Announcer Speaker PelosiSpeaker Pelosi good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here. We have some visitors, virtually. And all of you, thank you. Here we are, a week later. Not quite a week, but in the next week since we passed the heroes act. Im so very, very proud of the substance of it. I have said that our chairs of the committees in jurisdiction were dazzling in how they put together initiatives to meet the needs of the American People. Initiatives to meet the needs of the American People. , and i am proud of the courage of my members to there are three, and im proud of the courage of my members to support the legislation, and i couldnt have been more proud than to hear the debate on the floor. Floor when they talked abt meeting the needs of the American People while the other side was talking about we could take a pause. We dont agree with that. We dont take a pause, because again, hunger, losing your job doesnt take a pause, paying your rent doesnt take a pause, the list goes on. Our legislation had three main pillars. All of which had been supported in a bipartisan way. Policeour heroes, fire, teachers, for providers, transit workers, the list goes on. In many cases, these people are risking their lives to save other peoples lives. Am now, they may lose their jobs. The support for state and local, tribal and territorial governments is about honoring our heroes by enabling them to keep their jobs to help save of thend meet the needs American People. Secondly, we have opened our economy. Everybody wants to do that. There is no question about that. To do so, we have to have testing, tracing, treatment, and isolation if necessary. And that is the science of it all. Let us go forth and a very healthy way in order to open our economy, which we all want to do. Pillare do, the third addresses putting money in the pockets of the American People. Whether it is unemployment insurance, direct payments, helping with rental and mortgage , the issue i want to focus on this morning, hunger, food stamps and Food Security that republicans seem not to want to support and the like. Putting money in the pockets of the American People. There are a few issues we couldnt resolve in previous legislation, but they will be addressed as we go forward. One, again, is the snap issue, hunger in america. In the best of times, it is a challenge. In the worst of times, hopefully theres nothing worse than this. We need to feed the American People. The lines are long in communities to get to food banks, people who never thought they would go to a food bank are now at the mercy of the food bank running out of food. In addition to which, the food issue, the snap issue, the food stamps are a stimulus to the economy. More on that in a moment. So, we have the post office. We have food stamps. We have election assistance. And we have osha. All of these issues relate to the good health and wellbeing of the American People. If there is one word that is a common denominator, one aspect that is a common denominator, out of everything we have talked about, its about health. Our Health Care Workers and all who are there to save lives and keep the American People healthy. The testing to open the economy. It is about health. Its about the good health of the American People. When we talk about the issues of putting money in the pockets of the American People, some of that is about their housing, the food that they need access to. And further medicaid assistance. That is a part of all that. It all comes back down to one basic thing. If you aint got your health, you aint got nothing. My mother used to say that, but not in those words. Much more lovely. More religiously, shall we say. So in any event, when they say let me ask you this, as the speaker of the house, a woman, when i put forth a bill, people say, its not bipartisan, but when the leader of the Senate Mitch Mcconnell puts forth a bill, its a good first start and then we negotiate and we make it bipartisan. We did that with cares one. He had a corporate triple down and we turned it into a workers followup. He did that with his proposal on the interim ppp bill. We didnt like it, it didnt go far enough to lower income under banked communities. Came up with a bipartisan bill. We came up with a bipartisan bill. But those were initiated by the leader in the senate. Republicans putting forth a proposal. I put mine forth, oh my gosh. No, thats the way it is in a negotiation. By the way, as i said, all the main issues in our bill, the three pillars are pillars that have strains in previous. There is nothing new there. Some of the areas we had difficulty though, they had a resistance to feeding the hungry in our country. It is what we make and it is what we believe, with further Public Awareness of the deed we will be successful. Of the need, we will be successful. We do have a fight over funding for elections, vote by mail, which is a health issue. Vote by mail is a health issue, just as food is a health issue. We cannot have people going to places that are predictably dangerous to their health. And again, 49 of the 50 states have asked for the funds that were in previous wills to help bills to help with the vote by mail initiative. Osha, a standard for protection of workers and employers and customers, very important. And we hope that in light of everything happening now, the republicans will see the light of the importance of having worker protections. Safety in the workplace. Again, in the best of times, its essential, and in these times, its absolutely a matter of life and death. And then the post office. Did you know that last year, over one billion, 1. 