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[Music] good afternoon North Dakota and welcome to today's 4:23 2020 press briefing jump right into the numbers 32 additional positive cases of the corona virus disease out of 741 tests so slight increase in our testing run rate good news on that again dividing 32 in a 740 14.3% we'd been trending above our cumulative positive rate over the last few weeks and now we're back down to that so that's positive that it went in that direction but if we take a look at the net case breakdown on the next slide were sad to report that again we had one additional death this was related to Koba 19 today we're reporting this individual was a woman in her 80s from Cass County who had underlying health conditions but again we lard regardless of age or circumstance is always difficult to lose a parent or grandparent and our deepest sympathies from the first lady catherine and i go out to all of this individuals loved ones and to everyone who's lost a loved one during this pandemic but we for the those that are really keeping track of the details the we would note that there are two cases that were previously reported in our data that we're from Cass County were determined to be from Minnesota and have been removed so there's a slight two case change for those that are I know some people at home are really tracking the data like you might attract shots at a basketball game or something like that your shot chart but there's a little change there but we have now passed through the 16,000 level in terms of total the number of tests on on the the 4.3 which was on the previous slide that remains the sixth lowest rate in the country and Hawaii Alaska Montana West Virginia and Wyoming meaning it's six lowest and we that's a place where we want to be low not high where we do want to be high which is on Tess per capita and we remain at ninth in the nation on testing per capita we continue working to increase our testing rates and as you heard from our announcements yesterday from general Dorman the work we're doing with our provider partners and with the lab here in North Dakota we're going to continue to move that up with the goal of getting into the more than a thousand a day next week we've got a number of testing efforts planned for tomorrow Saturday and Sunday across the state that should help us over the weekend when we've got a drop-in provider testing to make sure that our outbound testing is going to help us get a better picture of what's going on in the state and again I would encourage anyone that is symptomatic and fills they need a test to advocate for yourself and get a test and again if you are unable to get a test completed or are turned down by a provider we'd ask you to call our North Dakota State hotline which is open from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the evening at the North Dakota Department of Health contact us and we'll try to help you connect and with you and getting a test because we have the testing capacity across our state in terms of the 425 active cases 18 hospitalized this is good news because we had five discharges of released from hospitalization yesterday so we had our peak at 23 yesterday back down into the teens that's a good thing and as we reported earlier that additional death sadly takes us to 15 15 deaths when we take a look at the case trends there which we look at every day the one very positive thing about this is you'll see that the line is going down even with 32 new cases it's going down primarily because we had a new record 40 newly recovered cases so it's a one of the ways that you can help flatten your line and you can see we've been bouncing around in that in the 400s there on the let in the chart over the last four days that's because we're having good solid days of recovery to go along with that and so you'll see that's why we're we're net down on the top line which is a which is a good thing when we take a look at the increased rates on the rolling average you know that the increased rate of positives on a rolling 14 day so this is different the four point three we showed earlier is from the very beginning of when we began having pauses in North Dakota this is just for the last two weeks we take all of the tests and all the positives in the last most recent 14 days when we take a look at that we were really moving in the wrong direction over the last week but from yesterday to today we were nearly flat it was six point two six yesterday six point two seven today so having a day when we were not moving up but we were more or less going sideways that's a good thing versus going up and and again we'll continue to do a lot of testing it's too early to call this a trend but we would would be great if that were flattening out when we take a look at active confirmed case rates by county and we take that by number of 10,000 individuals there's about 5.6 people per 10,000 that are currently having active case of kovat 19 we're just talking about the actives and this map shows where those actives are as a percentage of population we see with the LM wind outbreak that we had in Grand Forks that that moved us moved Grand Forks from one of the lowest States up to one of the highest slightly ahead of Dunn County and then you can see others that were on here that were higher before like Montrell continuing to fall as they have more recoveries than the new the new cases and again this also highlights because people focus sometimes on the the highest number of absolute cases yes is in is in Cass County and of course we're also focused that there's over 60 cases can live on the on a Clay County side so that metro area has the highest absolute number of cases but in cases per population Grand Forks right now has about twice as much as the as Grand Forks County twice as much as Cass County I think the point other thing in this when you you're a County and say hey we've got a low rate or we've got no positives at all we believe that there are positives in every corner of the state and if we had more widespread testing we could prove that it either people have it today or they did have it previously that's why we're continuing to expand testing and so again we ask that every citizen in the state wherever you are to continue to follow our North Dakota smart guidelines that are helping to slow the spread and we would also remind people that as we saw in Grand Forks where Grand Forks was one of the lowest counties a week ago and now it's one of the highest we know that outbreaks can happen anywhere not just at manufacturing facilities but they can they could happen in a school they could happen in a gym they could happen in a bar restaurant and as we work hard to open up which is our focus right now as we work hard to open up we have to be prepared to be able to deal with outbreaks because just because the calendar turns to May does not help somehow magically cause outbreaks that not happen because the virus is still just as contagious now as it was when this pant a mink began as as we take a look at our plans to reopen just briefly we know again that we're under North Dakota smart restart the things we're going to need widespread rapid testing we'll have a little bit more to say about that tomorrow in addition to our announcement yesterday again protections for the most vulnerable we announced that earlier in the week with Chris Jones talking about our vp3 the vulnerable protection plan that we're talking about and also as fish in health care capacity we continue to keep that box check solidly in terms of the availability of health care PPE we're and we're in good shape right now we'll continue to monitor that but we would think by the end of the month that can have a red check we are talking about new standard operating procedures for businesses that work is going well we had a meeting last night led by our commerce team and Michelle comer and again the work that we're doing now helps prepare us for the second surge so I want