>> earlier today, house speaker nancy pelosi held a news conference on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. >> good morning.

weekly of the last this year, of this session of congress, and of this congress. alreadyxt week when we knew congress, i wish you a happy new year as we go forward. sadly, the congress received the news last evening of the passing fromnew member of congress louisiana, due to be sworn in this sunday. but taken by the coronavirus yesterday. he leaves his wife and two babies and we extend great sympathy to his family. so sad. , bloods old, coronavirus clot complication. it could happen to anyone. and it has happened. 350,000 americans.

many of those debts couldn't been avoided. as we go forward, we must make sure that we are scientific and determined to crush the virus. in the meantime, let us extend deepest sympathies to their to those little babies who have lost their daddy. so, here we are. as i mentioned, the last meeting of the year for us. in the last week ago, we sent to the president the last legislation. he received it on christmas eve, 3:30 in the afternoon. eveningign it on sunday

and we were very pleased with had very strong bipartisan votes in the house and in the senate. in the course of that week, the president announced his support ,or the $2000 direct payment and saidmadly embraced we join with the president in supporting this. came in on christmas eve, we were blocked by the republicans for having unanimous consent to bring up that legislation. but on monday, irregular sessions, we brought it forth and it passed with strong bipartisan support. we are very pleased to send that mcconnell and the senate. president of the united states has expressed his support of more than $2000. the democrats and republicans in the house have passed that

legislation. who is holding up that distribution to the american people? mitch mcconnell and the senate republicans. democratic leader schumer yesterday after unanimous consent -- asked for unanimous consent to bring it up in the senate, which was lost by mitch mcconnell in the republicans in the senate. in blocking it, they are in denial of the hardships that the american people are experiencing now. health-wise, financially, in every way. their lives and livelihood in many cases are on the brink. so they are in denial of that need in denying this benefit. i do hope that in the days ahead, we only have a few days left in the session, that they will see the light and

suffering that is going on in our country. now, i've said before, it is amazing to see the patients that some people have with other people's suffering. these republicans in the senate seem to have an endless tolerance for other people's sadness. stopge mitch mcconnell to his obstruction, and to bring that legislation to the floor of the senate. and we urge republicans in the senate to encourage him to do so. note really important to how important this money in the pocket of american people are. if they have the resources, they spend it, they inject demand into the economy. note thatrtant to with the bill that we passed

last week that the president on sunday evening, it brought us up to nearly a $1 trillion for small businesses in our country. about $950 billion. and we support that. we know that small business business is the lifeblood of our economy. say your hopes and dreams, your ideas, your vision. but for those small businesses to take advantage of that money, they have to have customers. the doorsugh to keep open if nobody is walking through. and that is why these direct payments are so necessary. and for those small businesses , they must have

services provided by state and local government. our health care providers, our heroes, health care providers, sanitation. responders, police and fire, teachers, teachers, teachers. and that is why in this next session of congress, in the new congress with any president, we must have legislation, that not only honors our heroes, but recognizes the services that they provide, enable our lives to function. , to thrive, our economy to prosper and our people to be healthy. that will be a very important part of what we do next. you would think that there would at least be the immediate recognition that the money in the pocket of the american people helped those small businesses thrive.

i've had the poster here before. it is a bigger number now than before. about 950 billion dollars, nearly $1 trillion to small business. billion, $160 billion to state and local government. 950, 160. state and local government. health-care workers, police and fire. teachers, sanitation, transportation, 160. 950. but we need more here to exploit the opportunity that is here. meantime, it's $2000 and will go a long way not only to sustain the national security of america's working families, but will help small business to thrive as well.

so these things are all connected. havee same time as we monday passing in bipartisan fashion, the cash act, the cash act, caring for americans with supplemental help, caring for americans with subtle mental health, the cash act, we also that day had an overwhelming vote to override the president's veto of the national dissent authorization act, the ndaa. overwhelming. overwhelming vote. 314-87. republicans voting to override the president's veto. we hope that the senate will follow suit. they had a big, strong vote in the senate in favor of this bill , hopefully they will stand by their votes and sustain the

veto. excuse me, overturn the veto of the president. we will see. ok, so that is what happened in the past week. in the past week, we have also seen reports of the vaccine distribution not measuring up to what we need as a fair, equitable distribution of the vaccine. i support what president-elect joe biden said yesterday, that the 100dministration, million vaccinations in a short engage thehe would defense production act to make sure that we not only had a makene, but the means to the inoculation. is one thing to be in a lab,

another thing to be in the armed. there is a lot in between in terms of just ask, administration, materials. one thing that is holding up the further vaccination to the country is this administration, the trump administration lack of cooperation on distribution of syringes and other things that go into that and holding up some of the vaccine as well. this has to be done better. it has to be done better and let's hope in the last few weeks of the trump administration that they will follow the science. that they will make the vaccines available. that they will make the syringe's and other materials available so that we could have many more people vaccinated even before the inauguration. this vaccine, this pandemic is horrible in every way.