25 billion packages of medicine were mailed out to the American People . 90 of veterans get their medicine through the mail . So much else, as well, to keep people in the homes and a and have packages delivered at this difficult time. That is a health issue as well. So, with all of that, we are very pleased at where we are. Its lean, its disciplined, its focused on the health of the American People. Health and wellbeing of the American People. It is a way to open up our economy based on science. A real path with a plan, a vision, goals, timetable, milestones, benchmarks to get the job done. And all of this, excellently done by the chairs of the committee. So i couldnt be prouder. We invite, we have no lines drawn in the sand. Let us just proceed as we proceeded when they put their republican only plan forward. We didnt even make a comment about that. It was open for debate. I hope that that will be the case. Not because of anything here. This is the least important of it all. But because of the needs of the American People. Their lives, their livelihoods. Indeed, the life of our democracy. With that, i will be pleased to take any questions. I understand that sarah from politicos first up from politico is first up virtually, remotely. Should we go to we will go to the room first. Has there been any movement from the other side to the negotiating table . Speaker pelosi there will be. We will see. Anybody reaching out to you to have these discussions . Speaker pelosi we will see. I think Public Opinion will be very much our friend in all of this. You have heard me say, as Abraham Lincoln said, public sentiment is everything. With it, you can accomplish almost anything. Without it, practically nothing. The public sentiment out there the last few days i have been on the phone with the conference of mayors, the league of cities, the National Association of counties, and their leadership and the rest. If you go to speaker. Com heroesact, you will see how so many cities, towns, townships, counties, and states across the country are saved by this. And they are saved not only from the cost of the coronavirus to them, outlays of funds, but the loss of revenue that universally, regardless of the amount of infection you may having your community, have in your community, everyone is suffering from loss of revenue. So whether it is that or the scientific support for testing, treating, tracing, it set or, or etc. , or those who care about people having enough to eat or being able to pay their rent or to have money in the pockets of the American People, which is a stimulus. You are putting a ppp based on the that is the only part of the plan that republicans in the senate like. Do you or you might undermine your ability to negotiate on other priorities you have since that is the only thing they really want to do . Speaker pelosi i hope that is not the only thing they want to do. They represent states, counties, communities, townships and the rest. And a good part of this legislation helps those in smaller towns across the country. So i would hope that they would not be ignoring the hunger needs of the American People, the medical needs of the American People, and of course, the Public Service that the states and localities provide. I am not worried about that. But it has a sense of urgency about it. And i am so proud of the chair of the Small Business committee. She is a genius in terms of Small Business. The chairwoman from new york has chaired the committee for a long time, either a chair or the Ranking Member of the committee, and she gave us her say that we can proceed with this. What it does is extend the time in which you can rehire people, extend the time which you pay back, and also undo the 75 25, which was debilitating. And we were concerned about the lack of transparency and how the administration is carrying some of this out, and we saw a fix on how we could make this work better. We could not ignore that. Thank you. Sarah, are we around . Sarah ferris, politico . I see her. E go to i see her there. Ok. Is susan ready . Ok. Susan cornwell from reuters. Here. I see her there. This is a new system that the press gallery has said we should be using, so this is your people with this. Usually, i thought the speaker had some say. When there is a problem, they say it is up to you, but when it is something new, it is up to them. Should we go . Please. State secretary of said you recommended to fire the Inspector General. Does he need to testify before the house to explain the rationale he claims . The rationale behind the decision . Speaker pelosi my understanding is of course, this is all unfolding now my understanding is that he would not testify, which is standard fare when an ig is looking into something about the person being investigated or in charge of the whole operation, would be subject to that questioning, friendly or otherwise. He did not do that. I think it is a reflection of the complete disregard for the truth of the trump administration. As you know, there are at least four igs that the president has dismissed. Late, the friday night special. In the dark of night, here it comes. Now there is some questioning about what he is doing with the secretary of transportation, who has been asked to do some investigation. And it is questionable in terms of how they are shuffling that over there. Inspector generals play in important part in the