to give everybody confidence that this has been art this is our primary focus every day is working through these eight works tree we've got leaders identified for each of these we're piling resources against them and we continue to make solid progress in this direction I want to give just a little bit of a highlight for look ahead for tomorrow we know that we've had a lot of questions from people since this began what can what can the state do and specifically what can you do from the Bank of North Dakota we're fortunate to have this institution that we've had in our state for over a hundred years it's got a great mission of helping serve the people of North Dakota and and right now when we whether we've been in terms of disaster whether it's due to previous energy crashes or agriculture disasters or helping families or students with homeownership or students with college education BND has always been there and we have held off on announcing any significant programs because we were waiting for clarity about the cares Act that greater clarity arrived arrived last night and Senator Hoeven is here to talk about that and with that additional clarity Lieutenant Governor Brent Sanford and Michelle comer bank president Eric harden Meyer and his whole team everybody's been working on the North Dakota smart restart and the kovat recovery loan program ideas there's been a lot of those kicked around tomorrow we've called for a special meeting of the Industrial Commission at 1:00 p.m. that'll get noticed today at five o'clock and will have a meeting tomorrow where the Industrial Commission which is lieutenant which is AG commissioner goring Attorney General Stan Jim and myself the three of us constitute the Industrial Commission and we will be meeting with the Bank of North Dakota as part of our emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss kovin loan program recovery loan programs and hopefully we'll have some more information to share but we know there's been a lot of interest across the state and specifically those loan programs are going to focus on businesses that were affected by our executive orders that small segment of the North Dakota economy in percentage of the hole that was asked to close because as you know all of Ag all of energy all of healthcare remained open and all of Education kept operating I'll bet with distant learning so with that we want to move to having a discussion about the cares Act and as you know the this is the 2.2 trillion dollar coronavirus aid relief and Economic Security Act which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump on March 27th because there was a minimum threshold for that North Dakota received would at the the minimum level which was in this size of a 2-point trillion Act was 1.25 billion that came in two tranches both of which had been deposited at the bank in North Dakota last night we received guidance from the federal government on how the money can be spent and we were thrilled to see that the Treasury Department has granted the our specific request that we allowed to use the funding to help cover our unprecedented increase in unemployment insurance costs due to job losses from this pandemic and of course we're grateful to the administration and President Trump and Treasury secular venusian but we're especially grateful to Senator Hoeven senator Craven Cramer congressman Armstrong whose collective efforts made this happen and again know that Senator Hoeven who's here today specifically as a former nd bank president former governor he really understands exactly the needs of the states and he's been a powerful advocate to support us here at North Dakota and we're grateful for that and grateful to have him him here to talk about the cares Act but before he comes up I do want to set the stage relating to this our unemployment figures and and again they're they're kind of hard to get your head around a little bit which is that there have been sixty thousand four hundred and four regular unemployment claims since March 16th and and the and you know just to bring that into perspective we have paid out a hundred and five point eight million since March 16th and half of that came from the fight about half that 51.3 came from our state unemployment insurance trust Mun fifty four point five of that has been paid by the federally funded pin pandemic unemployment compensation program which is the one that provides an additional six hundred dollars per week to unemployment insurance to an individual and but the comparison here to help people understand what our hard-working job service team has done with us with those 60,000 claims that's over three years worth of claims and in terms of payments we've paid out a hundred and 5.8 million since March 16th in 2019 we paid out only 78 million in the entire year because we had such low unemployment the year prior 2018 we paid out ninety nine million and so we are have since March 16th paid out more than either we paid out in the last two years currently our trust fund has I you I you you you unemployment insurance trust fund has a balance of one hundred and forty four million dollars that's down by the fifty 1.3 million that's already been paid out so now I'm from approximately two hundred million two hundred and forty four and again when we look ahead we know that we could end up paying substantial benefits today which would overwhelm about additional hundred and forty four million and again part of the great news that Senator Hoeven is delivering here is that we can now for sure with the guidance last night use cares act funding to re plenties that in addition to that there was already authority to be able to borrow from the US Labor Department but using the cares act funding helps make sure that unemployment claims get paid and we don't have to increase a burden with substantially higher rates on the businesses of North Dakota so again I'd like to invite senator Hoeven up to explain more about the cares Act funding and how it's going to help not only North Dakota workers but North Dakota businesses and North Dakota hospitals and again senator Hoeven thank you for your tireless and successful at advocating for the people of North Dakota appreciate it thanks God thanks for your incredible leadership and no one works harder than governor burgum as you all know I mean he covers the bases like nobody I've ever seen and your leadership shows in so many ways and is greatly appreciated I am pleased to be here today this actually is a request as far is the unemployment insurance fund that came from governor burgum to me and I would have to say that your lieutenant governor is doing a heck of a job too because there weren't many days that passed where I didn't get a text from the tenant governor Brent Sanford saying wow there's a lot of money that is coming out of that unemployment insurance fund and you know that that's going to be a real challenge for our businesses because as they get opened up again and get going after this slowdown in our economy first thing they're going to see are these really high unemployment insurance rates or premiums taxes unemployment insurance taxes and so that's exactly what we don't want because efforts their ability to get up and get going and to employ their people and and get back on their feet so government approached me and said can you connect with Treasury because Treasury was not going to allow the coronavirus Relief Fund to be used for this purpose they weren't going to allow those funds of which North Dakota is now received 1.25 billion to be put into the unemployment insurance fund to help offset this impact so I did a couple things one is we put together legislation thinking that maybe in the next round of legislation we could pass something but we also went direct to Treasury but but more than that I had calls with the president and the secretary of the Treasury mark meadows the chief of staff and also we had Secretary of Labor's Scalia on a statewide call with us with the greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce so we really pressed this issue and not only with the administration but with leader McConnell and others hoping that we could get Treasury to approve this rather than having to pass the legislation because we wanted to get it sooner and last night about seven o'clock we got word my staff got ahold
