James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
11:50 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I had a very good telephone conversation — extremely good — with Senator Schumer a little while ago. We're working on various elements of the deal, and the Democrats are very much wanting something to happen, and the Republicans, likewise, are very much wanting something to happen. And I think it will.
I spoke with — at length with Mitch McConnell. And there's tremendous spirit to get something done, so we'll see what happens. But my conversation was very good with Senator Schumer.
I thank you all for joining us, and I'd like to begin by providing an update on what we are doing to minimize the impact of the Chinese virus on our nation's students.
With many schools closed due to the virus, the Department of Education will not enforce standardized testing requirements, very importantly, for students in elementary through high school for the current year. They've been through a lot. They've been going back and forth; schools open, schools not open. It's been all standardized testing. And, you know, it's — we're not going to be enforcing that, so I think you can let people know. I think probably a lot of the students will be extremely happy; some probably not. The ones that work hard, maybe not. But it's one of those things. Unfortunate — very unfortunate circumstance.
We've also temporarily waived all interest on federally held student loans. They'll be very happy to hear that. And I've instructed them to take that action immediately. And today, Secretary DeVos has directed federal lenders to allow borrowers to suspend their student loans and loan payments without penalty for at least the next 60 days. And if we need more, we'll extend that period of time. Borrowers should contact their lenders, but we've given them very strong instructions.
So we've temporarily waived all interest on federally held student loans. That's a big thing. That's going to make a lot of students very happy. And we have more to come on student loans — more good news for the students — but we'll do that at a different time.
This morning, the Treasury Department also announced that we're moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. So we're moving it out to July 15th so that people will have time and people will be able to — hopefully, by that time, we'll have people getting back to their lives. Families and businesses will have this extra time to file with no interest or penalties. We're getting rid of interest and penalties.
However, if you have refunds or credits you would like to claim, you may still file. In other words, you can file early if you are owed money by the IRS. Other than that, we're moving it all the way out to July 15th — no interest, no penalties. Your new date will be July 15.
Today, our team will also provide an update on our continuing effort to prevent the transmission of virus across America's borders. And I watched what's been happening in California with Governor Newsom and, this morning, with Governor Cuomo, and I applaud them. They're taking very strong, bold steps, and I applaud them. And we're all working together. We're working very closely together, including those two governors.
But I would say, based on the call — the media was there — I think we can say that, with respect to virtually every governor on that call, I think every governor — we had almost all of them, if not all of them — and I would say that you could see for yourselves that the level of respect and esprit de corps working together was extraordinary. There was nobody angry, nobody upset. We're able to help them, and that's what we're all about. We want to help.
We're doing things that a lot of people wouldn't be able to do. But the relationship with governors and states is, I think, very extraordinary, especially under the circumstances where this just came upon us.
We're working with Canada and Mexico to prevent the spread of the virus across North America, very closely. You heard what we did yesterday with Canada. And Secretary of State Pompeo will be making a statement in a little while having to do with Mexico and the border. And Chad likewise — Chad Wolf will likewise be making a statement. This is a joint comprehensive effort in collaboration with our neighbors.
The measure and all of those measures that we're putting in place will protect the health of all three nations and reduce the incentive for a mass global migration that would badly deplete the healthcare resources needed for our people. And so we are working very closely with Mexico, very, very closely with Canada. The relationship has never been better. We're all working for the same — toward the same goal.
Our nation's top healthcare officials are extremely concerned about the grave public health consequences of mass uncontrolled cross-border movement. And that would be mostly — and even beyond — but mostly during this global pandemic.
Every week, our border agents encounter thousands of unscreened, unvetted, and unauthorized entries from dozens of countries. And we've had this problem for decades. For decades. You know the story. But now it's — with the national emergencies and all of the other things that we've declared, we can actually do something about it. We're taking a very strong hold of that. And we have before, but this is now at a level that nobody has ever approached.
In normal times, these massive flows place a vast burden on our healthcare system, but during a global pandemic, they threaten to create a perfect storm that would spread the infection to our border agents, migrants, and to the public at large. Left unchecked, this would cripple our immigration system, overwhelm our healthcare system, and severely damage our national security. We're not going to let that happen.
So we have a lot of information, and they'll be discussing that in a moment.
To confront these public health degrees [dangers], the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to exercise its authority under the Title 42 of the U.S. Code to give Customs and Border Protection the tools it needs to prevent the transmission of the virus coming through both the northern and the southern border. So we're treating the borders equally — the northern border and the southern border. It's being treated — they're both being treated equally. A lot of people say that they're not treated equally. Well, they are.
As we did with Canada, we're also working with Mexico to implement new rules at our ports of entry to suspend non-essential travel. These new rules and procedures will not impede lawful trade and commerce. Furthermore, Mexico is taking action to secure our own southern border and suspend air travel from Europe. So we're coordinating very closely the air travel going to Mexico and then trying to come into the United States.
The actions we're taking together with our North American partners will save countless lives.
