i think it does give people hope and it gives doctors hope that's why they want to use it now because they want to give all patients the best chance they have. >> good morning national political reporter at the "washington post" we are continuing our "washington post" live series confronting challenges across the state and cities economic carnage and testing and all those issues confronting them as leaders with different parts of the nation one is a governor the other is a big city mayor first i will speak with nebraska governor then be will turn to mayor suarez from miami florida. welcome to "washington post" live. >> thank you for having me on.

>> we appreciate you being here. one is the biggest issues in your state? meatpacking and what are the health challenges right now in that industry? >> in general it's very difficult to do social distancing because of the concentration of people so what we have done working with university of nebraska medical center the covidien team play book which is best practices focusing on what they should do to keep workers healthy and safe from plexiglas barriers plastic in the lunchrooms to keep people from being close to each other the air handling units and how they put on ppe.

and for all those food processors in the state and best practices. people that have english not as a front on - - first language we do press briefings in spanish as well as other languages to communicate the need for social distancing outside the workplace with those hygiene practices as well. >> that point as english as a first language how do you make sure minority communities and others in your state are getting the access to testing that they need? >> so the last seven days we have done 22200 test of versus

3200 and we worked with the qualified health clinics sometimes they don't trust government so for example the clinic in south omaha the largest paying community we work with them to do testing and then find ways to expand that and then to be disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. >> and you have some skepticism towards government. that 27 million-dollar

contracts. have you thought about revising that contract? >> 100 percent. one of the things here in the state of nebraska. working with this silicon slopes companies and that consortium had access to the machines all things that were in short supply we are looking to companies directly the cdc and that was being limited to states like nebraska. and to find ways to expand and to do that here in nebraska i am very pleased now were in partnership with one of the hospital systems this is the way we can expand.

>>'s evil just one - - stick with testing despite the criticism? >> is the way we rolled out and then to expand testing through commercial labs. and then to utilized in that testing that they can do in other ways to expand testing and then to roll out additional testing across the state. >> do you feel they are doing enough with the mobile testing site to where things are growing with case numbers? >> that's what we want to use nebraska for two's asked him to sign up and then use the mobile testing sites. with increasing percent positives that could be an

early indicator so we deployed resources with additional testing and contact tracing to make sure we could manage that to make sure you get to those places early then of course the way you manage a pandemic and then to find their contacts and monitor their symptoms and quarantines and those that are impacted by the virus and let everybody go back to a more normal life. so looking at the meatpacking industry you have guidelines in your states what you are saying as governor but and to

hold meatpacking counties accountable if they are not formal guidelines or executive orders. >> we ever regulatory scheme in place and it's called osha. that the federal government role. so we don't have a regulatory role on the state of nebraska. to communicate and work with the food processors with the best practices that we have established they will tell you they been very pleased with the progress that we made in weekly calls with the processors. is not just plexiglas but practices to make sure those

are paid to stay home if they are sick or short-term disability and whether with the food processors that we didn't do a former shelter in place order? we want everybody to do a good job to manage and do the right thing that so we see by a large and those restrictions we put in place. >> but are you preparing for a possible surgeon would be open to revising your decision on the stay-at-home order in the future? >> we did a good job to management we were supposed to

do to preserve the hospital system. that 30 percent of icu and 70 percent ventilators are available. we need to make sure we slow the spread we don't have the healthcare system overwhelmed and now we are starting to lose restrictions it is our guiding principle that we will do it slowly and cautiously to preserve the health care system so everybody who needs that bed or ventilator can have access when they needed. we've done a very successfully so far. >> so when it comes to restrictions is a hospital bed capacity versus increased number of cases? different metrics and

decision-making nobody talked about cases or deaths and that's the variable that changes. we would expect to find more cases who you are testing and where you are testing we had limited testing capability. guess what they test at a higher rate with symptoms. and those expanding to healthcare workers and food processors and people who are 65 and older if they are asymptomatic to still positive rate is dropping.