of us and we got a hold of Bryan clip full and in governor burgum and we have the approval now to use these funds so this is very important because it again goes to helping our business and their workers through this very tough stretch with kovat 19 now again the state receives this is part of the hundred and fifty billion coronavirus relief fund of which the state receives 1.25 billion that's our share now governor burgum well along with other state leaders layers but legislators and so forth will make the decision as to how much of that they used for the unemployment insurance fund and how much of it they use for other purposes so again that is how we try to do this but in a way that makes sure that as we utilize these funds whether it's from the cares Act or anything else that we're doing it in a way that the states can use to greatest effect and of course there's not a one-size-fits-all every States different I happen to think that our governors do it better than anyone but the demands the needs in North Dakota are different than they are in New York or Louisiana or somewhere else if I could touch on a couple other things briefly brought to the cares Act I had talked about agriculture before I was able to include 23.5 billion in the cares Act for agriculture as well as authorization to include livestock in that assistance the Department of Agriculture now as you saw on Friday came out with a framework which we've been working on which is nine point six billion for livestock another six and a half billion for crops so a 16 billion of that twenty three and a half billion plus another three billion so a total 19 billion for purchases three billion purchases 6 and 1/2 billion crops nine and a half nine point six billion for livestock we've gathered input including from our great AG Commissioner Doug Goehring and our producers and we've provided that input back to USDA as of tomorrow they will submit a package to the Office of Management and Budget at the federal level because it requires a rule OMB has to approve it and approve the rule which is in essence specifies the delivery of that AG assistance I'm hopeful we can push that through in less than two weeks our goal is to actually have farmers and ranchers signing up in May for the assistance and getting checks or getting that assistance starting in May and so that's the timeline on the AG piece on the as you know on the PPP the house is voting on that now we moved it through the Senate on Tuesday we expect the house to have it wrapped up tonight that will be another three hundred and ten billion for the Paycheck protection program that's the two hundred and fifty billion we talked about getting plus another sixty billion for a total three hundred ten that goes that flows through smaller institutions the idea being their smaller financial institutions the idea being that those lenders can get out and make sure we're getting to those entrepreneurs and smaller businesses in addition we added fifty billion for idle which is the economic injury disaster loan program and another ten billion for grants so a total of sixty billion for the economic injury disaster loan program that's the program that provides up to ten thousand dollar grant on the front end and then a low-interest loan the other thing we did is we made sure that it covers farmers and that was something that that I expressly worked on to get so now farmers qualify both for PPP but also for the economic injury disaster loan program for both of those programs so that's important then the other piece of course in this case up lamenting is another seventy five billion for our hospitals we tried to get a focus on rural hospitals and twenty five billion for testing and of course governor you've done a beautiful job of talking about the importance of testing so another twenty five billion that will come out to the states for testing the only other piece I'll mention is for our energy industry obviously more work needs to be done I know the Industrial Commission led by governor burgum is war King on the energy piece we're also trying to make sure that we're bringing vital assistance there for the smaller companies the Paycheck protection plan for companies that aren't able to use PPP we're working on the market stabilization program that was funded under the cares Act it's called section 13 3 and I've been doing a lot of work with Secretary of Energy Rowlett and Secretary of Treasury minuchin to get that program in a form that works so that for our energy companies they can either use PPP or that 13-3 market stabilization facility to get access to credit so critically important and the other pieces I have a bipartisan bill to purchase oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve we originally had that in the Kerr's Act the house did not agree to it so now we're going back to get it i have bipartisan support for it in the Senate and we got it through the Senate last time but I also now have a companion bill in the house bipartisan we've got five Democrats helping lead the charge there in the house so we hope this time we can get that help for our energy producers as well so again just some updates on the cares Act and the cares supplemental I think those are the main points other than once again thanks for letting me join you and thanks for your great leadership governor appreciate it very much and and it's all all of our great North Dakotans you're doing a fabulous job keep it up Thanks senator Hoeven I know you'll stick around for questions afterwards so thank you for that thanks for that update and again when we go through this you think about certain people end up in certain positions at certain time and maybe was meant to be but I just know as North Dakotans were so fortunate to have somebody in the US Senate who understands business understands banking understands agriculture understands energy understands the needs of small business understands our state so again thank you for advocating so hard for for everyone here okay other things we want to provide as updates again on the clarity that has come out last night that will help people around the state I've said generically to all the local political subdivisions and whether that's a you know a County a Township a city municipality and even if you're like a local rural EMS that's a government entity where you've got a rural local ambulance service I've been telling everybody all along keep your receipts because one of the things that we did always think that in this money that the North in North Dakota was getting that if you had things that were above and beyond what your budgets were before they were specifically related to kovat that they could be reimbursed and that's exactly the guidance we got so again for expenses between March 1st and December 30th of this year if it wasn't part of your budget prior if it was an additional expense it may be eligible for us to be able to use state funds and so again whether you're an even if you're a state agency or anybody that's working on this we want to make sure don't wait to the future to start creating a very clear accounting about those incremental expenses because those are all going to be reimbursable under the federal the federal guidelines a couple other updates relating to to the unemployment insurance we're making good progress on the the computer software programming and barring any technical issues this relates to the aging mainframe you've heard me talk about too frequently here but we again are hoping to pay these benefits by next week there'll be some phasing in to the payments as we need to contact some of the applicants