so I'm not blocking all of you.

Thank you for coming this afternoon. We – it was short notice because we had to wait until the Senate was finished with the bill and it was on parchment and the rest. I'm very honored to be signing this bill, which had such strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and in the Congress. We only, I think, had three votes against it in the House because of the hard work that went into it by our appropriators. And one of them is with us – Congresswoman DeLauro, Chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee. But I thank all of our Members for being with us.

Let me say that this is a bill that is addressing in a serious, government – all-government, coordinated way. It's about helping states with the costs – and local governments with the costs that they incur. It's about helping small businesses with – small business, opportunities for small businesses, loans for those affected by the virus. It's about serious research money for vaccine and other therapies to help prevent and cure the virus. It's about so many things. We are very pleased to have telemedicine piece in here that is about telehealth, so that we can reach people all over the country who may not have the mobility or the access otherwise. The list goes on and on about what is contained in the bill.

We are particularly proud also that it protects the tax payer from – limiting fair and reasonable price that they can be charged for vaccines or other therapies in the legislation. So, we are very proud of it. We went from the $2.3 [billion] that was originally requested to eight – $2.5 that was originally request to $8.5 [billion], so that we could cover all the areas that I just mentioned, in a government-wide, serious, science-based, evidence-based way.

And so I proudly sign this bill with compliments to all who made it possible, in the House and in the Senate. And again we think it brought people together in a bipartisan way, which is always part of our goal.

So now, I will have the honor of signing it – what happens is, I will sign it here and then it is signed in the Senate and then it goes to the President. It can be the law of the land in a matter of hours.

Q: Madam Speaker, could you tell us if there are testing kits available in the Capitol, in case any Members or staff have had any symptoms or felt unwell?

Speaker Pelosi. Excuse me. Let me just first introduce – she has to take it right away, because it has to be signed by four o'clock.

[Applause]

We have another appropriator, Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman DeLauro. Yes.

Congresswoman Lee. Thank you.

Speaker Pelosi. And she is on your subcommittee, as well –

Congresswoman DeLauro. That's right.

Speaker Pelosi. – Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.

Congressman Payne of New Jersey, Congresswoman – oh my gosh – Donna Shalala, she knows more about this than anyone –

[Laughter]

– former Secretary of HHS, thank you for being here. Congresswoman Doris Matsui of California, Congresswoman Garcia of Texas, I said Barbara Lee of California, of course Rosa and Congresswoman Wexton of Virginia and Congressman John Garamendi of California as well.

And it is – it took so much – we had so much input.

Congresswoman Wexton told us what was happening in her community. So much input so that we would be informed about the need, but also the ramifications of one choice or another.

So we're really very, very proud of, again, bipartisan across-the-board support to end this. We have no idea what the scope will be. We do recognize that this may be a first step because we have issues that relate to unemployment insurance for people who are put out of work, what it means to workers, their employers, schools and the rest.

What it means for food, what it means for – just so many things. Hopefully, we'll have a certain amount of redundancy built into this – that won't be necessary. But, we have to prevent, so therefore we will.

And it is – we hope we set the template for how we go forward, by being prepared. Similarly to what President Obama did with the Ebola virus. But, this will be about having the experts in place before even day one so that we can go forward.

So, thank you all for coming.

I don't think we have the capacity to be tested on the campus here.

Q: Is that worrisome for you at all?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, we will. It will be made available.

But just so you know, and I'm not taking questions, but just so you know because it applies to all of you as well, since – we want to keep this Capitol safe. We had a meeting yesterday for Leaders, House and Senate, Democrat and Republican, to talk about how we – the concern we have for the press, for the visitors, for our staff and for our Members and that we would have the continuity of operation of government should there be some assault on the health security here.

The – how it works though is by, within the same city in which you exist, so when that is ready – which it may be now, but wasn't yesterday or the day before – then, we'll be able to proceed here under the protocols established by the city.

Thank you all very much.

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