After labor day. Speaker nancy pelosi briefed reporters about the democrats agenda in congress. Speaker pelosi good morning, everyone. Well, yesterday, we had a culmination of a lot of work over a period of time to pass the caps agreement in a very strong bipartisan way on the floor of the house. Of course, i always want more, but it was bipartisan, and it was a compromise. It ended sequestration. For what that means in the lives of the American People, sequestration is a place you go when you cant Reach Agreement and you start cutting how we meet the needs of the American People in a very indiscriminate way. Its harmful to children and other living things. Its harmful to our national security. Its over. We avoided a shutdown for the moment. We still have to go through the appropriations process, but the way the legislation was written for bipartisan agreement on any for us to proceed on any extraordinary measures, i think we have forestalled any prospect of a shutdown. Offsets, they wanted overwhelming offsets, we have half of what they wanted. They even wanted more than that. It was good because what we were offset investments we make in people. And we just werent going to go to that place. Arity, im always fighting for parity. To the extent you increase defense budget, you have to increase the domestic budget. Except this time we got 10 billion more than parity. Our fight was to get more funding for our veterans. That was a constant fight for us because the needs keep growing. And also this time in a onetime situation for the census. So that we can have, as the constitution requires, an accurate count of who lives in america. One of the issues of interest to the secretary of the treasury was the debt ceiling. Thats of interest to all of us. The full faith and credit of the United States of america should never be doubt. The constitution says that. And now we removed all doubt at least until july 31, 2021. This is a very long debt lifting, they call it suspension of the debt limit. You saw on wednesday the testimony of we dont call him special counsel anymore, mr. Robert mueller. Well go more into that if you wish. One focus i want to make is in his testimony he said that the russians are attacking our elections in sweeping and systemic fashion, and that they are doing it as we sit here. The disruption of our election that happened in 2016, and now they are doing it again. That was wednesday. When mr. Mueller testified on that. Yesterday the Senate Intelligence committee released a bipartisan report showing that the election systems in all 50 states were targeted by russia. Yet the president calls this a hoax. And senator mcconnell refuses to act. Just the other day in the senate, there were a number of bills, one of ours, the safe act, that would save our federal elections act, that the republicans objected to bringing to the floor. This is about patriotism for our country. Our electoral system is the heart of the matter of our democracy. And yet the republicans still continue to say no need to protect that. The path that we have is one that respects that the states manage our elections, but when it comes to federal elections, we want them to have the resources to do their job well. So we will continue to legislate on that score. Legislate, investigate, and litigate. On that, on other issues mr. Mueller testified to as well. Yesterday on steps of the capitol, perhaps you were there, we celebrated the 200 days of progress that we built on progress are making for the American People. Building on our promise to the American People for the people in the election. Lower health care costs,lower h, lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs, we sent the senate 10 bills to Lower Health Care costs and Prescription Drug prices. Reverse the g. O. P. s sabotage of the health care, and strengthening the preexisting conditions benefits. Lower health care costs, bigger paychecks by building the infrastructure of america, and agreeing in a modern way. We secured paycheck fairness by equal pay for equal work which we passed in the house. Raising the minimum wage 15 an hour. Over 30 Million People will get a raise in our country. Over 20 million of them are women. As we pass other initiatives in our appropriations process antirest to build the infrastructure of america. Lower health care costs, bigger paychecks, cleaner overnment. Clean up corruption, reduce the role of big dark money in washington. We passed h. R. 1 for the people. Well be passing the Voting Rights act that is part of that, as well as we did pass the safe act. We really do call upon the senate to pass a version of the afe act. We go out now for our district work period, democrats intend to own august. To make so many of the bills that we passed too hot to handle for the republicans in the senate. Not to raise the minimum wage, or End Gun Violence by commonsense gun violence prevention measures. Equal pay for equal work. The list goes on and on. We are very, very proud of the work that our members have done. We will be across the country, drumbeat across america, Lower Health Care cost, bigger paychecks, cleaner overnment. With that ill be pleased to take any questions. Same old, same old. Here we go. Reporter when you