for further information on those applicant applications but again were we're doing that and I'm also happy to report that under the guidelines we could actually replace the aging mainframe as part of critical infrastructure so expect to see a proposal for that anyway the the F PUC payments are all being made weekly back payments have been completed that was those three chances of 20,000 payments each going back to 60,000 weeks of Putin not 60,000 people but 60,000 weeks worth might have been 15,000 people times four weeks but that additional those were the separate $600 payment that was not in the software before because the program didn't exist so now we're paying that on top of that and then the additional $600 payment will be added to all the UI benefits going forward up until when that expires on July 30th 2020 wait times that was a problem that was identified on the phone system callers are getting dropped while waiting to talk we've made some changes to that phone system to address the issue we're also looking we are adding additional staff and job service notes staff to the phone queues to help answer calls that come in so again thank you for your patience as we try to handle three years worth of processes in the last month so again the team over there working hard and we're working hard to get them the systems to keep up next topic has to do with behavioral health we have one of these every every day we know that well we're dealing with a physical issue called the corona virus that the global pandemic we know that behavioral health a burden is increasing because behavioral health is affected by stress and anxiety it's affected by financial distress it could be affected by rapid changes like hey my childcare provider closed and I've got an aging parent that I can't see in a nursing home or I've got kids home from school that I've got to try to help with them with their homework while I'm also trying to do my job remotely and some of you are doing all of those things at the same time and we've got incredible empathy and respect for you as you navigate through this historic time we're committed to continuing to support our citizens mental health and we want to make sure that you know that we're making decisions here based on data and we want you to be able to have information for you and your children based on facts not on fear but one of the things that we know from the Kaiser Family Foundation big national foundation they were doing a national survey exploring the mental health issues associated with it and they did a poll and they were comparing those that were sheltering in place and of course we know that that was a big topic of states that had shelter in place and in if we pull up that slide and take a look at the the quick results from that it showed that a 47% of people that were sheltering in place almost ten points higher than residents who are not sheltering in place we know that there is we knew there was additional consequences to this we're pleased to be among the states that has had a light touch of government and a heavy reliance on individual responsibility and and again we want to remind people that getting outdoors enjoying great North Dakota is something everybody can do we encourage people to maintain physical distance from others while you're doing that but again getting exercise great a great way getting some fresh air is a great way to help manage some of that that stress the we again we've been really careful in our response we've talked about you know we've been using a scalpel rather than a sledge hammer to make sure that we're responding appropriately and trying to to limit pressure on our economy and of course as we said earlier our major effort right now across the eight work streams is is how do we make sure that we get our North Dakota restart coming that would be phased and appropriate that would allow us to get closer and back to a new normal and do that safely i if we can keep up for another second the that last slide on the disaster distress hotline want to make sure that people know that if you look in the lower right hand corner but there's a that's available 7 by 24 365 days a year if you're experiencing emotional distress related to anything whether it's a natural disaster a human cause disaster uh pandemic you can call one eight hundred nine eight five five nine nine oh you can also text talk with us to six six seven four six and you'll be connected with the Train counselor that of course will be all confidential and and if you didn't catch either those you can go to our behavioral health dot MD gov website and and you can find out many of the resources that we've talked about over the past days but again take care of yourself first as they say put your own mask on first that used to relate to airline oxygen masks but I think again here it applies that if you're a parent wearing a dozen different hats make sure you're taking care of yourself and don't be afraid to ask for help next quick update we've been giving an update every day if we're going to have robust contact tracing we need to and make sure that this is one of the ways to get ourselves opened up again is using technology that is completely confidential and private and anonymous is a way to do that the care 19 Android app has been launched in addition done on Apple we've now got 23,000 people that have downloaded that thank you for those people that have done that who've downloaded and enabled their location services and again it the Google is not apparently yet have it up on the Google Play Store but it can be directly downloaded going to a North Dakota website be legendary dot link so be legendary not link instead accom so be legendary dot link /kr 19 and you can get it downloaded on your Android device you can help us save lives with automated contact tracing to help us be North Dakota smart as we stop the spread and trigger our North Dakota smart restart another this I just call a public service announcement related to something that the Bank of North Dakota gets involved with every year and that's the National Financial be and that's be with two E's behind it not the letter B that's like a spelling bee the National Financial bee has been going on for some time it's for students in grades 7 to 12 it's sponsored in part by the Bank of North Dakota and the national organization called everFi currently there are 1,200 North Dakota students signed up to participate there's still time to sign up before the contest closes on April 30th it's got five 15-minute modules that you can take to help advance your financial literacy and you get to compete for scholarships the top prize $10,000 again join those 1,200 North Dakota 7 through 12 students that are already signed up join them and and see if you can advance your financial literacy more information can be found at the Bank of North Dakota website be ndnd gov next topic under the good news section which we always have every day is this is we're in this incredible situation that that few would have ever predicted that the globe might find itself in and many of us are so focused right now on day-to-day tasks and again whether that's you know planning safe trips at the grocery store finding something to keep people occupied at home caring for loved ones getting schoolwork done it's a very very busy time for many people but the State Historical Society is reminding us that is also a historic time in North Dakota and just as we might travel over to the the Heritage Center or go view something online and say wow this is what was really going on in the 1930s during the Depression incredible what people lived through you're going through that historic time right now so the North Dakota Historical Society is asking North Dakotans to help document these times with wood by donating digital stories personal reflections photos home videos to be preserved for future generations wanting to learn how individuals and families were affected by and how they creatively responded to kovat 19 for more information about how you can contribute your stories your images your videos and your creative ideas about life during the pandemic you can go to state museum ND gov slash share your story and join others in helping to document these historic times so we can teach future generations about our families our work our health our education our lives were affected how we coped and how we responded and persevered and how we innovated during a time of disruption so again thank you for that in closing when it shares some special folks today that were that are doing a great job in North Dakota because so
