Coronavirus US live: House to vote on historic $2.2tn stimulus package

New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, says the state has received a Major Disaster Declaration, meaning it can receive more federal support during the Covid-19 outbreak. As of Wednesday, New Jersey had the second-most confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US. Murphy, a Democrat, thanked Donald Trump and Mike Pence for their help.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking now at her weekly press conference, says she is “certain” there will be a “strong” bipartisan vote in the House for the coronavirus bill that will come to the floor tomorrow morning.

“Tomorrow we’ll bring the bill to the floor. It will pass,” she said. “It will pass with strong bipartisan support.”

She repeated that she is confident the House will pass the stimulus bill tomorrow by voice vote, meaning there would be no roll call if no member objects.

“If somebody has a different point of view, they can put in in the record,” she said.

While touting the bill as a marked improvement from the initial Senate proposal, Pelosi also outlined some areas where Democrats would like to see in a Phase Four legislation.

She began her remarks by noting the death toll, which has surpassed 1,000 in the US.

She urged Americans to stay home and respect federal guidelines for social distancing. If not, she warned that “the light at the end of the tunnel may be a train coming at us.”

As Pelosi reaches her eighth decade of life, she told reporters she will not be celebrating her birthday until she can “hug [her] grandbabies.”

The House is planning to take up the $2tn rescue package passed by the Senate on Friday.

But the logistics of holding a vote in the midst of a pandemic are complicated: several members are quarantining, in addition to at least two members who have tested positive for Convid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Flights are severely restricted in some states while travel may pose undue risk for certain lawmakers.

Nevertheless, one Kentucky lawmaker wasn’t going to miss the vote at any cost. For members struggling to find flights, he suggested they “hitch a ride.”

Kenya Evelyn reports on why Florida congressman Matt Gaetz picked the wrong university to single out from the $2tn economic stimulus bill meant to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

In a tweet late on Wednesday, the Republican congressman questioned why Howard University, a historically black college located in the nation’s capital, was earmarked to receive $13m in funding from the bill.

“Education is important but a $13m check to Howard does not belong in COVID-19 relief,” Gaetz said.

Critics immediately highlighted that the university is home to a level-1 trauma hospital central to medical care in Washington DC. It had also been specially designated a Covid-19 treatment facility with a medical school training the next class of professionals to respond to the pandemic.

Howard University’s campus Democrats chimed in to explain the reason for the funding with a history lesson, before offering a quip about Gaetz’s home state of Florida handling the outbreak.

Another university located in Washington DC was also specifically earmarked in the legislation. Gallaudet University, another federally chartered institution, is set to receive $7m in funding from the bill.

Critics, including Howard alumnae and California senator Kamala Harris, were quick to point out the racial implications of Gaetz singling out an HBCU – one of 100 black educational institutions historically disenfranchised prior to the passage of Brown v Board of Education in 1954.

Gaetz’s rebuttal juxtaposing Howard to “regular people” only added to the accusations of racist dog whistles. Earlier this year Gaetz notoriously mocked the severity of the coronavirus outbreak by wearing a gas mask to a congressional hearing. Gaetz later announced a self-quarantine after coming in close contact with others who tested positive, including Donald Trump.

Edward Helmore has news from the stock market, which has opened higher than many expected.

US stocks traded higher on Thursday even after a record 3.3 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, ending a decade-long period of job expansion.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 600 points by 10am, a day after it recorded a rise of more than 1,315 points after more than a week of savage declines. The index climbed 2.8% shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 opened up 2.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 2.5%.

The gains came after lawmakers passed a $2tn stimulus package on Wednesday night that is expected to help stabilize the economy.

In a rare interview on Thursday morning, federal reserve chairman Jerome Powell said that he expected economic activity to decline “pretty substantially” in the second quarter. The central bank is taking unprecedented action to help ensure economic activity can resume as soon as the coronavirus pandemic is under control, he told NBC’s Today show.

Speaking of the experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was on New York’s WNYC public radio, warning that it was still too early for the country to return to normal.

The Guardian’s Ed Helmore reports that Fauci said Trump was not “wed” to Easter as a date certain for the US to lift restrictions on public activity.

“He put that out because he wants to give people some hope, but he is not absolutely wed to that,” Fauci said.

“He keeps saying that although he would like that to be the date, he’s open-minded and flexible to make sure the facts and what the pattern of the virus is will determine what we do,” he added.

On Wednesday evening, Fauci put it even more bluntly.

“You’ve gotta be realistic and you’ve gotta understand that you don’t make the timeline,” Fauci told CNN. “The virus makes the timeline.”

Edward Helmore has news on how the Covid-19 outbreak is affecting the fishing industry.

The commercial fishing industry is requesting $4bn in aid as orders dry up from restaurant owners and exports, which account for as much as 60% of their business, dry up due to the coronavirus pandemic

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, seafood industry leaders, processors and fishermen said their industry was being hit hard. “This is totally unprecedented. This is the biggest crisis to hit the fishing industry ever, no question about that,” Noah Oppenheim, executive director of The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations told NPR.

Of the seafood that’s not exported from the US, around 80% is sold to restaurants, he said. “Both of those sectors of the seafood economy are largely nonfunctional at the moment, so we’re going to have to make up for approximately 90% of our markets … through either new supply pipelines or new sets of customers.”

If aid isn’t forthcoming, Oppenheim added, “We could see hundreds to thousands of fishermen leave the industry nationwide.”

The wholesale price of lobster, reported one Maine fisherman, has dropped to $2.50 per pound, compared to the usual $10 for this time of year.

“It’s definitely a shock to the system,” said Sam Rosen, a 30-year-old lobsterman based in Vinalhaven, Maine. “This is uncharted territory right now. I don’t think anyone thought it was going to be as bad as it’s getting.”

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus in the US and all things politics.

Overnight, the US Senate unanimously voted to approve a historic $2.2tn stimulus package to rescue the spiraling economy and rush financial assistance to workers, businesses and a healthcare system nearly stretched to capacity as cases of the coronavirus sweep across the country.

The House is expected to take up the vote on Friday morning. Donald Trump has said he would sign it.

In a tweet, the president touted the rare unanimous vote in the Senate. The vote was 96-0.

In a sign of the virus’s reach, the four Republican senators who missed the vote were in quarantine, including senator Rand Paul who tested positive for Covid-19.

On Thursday morning, the US labor department announced that a record 3.3 million people filed claims for unemployment last week as the Covid-19 pandemic shut down large parts of America’s economy. The figure is the highest ever reported, beating the previous record of 695,000 claims filed the week ending 2 October 1982.

This morning Trump participates in a video teleconference at with the G20 leaders. The coronavirus task force will hold a briefing this evening at 5pm EST.

We will also hear more from the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, at her weekly press conference later this morning. Today is the speaker’s 80th birthday.