CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. John Garamendi

Interview

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Joining us now, a member of the state's delegation, Democratic Congressman John Garamendi.

Congressman, thanks very much for coming in.

You heard what the vice president said. You heard what the other experts said there. Do you have confidence in what they're doing?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Let's just say I'm a whole lot more confident today than I was yesterday and the days before. But they're talking about the entire nation.

I'm talking about my district. I'm talking about Travis Air Force Base, where we know we have problems, talking about Solano County, where we know we had one community infection. So that's just a different situation.

Obviously, Kirkland, Washington, where you have six deaths. Broadly, fine, it's a low risk. How about the risk in my district?

BLITZER: Well, tell us about what's going on in your district.

GARAMENDI: Well, we're finally getting tests under way, and this is one of the very serious failures, in my view, is, they didn't have testing early on, and they had a very, very tight criteria for who would get tests.

Fortunately, the state government now is in full operation and tests are available. There was a laboratory 12 miles away that they would not allow to be used for this purpose. That changed last Friday. Testing is absolutely essential in this process.

Hopefully, we will be able to understand the extent of the infection, and it's not just Solano County. It's Santa Clara County. We're talking San Jose. We're talking high-tech, as well as in Southern California.

BLITZER: So, what is life like now in your district? Travis Air Force Base, that's where some of the evacuees from the cruise ship the Princess Cruise were brought in.

What has happened to all those -- first of all, all those people brought to Travis?

GARAMENDI: Many of them are still on base.

The first wave was from Wuhan, China. Most of those have moved on. We do have the evacuees from the Princess Cruise ship. They're staying there. They were going to be transferred to Southern California. There was a lawsuit, couldn't transfer them because they weren't prepared.

So they're staying on the base. There is a public health emergency on the base, as well as in Solano County surrounding the base. Efforts are being made to understand the extent of the infection in the community. That's what takes us back to testing.

For me, those are my -- where my offices are. And I told my staff, we're going to avoid public meetings. We don't need to do that. And we're going to be very, very careful, so that my staff doesn't get infected. And like every office, if you have a cold, don't come to the office.

BLITZER: I know you and your colleagues in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, for that matter, are working on funding now.

GARAMENDI: Right. Right.

BLITZER: Trying to get enough money to deal with this coronavirus crisis. Where does that stand right now?

GARAMENDI: Well, we do have the proposal from the president, $2.5 billion, of which $1 billion actually came from the Ebola program, so maybe a billion-and-a-half of new money.

That going to be totally insufficient. We're going to have to really staff up to make sure we have the public health officials tracking down, doing the testing. All of that is expensive, and certainly the hospital care is going to be extraordinary.

[18:20:07]

BLITZER: How much do you think you need?

GARAMENDI: I suspect we may get up towards $10 billion by the time this is done.

We're going to do it this week. Numbers are being crunched. I told my counties and the counties in California, as well as the state government, where I talked to the governor's chief of staff, get the numbers together, get them back here. Think big, think about what you might need. Don't have to spend the money in the first day, but it has to be available immediately.

BLITZER: And some of that money would go to state and local officials.

GARAMENDI: Oh, absolutely.

BLITZER: They're on the front lines right now.

GARAMENDI: They're on the front lines, also the hospitals.

There is going to be an enormous expense here as we deal with this. So, yes, state, local governments, hospitals, all of that has to be done.

BLITZER: Congressman Garamendi, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

BLITZER: Good luck to everyone in your district. Good luck to everyone around the country and indeed around the world.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: This is now dozens and dozens of countries around the world.

GARAMENDI: It's a big one, exactly.

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