many of you are and the first is we want to highlight the over 5,000 North Dakotans who are living today with lifelong developmental disabilities and these individuals need support to live as independently as possible some of these five in north dakotans with lifelong developmental disabilities are still going to work everyday whether that's in a grocery store or other businesses that remain open others may have special vulnerabilities in addition to their developmental disability and they've had to shelter at home and learn a new way of life in response to Kovan 19 in North Dakota we've got a terrific group of direct support professionals their work at community providers around North Dakota and they help everyday with individuals with developmental disabilities on any given day even without a pandemic these direct support professionals are heroes with big hearts and they help to protect our neighbors with disabilities from exposure to kovat 19 while supporting as normal a life and the stronger routine as possible they provide a delicate mix of health care work supports and social supports to our neighbors and friends with developmental disabilities and as they continue to provide these excellent supports through the the extra challenges of the Cova 19 emergency we want to say thank you today to all those direct support professionals for everything they do also one other quick shout out we want to give a shout out to Kathleen Wrigley she organized a shiloh prayer parade today outside the capital right before senator Hoeven and I were taking to the podium and again they we are prayer the prayers and thoughts and kindnesses that we receive every day from people around the state are so welcomed we know that maintaining strong spiritual base is one of the ways that North Dakota's have always gotten through hardships in the past we want to thank Kathleen and all those that joined in today for for that for their effort to remind us of that importance and also because they did it with excellent excellent physical distancing so a way to go again thank you for being with us today we're going to be back tomorrow at 3:30 and but right now we've got senator Hoeven here and we'll be happy to take take questions Dave thank you Dave way to go Dave Thompson from Prairie public I would I would doubt that senator believe yeah I think you spin here at the Capitol ever since if you need any institutional memory for anything it's a repository messed up I saw some very odd facts anyway just there's been talk already that maybe this supplemental money for the BPP is going to run off fast perhaps maybe it you know a week or 10 days or something like that are there plans of the words to do maybe another you know it's been a successful program and I think though it will continue to get support so I think what we've said all along is we passed the cares legislation it's two trillion dollars and that's a lot a lot of dollars let's make sure we use them very very effectively and then where there is additional need we address it but but let's make sure we use that funding and so that's how we've approached the PPP act you know initially the 350 billion now we've added we were planning on an additional 250 billion as I said it's 310 billion so we'll see but let's make sure that we're using the money as effectively as possible and I think that's the goal and that's why you know we talked about the the coronavirus Relief Fund think about that so 1.25 billion dollars comes into North Dakota they have that at the Bank of North Dakota now well we want to make sure that governor Berg um in the state of North Dakota at our leadership here and we have great leadership in North Dakota that they can use it in a way that makes sense for North Dakota and that's what this was all about today talking about how we're now able to use it for the unemployment insurance fund same thing with all these other programs so the short answer your question is yes I would expect there would be based on the need as long as the the program is doing a good job but to me that's very important in terms of the approach we take because it at the end of the day we have to remember our taxpayers and and the costs of these programs as well right would that be Congress or Treasury or God some combination of those well certainly the SBA is primary but ultimately Treasury and I think there'll be congressional oversight as well and already you've seen you know that in some cases some bigger companies are getting this that was not the intent that should not be happening and so I think we are going to work to make sure that it goes to our small businesses in line with the guidelines and and for small businesses that have that need and I believe you will see more oversight on it and you should again let's make sure we're meeting the need and doing it in the right way how much time does it take to determine that kind of thing in terms of jobs retained and that kind of thing and you've already seen like I say some of these issues about where is the money going is it going to the right places is it truly going to small businesses that need it there's certifications that go with the application originally and I believe there will be additional certifications that go with the loan forgiveness at that point which will probably be you know a month or so out where again then the small business owner would come back and certify that yes you know they have a loss and that they need that forgiveness in other cases they may do better there they may not need to forgive this and so then they just end up with a low-interest loan they pay back so again I think that'll be part of the process did that answer your question we begin reports that there's a some hedge fund investments that have been taking advantage of the PPP as well what kind of I guess what can be done to avoid that kind of thing from happening the second time around right well remember part of the challenge here was getting these programs out and and moving quickly and getting assistance to businesses so they'd keep their employers attached to the business and and you know not have people without a job so part of the challenge that goes with getting the program's out quickly is you are going to have to make some adjustments that's one that you've just identified I think absolutely we have to look at that again make sure that it truly is small business that's getting the funds and then as far as the forgiveness for businesses that have had difficulty that are getting the forgiveness so that's gonna be an ongoing effort we're already looking at it and it needs to continue how much would be 1.25 billion North Dakota is getting from the federal coronavirus relief fund will go towards unemployment thanks Andy that's a to be determined and it would depend first of all there hasn't been any determination but that's where the dollars would go what we're announcing last night as the dollars can go there I mean it was one of the big asks that we made of Senator Dovan because early on and he advocated it got included in the guidance last night because when we look at 1.25 billion and you said you can only use it for a coronavirus expenses states like North Dakota weren't going to get close to 1.25 billion of expenses I mean not with you know field hospitals going unused and and us being able to manage it with primarily with