were becoming speaker again for a second time, you once said that you want to show americans what the power of the gavel. Some have been critics said that here you are a San Francisco representative, known as one who is very liberal, yet not fully using the gavel for some of the priorities, starting with impeachment, then some of the others, what we saw in the Homeland Security bill. What do you say to those who are critical of what has been done so far in the house . Ms. Pelosi as you are probably aware, republicans had 137,000 ads in their view criticizing me as a San Francisco liberal. In my view im very proud to have that. Nothing is a bigger honor to me than to represent San Francisco in the congress. I say any honor my colleagues give me, speaker, leader, whip, whatever it has been over time cannot match the privilege of walking on the floor of the house to speak for the people of San Francisco. And i do that for them. S speaker, i have to bring unity to our caucus and to do so with the boldest common denominator in our caucus. I say to our members your Job Description and job title are one and the same. Representatives. And i consider myself a weaver, ust at the loom, just making all of those threads come together in the boldest possible way. And im very proud of being the speaker of the house. In doing so in the boldest way. What we are advocating is a Progressive Agenda for our country. Reporter mr. Muellers hearing you said some of your democrat colleagues, you are simply trying to run out the clock on impeachment. Are you trying to run out the clock . Ms. Pelosi im not trying to run out the clock. Lets get sophisticated about his, ok. Well proceed when we have what we need to proceed. Not one day sooner. And everybody has the liberty and luxury to espouse their own position and to criticize me for trying to go down the path in the most determined, positive way. Gain, their advocacy for impeachment only gives me leverage. I have no complaints with what they are doing. But i know i keep calling him special counsel mueller, mr. Mueller said the other day, confirmed. Confirmed in the public mind that the president has obstructed justice. You know what he said. If he could have exonerated him he would have. But he didnt. He was not able to investigate the president s finances, personal business or otherwise, thats what we are doing in the courts. So im willing to take whatever heat there is there to say when the decision will be made in a timely fashion. This isnt endless. When we have the best, strongest possible case. Thats not endless, either. It may be endless in terms of the violations that the president s engaged in. But thats what i say to you. Reporter madam speaker, do you think you are able to bury the hatchet with alexandria ocasiocortez in your meeting . Ms. Pelosi i dont think there was a hatchet. Reporter she was disrespectful. Ms. Pelosi thats political arena. I have some level of confidence and joy in seeing diversity in ur caucus. We are the democratic party. Ever since i came here, we have been engaged in differences of opinion in our caucus. That is a good thing. We are not a lockstep, rubber stamp representation of anything except representatives of our district and what that means. In our caucus we have our differences. Respect that instead of making a big issue of it. Respect that. Those are differences and how we express ourselves as representatives of our districts is our responsibility. I have never seen yesterday we had 219 votes for the bill. Anybody asking any questions about that . 219, very unified, very unified caucus in doing what we needed to do for the american eople. Even though it was a compromise. Even though it was a compromise. I certainly wanted more. But it was a compromise. When we win the white house and win the United States senate, and we continue to win the house of representatives, well have more leverage in that conversation. But i dont think i would never even say it was a hatchet. But i do think that we sat down today, we had a good meeting. And the congresswoman is a very gracious member of congress. We had a very positive conversation about our districts and how we represent them. Our country. And how we need to meet the needs, the diversity of america, and challenges we face in terms of issues and how immigration nd people are respected. Again referenced Ronald Reagan as opposed to the current occupant of the white house. I feel i have always felt again, just like you are in a family. A family, you have your differences. You are still family. Does that happen in your family . Does your family agree on everything . Reporter sometimes you have meetings to clear the air. Ms. Pelosi you have meetings in your family . You might be a model for us. We just had a meeting to clear the air. Reporter what are your differences with ms. Pelosi im not going into that. Reporter you have a diverse caucus. Ms. Pelosi when i came to congress the fight was on how we deal with what was happening in central america. Who would become speaker, eventually jim wright. He was speaker when i got here. He would then be the leader in the fight to stop the aid to the contras. Republicans went after him. But our caucus was divided on the subject. Certainly