At the conclusion of my remarks, Secretary Azar, Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Wolf — we're going to be also taking some questions with Tony and Deborah, who you've gotten to know very well — but they'll be discussing certain things, and I think you'll find them of great interest. We're going to be providing tremendous amounts of detail over the coming days, but a lot of it will be provided right now if you'd like to find out about it.
This has been a week of resolute action, tremendous action. Tremendous relationships have developed with people that, frankly, didn't get along. People that didn't like each other, they're now working together and maybe, even in some cases, learning about each other and liking each other. It's a nice thing.
I invoked the Defense Production Act, and last night, we put it into gear. We moved the National Response Coordination Center to the highest level of activist [sic]. I mean, if you — if you take a look at what we did, the level of activation has been increased to a grade one level, which is the highest level.
We're providing historic support to small businesses and to the states. The states need support. Normally they do this themselves, but because of the magnitude of it, the federal government has gotten very much involved in terms of getting the equipment they need. So we're helping them. It's — it's a responsibility they have, but we are helping the states a lot. That's why the governors, I think in every case, have been impressed and very nice.
We enacted legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers at no cost to employers. And I think it's very important. So they get paid sick leave at no cost to employers.
We're accelerating the use of new drug treatments. We're advancing legislation to give direct payments to hardworking families. Throughout our country, Americans from all walks of life are rallying together to defeat the unseen enemy striking our nation. In times of struggle, we see the true greatness of the American character, and we are seeing that. A lot of people are talking about it.
We're at 141 countries, from what they're telling me, and some of those countries are really working in a unified manner. And they're working very unified with us, almost — I could say a good — a good number of them.
Doctors and nurses are working nonstop to heal the sick. Citizens and churches are delivering meals to the needy. Truckers are making the long haul to keep shelves stocked. We've been dealing with the big stores and the big chains, Walmart — they've been fantastic — and others. They've all been fantastic. We've made it much easier for them to stock. In terms of travel and travel restrictions, we're lifting restrictions so they can get their trucks on time.
You're seeing very few empty shelves, and yet the amount of volume that they are doing is unprecedented because people want to have what they have to have, what they feel they have to have. And they're also buying in slightly smaller quantities, which is good — because we're not going anywhere. We're going to be here. So I want to thank all of those very great companies for working so well.
Americans from every walk of life are coming together. And thanks to the spirit of our people, we will win this war, and we are. We're winning and we're going to win this war. America will triumph and America will rise higher than ever before. We'll be stronger than ever before, and we've learned a lot. We've learned a lot. We've learned a lot about relying on other countries, and I can say that I think in both a very good and a very bad way. Some good things came out of it and some not so good things came out of it.
So I'd like to move now to invite our team to provide information on the new measures to prevent viral spread at our borders. And I'll start by asking Secretary of State Pompeo to speak. He's doing a fantastic job. And like everyone else, he's been working very, very long and very, very hard. And he's doing the other more normal jobs of a great Secretary of State, but he got — he got tied into this like everybody else, and he's been really doing a fantastic job.
Mike, please.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Mr. President. Before I address the efforts that we've been engaged in to push back against the Chinese virus, I want to assure the American people that, as President Trump just said, your State Department, your entire national security team is staying focused on the other diplomatic challenges around the world. Those include reducing risk to America from Afghanistan, holding the Iranian regime accountable for its malign activity. And our counterterrorism efforts against ISIS remain a priority for our team.
Our number one priority across those mission sets remains the protection of the American people. The President and our team are very focused on it.
I'll take this moment, too, to thank my team, the State Department team, who is working long hours all around the world to take care of Americans who are stuck at places around the world. I'll talk about that more in just a minute. You've all seen Dr. Birx with me. State Department officials are doing great work, but I want to — I want to give a shout-out to all of the State Department team, here in Washington and around the world, that are working overtime to help us push back against this pandemic.
Under the President's leadership this week, we've taken two important steps. First, as President Trump announced on Wednesday, the United States and Canada jointly agreed to restrict all non-essential traffic across our border. This decision goes into effect tonight at midnight. The restrictions will be reviewed after 30 days, and they exclude traffic and movement across the border for work or other essential reasons. We're grateful to have such an outstanding friend to the north who is committed, as we are, to defeating this virus.
I also want to announce today that the United States and Mexico have agreed to restrict non-essential travel across our shared border. Both our countries know the importance of working together to limit the spread of the virus to ensure that commerce that supports our economy continues to keep flowing. Here, too, the United States is glad to have a friend who is working side by side us in the fight. Secretary Wolf will talk a little bit more about the details of how we're working alongside our partner in Mexico to keep our southern border safe and secure as well.
On another note, yesterday the State Department issued a Level 4 global travel advisory. This means that all international travel from U.S. citizens should be avoided. In countries where commercial departure options remain available, U.S. citizens who reside in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States unless they're prepared to remain abroad for an extended time. If you choose to travel internationally, your travel plans may well be severely disrupted.