existing healthcare so we've got expenses and those expenses you know I'm sure could run in the hundreds of millions but they won't get over a billion if you said what's the biggest possible category of expense related to this if you do scenarios where we've got high unemployment through the end of the year we might need 500 million dollars to replace that unemployment insurance fund so this was an obvious big chunk of change that was not part of our budget going forward wasn't anybody's budget plan was all driven by kovat 19 and so very appropriate that this was included in different states will take different approaches to this but as I said if we found out that we had other things that hadn't se a higher possible return on investment in terms of getting North Dakota started we could and we could now we've got clear eligibility we could use that 1.25 for that and we do have the option to be able to borrow federally at low interest to replenish that unemployment insurance so there is a backstop for unemployment insurance with borrowing but if we do that that might also increase the burden of the rates that you charge each of those those businesses so it's TBD and and again that process will have to go through an appropriation process here in North Dakota which will certainly include a emergency Commission at a minimum okay we're going to go online and maybe got an online question for Senator Hoeven okay well next if your online senator opens here Robin Travers is 660 Katie why is the in Williston can asymptomatic individuals be tested as well as those showing symptoms right the answer is yes they can be tested but what we're looking for right now would be people who've got a a belief that they either have it because they're symptomatic and if you're asymptomatic and you've been in close contact with people that you are known positives then tell that to your provider and you're likely eligible to get a test but if you are someone who's got no symptoms and as in no contact with positives then we would likely have providers that would say to you know you don't need a test right now so but the answer is yes you can get tested and of course what we're will be talking about down the road you know with much broader testing when we talk about antibody testing then we want to test all kinds of people were asymptomatic to find out if they previously had it so that but that's not not at that stage yet because those tests aren't available yet in North Dakota but if the if you got any reason to think that you've been in contact with someone who's positive please get tested Lane governor in assisted living facility in Minot is reportedly suing yourself and the Department of Health over the executive order that shut down their beauty salon that was on site any comments on that yeah I've just been notified of that and I don't want to have the sound too formal but that would be an ongoing lawsuit so we will make any comments to that specific I will say that we understand very empathetically that in whether you're in long-term care or whether you're not in long-term care for in for people and maybe perhaps for elderly people having a you've got a personal relationship with a person that's your personal care provider getting your hair done maybe depending on age and generational thing that may be something that's part of perceived part of the dignity that someone has that might be living in a long term care facilities so we're deeply empathetic we also understand that the the the rate of of where we can have the highest and fastest rate of outbreak that could be fatal would be inside of long-term care facilities so that's why we're talking about the long term long term care you know our vp3 the vulnerable protection plan that we're working on and then you now you've got an intersection of something that by definition puts people within transmissible contact for more than fifteen minutes which is what we were trying to avoid or limit with our targeted or targeted efforts to close those personal care businesses and you intersect a transmission ulm n't with a vulnerable population and that would just by anybody's evaluation be putting risk on top of risk so we'll we'll let you know take a look at the lawsuit but meanwhile we're gonna try to work to both reopen personal care businesses and protect our elderly and this is at the intersection of that difficult spot Jacob do you worry about other lawsuits coming your way over these executive orders I don't worry about them I'm certain they'll come and we'll have less than then then I'm sure any other state because we closed fewer businesses than the other states but I'm sure they'll they'll come it's a when you've got a point in history that's never happened before it it tends to test existing laws and and so it'll there will be a I'm sure a legal bonanza of lawsuits coming out the backside of this as people try to sort their way through but for right now you know we're just every day focused on serving the people in North Dakota and some of these some of these legal cases may may or may not have legs or they may become mute because some of them may be coming by the time we've already reopened or whatever so I don't spend a lot of I'm worrying about that right now we consider everything and we we do take a look at the law before we make a decision and we feel quite confident that everything we've done so fall far falls well within the parameters that we have under the emergency powers online for Senator Hoeven our radio vice president Mike Pence said today that the current trend suggests this coronavirus epidemic could largely be behind us by Memorial Day weekend do you agree with that statement well I certainly agree with vice president pence as optimism and and I would just have to say he's done a fantastic job leaning the coronavirus task force you know he has sometimes two calls a week with every governor in the in the nation they stay on the line they take every question that everybody has he's got his team there if a governor's got a question they answer it they get somebody assigned to it from an action standpoint he's calling people back personally so he's been impressive and I just say we're grateful I think every governor in the nation is grateful that we have a former governor as a vice president just as Senator Hoeven as a former governor having former governors in these roles they really help understand what we need but as we also known as I know the vice president and his team including dr. Fauci and dr. Burks understand that the the curves are different for each state and I think well that could be a generalization for the whole nation you know we're we were North Dakota were we were late to the game in terms of the coronavirus coming here later and we're trying to be first to reopen that would be an ideal situation if we can do that but I understand why why he might say that based on looking at data for the whole country but we've got a regardless of what any official says we've got to look at the data for North Dakota and make decisions here based on our situation and Scott I can't believe you don't have a question for Senator Hoeven but but anyway thank you for the question okay who any who's next Dave going back to the 1.25 billion you've got somebody going to why potentially potentially what kind of things can you spend it on and what can't you spend well the they've outlined very clearly what you can spend it on and I'm sure there'll be tests on on that on the limits again when states are submitting their expenses to the federal but some of the public health expenses including you know communication and enforcement of health orders acquisition distribution of medical and PPE like the stuff that's gone into our cash or that we've already provided out you know disinfection of public areas technical assistance to local authorities the you know and then again facilitating compliance with public health fills facilitation of distance learning improvement of telework we've talked about the computer and phone systems would be eligible you know maintaining all of our our state correctional facilities and county jails in a safe way whether that's including you know improving Santa you know upgrading the disinfecting sanitation improving social distancing measures care for the vulnerable population including homeless and domestic violence which we've talked about previously we've announced those programs anticipating that they would be covered by this and they are and so again we're very pleased with the with how this is listed and of course medical expenses koban 19 related expenses also fits into this as well and again as you heard from senator Hoeven advocating strongly I mean I think between the the cares Act there's a hundred billion dollars for hospital in the new legislation this week I believe there's another seventy billio