thereafter it was nafta, very big division in the aucus. Before your time. Very big division on nafta. Then the war in iraq, you may not know, ranking member, adam schiff at the time, hes chairman, i was only the top democrat, we didnt have the majority. I said intelligence did not support the threat. They said calling the president liar. I said im not calling him a liar im stating a fact. The congress is not supporting the threat that the president is using for a justification of war. People were saying to me men then, are you never going any place in this party unless you vote for this war. I didnt vote for it and the majority of our democrats didnt vote for it. And senator graham didnt vote for it. Democrat Senate Leader on the Intelligence Committee in the house, our members, in the senate they voted for t it was a ig division. That list goes on and on. Some personality issues and the rest, they are minor. We have a big schism in our country what is happening and could happen in this congress and what is happening in the white house. Everybody knows we have to keep our eye on the ball. Yes, sir. Reporter some of your colleagues think heading into the august recess, leaving impeachment on the table, some think it overshadows the agenda. O you think do you think theres a point when the caucus has to make a decision on this . Ms. Pelosi i dont agree with what they say. I think i have spoken to what i think we need to have on this subject before we go forward. Again, i respect where they are on it with their the breadth of knowledge that they have on the subject. And i respect where i am on it with the breadth of knowledge that i have on the subject. Reporter speaker pelosi. Do you think you better understand the challenges of your job to unify the Democratic Caucus after this meeting today . Ms. Pelosi you have to ask her. Reporter g. D. P. Divisions earlier indicate we did not have 3 growth the way many people expected we would. I would love a bit more of your response, specifically are there any underlying economic factors that most concern you . Is there anything there in the data that gives you cause . Ms. Pelosi i havent seen all he data yet except the figure, that its 2. 1. Closer to 2 1 2. The president used 3 as the standard. I do think that our g. D. P. Will rise when we have when we raise the wage and people have more purchasing power because these are people who will spend, inject demand into the economy and therefore our g. D. P. Will rise. I think it will if wed comprehensive Immigration Reform where everybody is brought into the system in the way that is most productive, economists tell me, you want to grow the economy, have comprehensive Immigration Reform. How we not just have trickle own to grow our economy, but how we have to bubble up. Thats a difference of opinion between our two parties. I think what you saw with that the was that the tax scam they put out there has not produced the growth that the president was boasting would happen. And that it hasnt produced the revenue. Hence we have had to lift the debt ceiling earlier than maybe people had expected. That didnt work. It didnt pay for itself. And it isnt growing the economy to the extent that the president said it would. So i think we have to instead of giving tax breaks to the top 1 , 83 of the benefits to the top 1 , we should have a more compassionate free market system which rewards work and brings any more people into the prosperity of our country. That consumer confidence, that spending, that injecting demand i think will accelerate the growth of our g. D. P. Thank you all very much. Thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]. Heres a look at our primetime schedule on the cspan networks. At 8 00 eastern, parents who lost children in the Parkland School shooting in floridae florida discuss gun violence and school safety. On cspan2, the direct i dont have of immigration and Customs Enforcement discusses oversight of his department. And on cspan3, a discussion about the high cost of Prescription Drugs. Cspans washington journal live every day. Oming up saturday morning, a discussion of the u. S. Mexico border wall and other immigration topics. Then a discussion of boris over as prime minister. And Rolling StonesSenior Writer talks about his piece all american despair caulking talking about the suicide epidemic especially in the southwest. Washington journal, live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern every morning, join the discussion. I was on an airstrip in the remote jungles of guyana having just concluded a congressional delegation tour with thencongressman leo ryan and we were ambushed on that airstrip and shot. Congressman ryan was shot 45 times and died on that airstrip. There were members of the press that died. One defector of the peoples temple who tied. I was shot five times on the right side of my body. Sunday night on q a, California Democratic congresswoman Jackie Speier talks about her memoir undaunted surviving jonestown, summoning cuverage, and fighting back. People say it was a mass suicide, it was not a mass suicide. They were forced to drink this xic brew by jones and he had many of his guards surrounding the pavilion, im sure to make sure that people