so it does seem kind of natural. so that's not a good one to look at but hospitals they go to the hospital and they feel sick it doesn't matter if they test positive or negative if they feel like they need you to go for what you are trying to do for something that's and the public health expert said you can't stop it from coming but you can slow down. this is what we continue to do in nebraska. >> university of nebraska medical center is holding clinical trials and those in nebraska and what have you

learned? >> we are very proud of university of nebraska medical center part of the first phase one trials and the phase two. >> and then day distribute and then anyone to help them recover faster. >> what about hydroxychloroquine the president decided about that drug? >> hydroxychloroquine is not used here in nebraska may be people who are using it may be there are people who are not but it hasn't had the clinical

trials the other has and we work closely with you and see the world leading expert so we are trying to focus on what is proven or established to promote that. >> and with the president's decision are you taking any preventative measures yourself? >> i'm not taking any drugs like that i take my a fish oil pills every day i wear my mask in a store. but my for crap on - - my precautions socially distanc distance, don't take unnecessarily trips out that's what we are focused on here. and then go back home at night.

>> we have a question from a viewer cases arising in lincoln where you refusing county officials to authorize their own rules? >> we look at the database to the hospital system to make those decisions so in lincoln we have tremendous capacity in fact over 80 percent of ventilators are available they have had a few more cases come to the hospital system it really isn't that many. talking 20 or 30 people i think the actual case number is 22 so that's very little with compared to the capacity we want to make sure we balance out everything but also make sure the restrictions we put in place

are something we can live with because if you have to tide of restrictions for too long people will start to disobey and we went to be orderly. >> we have gotten a few questions about medicaid expansion. that has been approved in nebraska but delayed with the implementation are you rethinking the medicaid expansion plan due to the crisi crisis? medicare plans to expand medicaid have not been delayed we put out a project plan that we published for many months and we are working to make sure we will have a lot of experience when we roll this out adding a 90000 people

additional typically are not the people that we serve moms are children or the elderly and the pediatricians and develop a system to enroll them in higher people to take care of them it's a big project to bring on more people they'll have in your system so we laid out plans for doing that. >> that doesn't start until october. >> that's also been delayed in washington because of coronavirus. >> would you consider moving forward with the implementation of the expansion you see people struggling economically. >> the challenges we need to have approval to do that. we can resubmit the waiver we

have to get their approval and given the emergency maybe it will be the accelerated process but then ultimately if we try to change plans now taking applications august 1st it will delay the date past august personnel it will push it back even further to start taking applications. >> just a couple minutes left if you look to washington in congress to negotiate the next round of stimulus what does nebraska need specifically if anything? >> i'm not sure if we are opposed to do another round of stimulus with trillions of dollars i think the federal government our congressman suggested maybe a compromise position to allow the states use the money that has been

distributed to fill budget holes but here in the state of nebraska we been very concerned with the national budget coming into the pandemic with a strong financial position we will manage this like every american family has to. live within our means and our budget and tighten the belts. we can manage this bad adding additional trillions of dollars a great grandchildren will have to pay will have huge long-term impacts on our country. i encourage congress say give states more flexibility to manage it but don't add on to more debt that we already cannot pay off. >> why not look for more money from washington if you say you have to cut your own budget due to the pandemic? >> that money doesn't come for free.

ultimately assesses taxpayers. you can say it comes from washington but it still comes from the nebraska taxpayers who pay their taxes to support washington we all have to say it's a new world, the economy has taken a hit and that means household wealth across america to tighten their belts they expect members to do the same thing we have to figure out ways to deliver services and how we are spending money as well and then live within our means like every american family and as we have demonstrated to implement all sorts of things the private sector does to do a better job and we can do that with the services and measure these and we have done that has how we came into the pandemic in the

first place. >> specifically what is on your radar? >> one of the things that people think about real budget control comes from overall lowering expenses to figure out how to improve the system and your headcount so for example we as a state earlier this year had the lowest employment level people employed by my agencies since 1994 looking at process improvement and better technology and process that's you control expenses is not like the programs but finding

ways to manage or cost to do a better job to provide services while you control cost and this is what the private sector does every day. >> in an open negotiation with the state legislature. [laughter] >> it is a negotiation with regard to how this works with the budget. they control the purse strings we want to have good relationships with the legislature speed governor, thank you for your time. we appreciate it. >> thank you for your time and having me on. >> after a short break i will joined by the mayor of miami. stage and.