for hospitals and so we know that hospitals have seen a big demand shock in terms of a drop and demand for their services but the federal government has stepped up in a huge way to help support them so we're very pleased but the the biggie among other things was the language that Senator Hoeven fought for that helped us make sure that we could spend it because a week ago unemployment insurance wasn't in there and as you heard from me that could be our single largest expense and it was not included so that's a huge thing that we're able to consider using that for shoring up our in unemployment insurance trust I'm sure that's a relief to all of our legislators when they heard that so thanks on behalf all the legislators to because they would have it would have competed we would have had to refill it if we didn't have a way it would have been competing for dollars you know from any everything else we spend in state government so this that announcement last night took a lot of pressure off of the remaining biennium budget and also the 2123 budget going back to the MMIS replacement which was tens of millions of dollars how much is going to replace it to replace the mainframe apt java service scaled yet but a lot of the you know when when you move off an aging mainframe like that likely we wouldn't even be buying a piece of equipment we probably would just be buying you know we'd have software they would run in the cloud and we'd be buying services cloud-based services and he'd have you know more security more flexibility at lower cost I mean some of these IT replacements cost of IT is actually going down as security and power is going up and so that's the good thing we just need you need the flexibility to go ahead and do that gonna go Lane and then online governor with states like Georgia opening up soon do you feel like people might become impatient and start to disregard CDC guidelines we've talked about this from beginning I think that there's we've really focused on individual responsibilities in North Dakota but even if you focus on individual responsibilities particularly as the weather is getting nice in North Dakota there's what I'll call compliance fatigue that will set in and then particularly I think people are correlating the fact that we've had relatively low numbers there they might conclude that because of our low numbers look we didn't have to do any of this in the first place that would be the wrong conclusion I mean North Dakota is benefited from the rest of the nation shutting down and we've benefited from everything else that we're doing here and that's one of the reasons we've got low numbers and low deaths and low case counts so I mean there's one conclusion that you can have you can stop a global pandemic with with physical distancing because you do not literally give the virus a chance to jump from human and so the number of transmissible contacts went down the number of cases went down that that absolutely worked as other states look to open up we knew this because we knew that other states could be on the way down when we were on the way up you know we've been trending up the last week when other states are trending down so it's going to be a challenging communications issue it's going to be a challenging discipline for the people in North Dakota but we have to remember why we got in this and that was to try to protect those that were most vulnerable and I think we're on a run a good path but regardless of what other states do we have to make decisions that are work for the citizens of North Dakota so we could monitor and learn from other states other states you know get wide open and have have a you know a resurgence or a flare-up or a you know community outbreak that will help us understand what we need to do here to make sure that doesn't happen here I mean we learn from nursing home outbreaks in Washington New Jersey that you know where it's gone up other places with multiple deaths you know thirty five in Washington and one facility seventy and one in New Jersey that's creating a lot of urgency here for us to make sure that we continue to fight hard to protect those people you asked the question for Senator Hoeven he's busy working over there on his phone he's he's cutting a deal he's texted he's texting McConnell or something over there on the phone Tom's Thomas Simon Williston trending topics the president has a pretty big bully pulpit how do you see your role as a blocker for governor burgum so he can focus on making the best decisions for North Dakota without pressure from the White House you know first of all I think governor Bergen works very closely with the administration they have regular conference calls with the president with a vice president with a task force with cabinet officials so I you know you can ask him but I think he's got a very good working relationship with the administration I think in terms of my role you saw that here today the state of North Dakota we worked in the cares act 1.25 billion for the coronavirus Relief Fund that's great but it's got to come in a way that the state of North Dakota can use it and so this was a key change in terms of create empowering the state and not just North Dakota but all the states to be able to use that money as effectively as possible remember that hundred and fifty billion dollar fund that's just one fund as the governor said then you've got a hundred billion for the hospital fund which we just added 75 billion - okay but again it's got to comment away where the states can use it and the states are gonna have very different needs so for that coronavirus relief fund New York may need to use it in a certain way because they have so many cases of coronavirus out here it's going to be different but we have real impacts to our businesses and our workers that we've got to address and now we're going to be able to do that whereas before we couldn't no words we could have gotten that 1.25 billion and not been able to use it when you have very big needs in North Dakota well that doesn't work does it so that's why it's so important that working with the governor working with the administration working with my colleagues in the Senate and the house with Senator Kramer and congressman Armstrong we're able to make sure that these programs can be used in a way that's effective for North Dakota thanks for the question Jacob and Eve want me to open up the economy on Friday wondering if you have any concerns about employees suing their employers over catching coronavirus when returning to the workplace well rephrase your statement because we haven't given a date we did extend our executive orders through April 30th and we've given our eight criteria but we've not given any guidance about any reopening is on Friday so I want to make sure we're clear on that we're following the data not the calendar but the I think that there again as we said if there are people that are concerned with their about their work conditions the first place to talk to is your employer employers in any environment want to make sure they take care of their employers I've talked to a set of