the lives and livelihood of american people are affected in a massive way. however, it has also pulled back the curtain to reveal further disparities in our economy and our society. they have come into sharper focus because the pandemic. that is why i have asked the rules committee that we will be picking up the new rules package on monday or sunday if the schedule allows following the vote for speaker. i will have them announce and at -- in the next day or so when they put forth the rules package a committee on economic disparity and fairness and growth. as we go into this new congress, we have to have a scientific start on crushing the virus. we have to honor our heroes, state and local government, and we have to put money into the pockets of the american people.

hopefully, we can do this on this side of the weekend rather than waiting until later. the third point, direct payments. that has always been our goal. crush the virus, honor our heroes, money in the pockets of the american people. clearly, the disparities in income and equity in our country are vast. we have known that. it is only gotten worse and the pandemic puts it in sharper focus. that is why i am proud to announce the creation of a new bipartisan select committee on economic disparity and fairness and growth which will be essential for the congress to combat the crisis of income and wealth disparity in america. our members are full of exuberance and many suggestions on both sides of the aisle. yesterday, someone proposed to me $2000 a month as we go

through this bad time. another has wage guarantee legislation. others, congresswoman murphy and the employment -- have the the implement retention tax credit which is in the bill that the president just signed somewhat. there are others. sovereign wealth funds to give income to poor families in america. other bonding issues to try to address the fact that the middle-class is the backbone of our democracy. when that is weakened, so is our democracy. this is to address not only the middle-class but those who aspire to the middle-class. the disparity has only grown. as a model for this, as you may recall when we did the committee, we used the truman committee as a reference to have the save money save lives. this is something that is

modeled after the mission of the temporary national economic committee founded by president roosevelt and the congress after the great depression to study and combat the concentration of wealth in america and its role in triggering economic collapse. this is what president roosevelt said at the time. he said the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to appoint where int where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. the liberty of a democracy is not safe if it's business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. that is why we are creating the select committee which will be a resource to congress to make policy related to economic fairness, access to education,

workforce development, etc. we will work with the committees of jurisdiction. this is not a legislative committee. it is a committee to make recommendations. the committees of jurisdiction have all done a great job. education, labor, ways and means. they have done a great job in trying to address these concerns legislatively. we need a bigger spotlight on the problem and on some of the solutions so we can all participate in a very worthy suggestions that are made. we will empower american economic growth while ensuring that no one is left behind in the 21st century economy that we are putting forth. we are very excited about our new president-elect. in three weeks, we will have a new president. it is pretty exciting.

president and vice president making history. that we have the gavel, that we have held the congress. we look forward to what is happening in georgia on tuesday. every day is action-packed. but i just wanted to review some of what happened in the past week to take us to this point. this point, $2000 direct payment to the american people. being held up by mitch mcconnell, the same person who put $160 billion tax break for the wealthiest people and firms in america in the c.a.r.e.s. act. the c.a.r.e.s. act for the wealthiest in our country. --using to thousand dollars

$2000 to those who need it most. the same republicans in the congress who eagerly passed a tax bill that gave 83% of the benefits to the top 1% taking us well into debt nearly $2 trillion for our children to pay off so they could have a tax break for the wealthy. it was a mythology that it would trickle down and it has not, nor has it ever. mitch mcconnell removed the obstacle that you have to the american people having the opportunity to have that direct payment. and do it now. questions? >> do you plan to seek -- on sunday? are you confident? rep. pelosi: yes and yes. >> on the stimulus checks, we are hearing on the senate side that time is running out. are you going to commit to bringing this idea back of $2000 checks next week if it dies in this congress? speaker pelosi: let's be hopeful that it can happen this week. the sooner it happens, the sooner the checks go out.

we not giving up on it. the president of the united states, donald trump is advocating for the powers in a bipartisan way in the house and has voted for it. it would have bipartisan support in the senate if mitch mcconnell would only allow it to come to the floor instead of being an obstruction to those checks going to the american people. >> one additional he is going to object on january 6. do you have comments on that? that move from the republican? speaker pelosi: i have no doubt that next wednesday, week from today, that joe biden will be confirmed by the acceptance of the votes of the electoral college as the 46th president of the united states. yes, ma'am. >> an overview from you, you

[indiscernible] together with a fighting spirit through hard times. [indiscernible] what are your thoughts on the majority next year, next week? speaker pelosi: we are very excited about having won the house. we have the gavel. we also have 132 other gavels of chairs and subcommittees. many of them in the hands this past term a freshman and newer members of congress and we are excited about that. 18 freshman had gavels. that was historic. it was nothing even close to that before. i have every confidence. our caucus is unified around our common ethical beliefs and our responsibility to america's working families.

that is what brings us together. of course, we have our differences in approach and some other ideas. that is our vitality. i would not want to be a leader of a party that was rubberstamped lockstep. that is called republicans. we the democratic party are democratic in every way. including respecting the views of all in our caucus. i have great confidence that on an agenda that is there for america's working families we will have the unity that we need to proceed. under the leadership of joe biden, kamala harris. the biden--harris administration. hopefully, with a democratic senate, we will see what next week rings. -- brings. thank you all. happy new year. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

announcer: you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies that provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. announcer: several updates today on covid-19 response and vaccine distribution at the state level. at 2:15 p.m. eastern, we take you to missouri for a look at their response from governor michael parson who holds a briefing on the