>> if you respect the guidelines and the rules we can return back to where we were that's what we want to avoid. >> welcome to "washington post" live. >> it's a pleasure to be with you. >> you were one of the first leaders in the country to have covid-19 how are you feeling first of all and how is that experience affected your decision-making? >> it affected it tremendously because when i found out i was positive it was a fluke i was in a council meeting and going to issue my emergency

declaration and it became public a member of the brazilian delegation tested positive that was here in miami. that person was in the room with me. we show cans wasted within close proximity. so our professionals recommended i self quarantine which i did the department of health called me later that day and asked me to test even if i wasn't showing symptoms but i was surprised to learn the following day i was positive it was an arduous journey for me because it wasn't something as a private citizen so obviously the first thing i had to do is go public because a number of people i had come in contact with also my wife and family they also

tested negative no one tested positive. so it did not disrupt operations but certainly informed my decision-making because i was lucky not to have severe symptoms throughout the process but i used it to journal and to give president some hope if you are infected it is survivable. >> why it is the reality in south florida in miami? that so we here with governor desantis but what is your assessment of the reality of the virus they are today? >> they have the most number of cases of all the states so allowing the different parts we do not force them to open as the same as the rest of the

state in miami and broward were the last counties to open we decided to open later than the counterparts also miami beach in miami gardens and hialeah and we have done that for a variety of reasons because we want to coordinate amongst each other and the second reason is the county gave us the rules the week before so we wanted to implement them and then to see if there were any adjustments we needed to make it carefully and cautiously. >>. >> do you wish the governor and other parts of the states would moves more slowly to let miami and south florida not just be isolated on their own?

>> one of the things i asked the president to do is suspend the flights from the hotspots in the international airport with 50 million passengers which is twice the population of the state of florida right now supposedly running at 10 percent of total capacity we saw 5 million passengers coming through their almost double the size of miami-dade county so we implement stay-at-home orders and curfews with a disciplined approach internally and that we could see an uptick from people coming from other covid-19 hotspots throughout the world. >> would you like to see a travel ban expanded? how is that handled in the months ahead? >> what we proposed they stop

all travel from other hotspots. so that was our proposal to the white house that the president has been in discussions and continuing fights from the sale one - - brazil and we made a request to american airlines voluntarily to shut down those hotspots if that message is resonating which is the biggest threat to the city if they are not discontinued and temperature monitoring and things of that nature. and with that enforcement. >> we have a question from the "washington post" reader what

steps is the city taken to protect the elderly population? do you fear for their safety? >> of course we are making sure and then to have assistance and then the communicate the government so understanding that obligation of the city. >>. >> that it does show that miami is partially reopening

you have some businesses they are, landscapers, how do you make sure they have the testing to be interacting? >> that is the new reality. and in the laundry closet. and that broad-based testing. and those that are asymptomatic and those that to go back to work safety. so anybody that wants to get tested so we are urging people to do it. that would be ubiquitous so people don't have to leave their homes whether they feel

symptomatic or not. i love joe's seafood down there. will miami beach be open this holiday weekend? >> the beaches are not and neither are the hotels. i actually agree with that decision one of the things that we see in terms of phase one opening so then i take the heat for all the cities if the city decides miami beach and then there's a flood of people it gets national news and i get the call. so that was very sympathetic to me.