employers last night on a call and I you know hearing great examples of what people are doing to protect their their team members and we've got North Dakota employers that with you know that have that are based in North Dakota that operate in multiple states and there are lots of different jurisdictions some of them with thousands of employees and they've had zero coronavirus cases and so we know that's there's success models to pattern after and that's part of what we're going to be focusing on on the North Dakota smart restart but I think there will be you will hear concerns from some employees from some employers and again we would encourage them your first stop talk to your employer because we know that employers care about their workforce if they don't then again OSHA I mean occupational safe and health their health and safety standards is another place to you know touch base with if you've got a real complaint but that some of those are gonna in the state's not going to get between some of those and that'll be between the employee and the employer just like it might have been without the pandemic there's you know always people that may feel that their work environment isn't as safe as it should be and they've got you know first avenue talk to your employers and they're in our country thankfully there's lots of safeguards for employees to to get their concerns resolved and if they think it's an issue of discrimination related to it of course then you can call our own secretary labor here our labor commissioner but if it's related to workplace health or safety OSHA should be the contact be and then online just quickly governor walls in Minnesota basically said schools are shut down for the remainder of the school year and I know you've been kind of leading maybe toward that direction because everything's online and things are going well does any reaction to what the governor did I know I know reaction and I wouldn't even I wouldn't hurt to characterize what I've done as leaning one direction other we've tried to be not shading one way or the other we've talked a lot about seniors and trying to rescue some of the senior year I know that Montana is looking at getting some or at least giving school districts the option that maybe some of their rural school districts might get back in their building sometime in May so we've got neighbors that are approaching at different ways we'll continue to look at what all our neighbors are doing but we got to make decisions here based on our own our own data and since you did bring up Minnesota there was one other thing we have had a lot of questions around travel to lake cottages which is another thing which is only fits a segment of people but I wanted to be clear about that the question was if they went over to their cottage came back to North Dakota did you have to quarantine for 14 days and so I want to be clear there was a misquote earlier that somehow I was encouraging people to go to their cottages that would be inconsistent with me every day saying they follow the North Dakota smart which includes no non-essential travel so there was never any encouragement but I was also I have been on radio programs that are here talking about two words common sense and common sense would apply that if someone were to travel to their own property across a border in another state whether it's to get food out of a freezer that's rotting or change check mousetraps or take some shutters off on a Sunday afternoon or rake their lawn if they're doing that in maintaining physical distance and then coming back in North Dakota and they've not bought gas haven't been to a grocery store you know haven't been to a fourth of July party with 500 people if you haven't done any of that here in April when the ice is still on the lake in Minnesota if you do that and see no one and come back you do not have to quarantine okay I mean that's just common sense because you could be I mean you you could be at one of our big-box retailers and have more contact with people you know during a shopping outing then you could go into your cabin and back so again I just want to make sure that we've got common sense and again as it relates to this this you know shared communities we have on on the Minnesota border in making that work you know a common sense on Monday I had our d-o-t check we had 49 thousand vehicles cross the i-94 bridge between Fargo and Moorhead I mean there there let me assure people there's no mechanism to to know whether a car coming across that bridge was at a solo trip for a few hours to check on their lake cottage to make sure it made through the winter or whether they were returning from Walgreens in Moorhead where they had a prescription filled or whether there's someone who lives in Moorhead and works in Fargo either in a manufacturing setting a nurse or something else and so we these are these are communities that are that are integrated across that those two communities and we've got you know in a day we got forty nine thousand crossings there I don't think we got 49,000 people that might have made solo trips to check on their lake cottages so let's again focus on proportionality let's use common sense and let's again as neighbors are the good neighbors we've always been with Minnesota we'll continue to be good neighbors and I want to be clear to governor Walz I'm not encouraging people to go to their lake cottages but we are certainly saying that if you've made that trip and you've done it smartly and not had contact you do not need to to quarantine when you come back to North Dakota thank you for being North Dakota smart even when you're visiting your Minnesota property okay Jacob and I think it's just this is laughing one more question the senator then we'll wrap up after that senator you noted that there would be support for another PPP after this wondering if there's a certain number that's supposed to be aimed for or if there's another hitch in this rollout like the one in the first one that you might be expecting you know again I think we have to assess it as we go right that's just the intelligent way to do it and you know we've been talking about the business programs today or I've talked a lot about the UI program unemployment insurance they help for small business PPP so what I would say to you is I think there will be more based on the need and the effectiveness of the program and that's something we need to keep assessing as we go forward but we need to do that and I'm glad you asked that question because we need to do that in other programs too for example in this bill that the Supplemental to the corona cares Act we've added seventy five billion dollars we know there's a need out there for rural hospitals and not just hospitals but other health care providers to nursing homes look at where that vulnerable population is so just like working with governor burgum and his team we make changes in the coronavirus relief fund in the hospital in the funds that come out to the hospitals the health care centers the nursing homes the work we do with our farmers the energy industry all of these programs are going to take a lot of work to make them effective so we have to assess what's working what's not working recognize it's can be different in different parts of the country give flexibility to the great leaders that we have in the governor's around the country and other local leadership our mayor's are doing a phenomenal job legislators empower them to do what works for their citizens the best government is the government closest to the people so this is going to be an ongoing process and I think your question contemplates that let's do this in the most intelligent effective and cost-effective way possible and again God thank you appreciate it very much Thank You senator Hoeven and thank you North Dakota for tuning in Thank You media that was here and online and again we'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow at 3:30 stay healthy North Dakota [Music] you you