and then we see beaches people just not respect the rules and then to have that patrol. what's it like to talk to the police chief are you telling them to be tough four hands off? how do you balance that? >> so the restaurants open one week from today. we do this with one dozen or so officers so if they

articulated and we don't want to go backwards. but that is based on that so the data does not indicate to go in the opposite direction than that would be even more catastrophic in terms of an economic circumstances. we want to avoid that at all cost or presidents call us and then to shut the business down for you. >> i want to come back to the point you made and behind the scenes are you any pressure from the government to change

your timeline? are do you see on the next six to 12 months make the decision that you want to make from miami? >>. >> so he tells me to navigate the bureaucracy of the state people may not want to make decisions about openings because the criteria has been established and data driven. there are moments we had issues with the data. there have been data dumps and they have been very clear as

well. and there are complex decision-makers but to support the decisions when we open, how we open and assume the data and the experts. >> how are you dealing with the influence of president trump? many people in miami and you are a republican in a nonpartisan office the president is taking hydroxychloroquine are you concerned about his decision and how they could affect people in florida? >> we don't get too caught up this is fodder for discussion but focus to understand what

the rules are making decisions based on the data so we understand they are not in a bubble and with the local congressional election and was some of the rhetoric that we try as much as we can to stay out of that. >> you just talked about policing what is your response doctor henderson was nearly arrested in miami, a black doctor that drew national headlines but it is a miami story.

>> what he is doing is god's work to get medical care we are trying to be as supportive as we can i spoke just on friday and that what would seem like a storm coming this weekend so the homeless in the community we don't have issues that the other country those in the other country have i spoke to him and i expressed my regret for the officer that detained him was reprimanded for policy and procedure. >> you mentioned hurricane season approaching starting in a couple of weeks in south

florida has seen some close calls already you are dealing with a pandemic, mayor of a major american city now hurricane season so what is your plan or strategy to deal with hurricane season. >> we are accustomed to getting the conversation so when you combine that with the pandemic to try to reopen the city carefully so we are doing what we do during hurricane season that we placed on the residence through the pandemic

and to have those items during hurricanes to have that capacity to meet that demand. >> do you need more many from washington? >> i have been a proponent from the second stimulus and also some movement to modify the first stimulus for those first to pay for first responders. >> if at the end of the budget year we have to cut the salaries and really all employees are front-line employees but those that support police and fire in sanitation workers so the workforce has met this challenge if by the end of the year we have to cut their

salaries i have led a bipartisan group of mayors with the second stimulus bill that is something we should get from federal funding. >> you said you are getting ready for hurricane season but what about displacement due to the hurricane to have a pandemic at the same time? how do you confront that. >> i can't tell you the enormous of the challenge. and we have evacuated tens of thousands of people 70 shelters if mass congregation is a major concern couple

things that are interacting so talk about hurricane prevention and hurricane preparedness at the tens of thousands of people to in a shelter and that provides a challenge. >> and with our talk at the beginning to deal with covid-19 on a personal level or professional level we see pictures of people love florida and miami included not

wearing a mask in public what is your review should they at all times as someone who is dealt with this disease? >> so we how that as a strong recommendation for any facility that we are requiring masks every single establishment every single business but also the employees. so that is another preventative measure that reduces the chance of somebody getting covid-19. >> any chance you would formalize that to make it in order? >> absolutely it is possible depending on how people behave. it is behavior driven there is

a path of responsibility and a responsibility that will continue on a downward trajectory but that path is to make adjustments and then reverse some of the things we have done. >> that's all the time we have i'm glad you are well in miami. >> thank you for joining us here in washington post live the leadership in crisis very for the path forward series that is focused on economic recovery. tomorrow i will speak with white house economic advisor larry kudlow directing the

national economic council so stay tuned for that tomorrow and following that conversation we will have bridgewater associates founder talking to david ignatius the great "washington post" columnistn for one

minute in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: we all ought to be very concerned