integrity of our country. It was passed after watergate to make sure that there was a truth finder in terms of waste, fraud, abuse, and any other violation of the law in agencies of government. That has been respected until now. And what this president is doing, by undermining truth and the system for truth, is undermining our democracy. This is scandalous. Now, again, i am concerned about the Public Policy aspect. This is unfolding what the secretary. With the secretary. Congress passed a law about sales to saudi arabia, arms sales. And in that department, they declared a big emergency in order to initiate the sales, and that may have been part of an investigation. Of the investigation. That is what i am very concerned about, because not only did they do something wrong in declaring an emergency that was a fake emergency, but they undermined the will of congress. I am bipartisan. We had a bipartisan agreement on all of that. So this remains to be seen. I guess it is unfolding before our very eyes. [indiscernible] Speaker Pelosi he should come up and testify, but he should be coming up here to testify in general, and it is very hard to get the administration to honor its responsibility to the American People by testifying before congress. As you see, they have sort of cut out the house altogether, which is where all appropriations begin under the constitution. So lets see how this unfolded just like in the last 24 hours or 36 hours that we are seeing what this is. But what it is that we know so far is scandalous. Any of our friends yet . Yes. You brought of twitter again today. Is it appropriate for the president to accuse a tv host of murder on twitter . Speaker pelosi what did he do . He tweeted last tuesday, and he wondered if he got away with murder. He tweeted this morning about psycho joe. Speaker pelosi Joe Scarborough . Yes. [indiscernible] Speaker Pelosi you are asking me about the appropriateness of the actions of this president . Of the United States . Inappropriate in so many ways that it is almost a given. It is like a child that comes in with mud on their pants or something. He comes in with doggy do on his doo on his shoes, and everybody who works with him has that on their shoes, too. For a very long time to come. I hear doctors talk to me about saying, what is the matter with him . The things he says are so inappropriate for a president of the United States. The comments he makes about women, so inappropriate. So no, i do not think it is inappropriate. But again, there is a market for it, obviously, and that is what he place to. You would understand it better if you knew what a confabulator is. Look up the word confabulator. He does not know what the truth is and just says anything. And because he says it, he believes it. But forget about him. This is about how we go forward to help save the lives, the livelihood of our people by saving our economy, and how we prepare ourselves into the future in a positive way. It is just something that is in our midst that we have to deal with, and we would hope that the American People would see, very clearly, whatever they think of him, love him or not, love yourself. Vote for your interests, because if you are a person who has lost your job through no fault of your own, the heroes bill, this bill is for you. If youre somebody who was uncertain as to whether you will be able to feed your family, this is for you. If you have uncertainty about fear that you might contract or be affected by this virus, or that you could carry it home to your children or parents, this bill is for you. And if you are a Public Employee working to save lives, a police officer, firefighter, transit worker, teacher, anybody in the Public Sector who meets the needs of the American People, your job is in doubt unless this passes. Unless this bill passes. This bill is for you. Again, with all due respect to your question, and all due respect to the office of the president , what is important is where we can come together as we go forward, setting aside for a moment how we got here. But nonetheless, diligent about how we, humbly, find our Common Ground to get the job done as we have done in the past four bipartisan bills. Anybody . No . Ok. Given what you just said about the president , how are you confident that you are going to be able to come together . The two of you have been exchanging pretty strong criticism in the last few days. [indiscernible]a new deal . Speaker pelosi i did not say anything about the president. I gave him a dose of his own medicine. He has called women one thing or the other at certain times and i think that passes as humor in certain cultures. I was being factual in a sympathetic way. I said he was our president. We do not want our president taking something that could be dangerous as the scientists have said could be. If he takes offense at that, well, i could take offense at a lot of things, but they do not mean that much to me. But again, a dose of his own medicine. Yes, sir . Leader mcconnell choosing the congressional oversight some members doing their work about determining . Speaker pelosi that is not the impression i get. I have a confident impression that they have done their first report. The four of them working together, and it is in the Public Domain already as you have seen. We are exchanging names and i am optimistic and hopeful that we should be able to find someone that meets the test that is not, who is not, shall we say, on the board of one thing or another as we go forward. Yes. Yes, maam . Separately, more broadly on the oversight issue, the number of igs, the ig of transportation was also relieved of his job. I just wonder, if the administration continues to stonewall your oversight efforts on the health on the house side, what is your appetite for a subpoena fight, to get into a fight for the appearance of some officials . To compel some officials like secretary pompeo . Speaker pelosi i think the case is very clear that this president is afraid of the truth. He and his administration are afraid of the truth. We must insist upon the truth. And there is the congress, the courts, and the court of Public Opinion. And i think what i am hearing from people all over the country, its amazing the legal experts, the jurists, the academics, the former law enforcement, and the rest think that this is so a bridge too far, almost unlike some of what has gone before in terms of undermining our democracy. We are in court on subpoenas now and are awaiting court decisions, but when the court is a court that is appointed by the person that you are seeking a subpoena on, you know what the outcome may be. Prayerfully, it would be to honor the genius of our constitution, a system of checks and balances where we have separate but equal where we have separation of power. When the third branch is appointed by the second branch, we will just have to see how that turns out. One thing i do think we should be able to do, and this would apply to democratic or republican president s, is i do that is not the point. Is that i do not believe a president should be able to fire a public official who is investigating him or her. If the Inspector General is on a path, then how on earth and same thing with an attorney general and others if the focus is on the president , where is any justice in the system if that person can fire the person looking into it . So that is why it is curious about the ig. In the igs defense, questioning how we were proceeding. Some of this may be academic to them, but how we are fighting covid19, and that ig relieved of responsibility, that hits home directly. And then, of course, now, the state department and maybe the transportation department, and the list goes on. But anyway, we have got to keep a clear path. What is our oath of office . What are we here to do . I do think that there is bipartisan commitment to our democracy, to our oath of office, and to our protecting the American People and meeting their needs. That is what gives me confidence about how we go forward. I do not take offense to anything the president said about me. The president says about me all the time. It is so unimportant. Any other questions . Yes, maam . Thank you. You just said that vote by mail is a health issue. Speaker pelosi it is. It is also a post office issue. Speaker pelosi yes. Today, i am focusing on snap, on hunger. When i write to my colleagues, it is going to be about the urgency of our getting food to people. Yesterday, i talked about the post office, because that is really in jeopardy. As i mentioned, it is a health issue. Over a billion packages of medicine last year. And that was before covid. 90 of veterans get their medicine through the mail. 20 of the workforce in the post office are veterans. So for these and other reasons, it is of interest to veterans, their health and livelihood. To veterans, their health, and livelihood. It is essential, if we are going to have vote by mail, that we have a thriving post office. I think it is important to note, since you asked, that the board of governors that governs the u. S. Postal system 100 of it appointed by trump. 100 appointed by trump. Unanimously voted for three things as we go forward. One, a 25 billion dollar infusion of appropriated funds largely related to covid because of the challenges there, loans, loan guarantees with the Treasury Department without strings. There was loans in the previous bill, but it had strings. The administration wants privatization of the post office. This bushappointed bipartisan committee. 25 billion, no strings on the loan, and 25 billion dollars for modernization of the post office because some things are really ancient there in terms of infrastructure as well as transportation. That third one, we will save for our infrastructure bill, which will be coming soon. But the first two recommendations of the trump appointed board of governors of the u. S. Postal system are in our legislation are directly and are directly related to the health of the American People, the health of the voting system, the census, as well as to keep people out of our voting out of voting lines and out of voting places, but voting in a more healthy way from home. But the postal system they have over 92, 94 depending on the rating, Approval Rating in the country. They get big support. A small price to pay in a 3 trillion bill to facilitate all kinds of things. Nowle buying things by mail , on the internet, receiving them by the mail. The health issue is first and foremost. Voting, the census. The stimulus checks coming for the bill, some of them checks in the mail. All of it, stimulus to the economy. So viva the postal system. I cannot get over the fact that they are over 90 positive rating. I believe it, because i am a big almost any saturday, you will find me at the post office trying to mail something. Mail something to my grandchildren. Thank you very much. I will see you tomorrow. We will be here around the same time tomorrow. We have other things to share with you tomorrow. Thank you so much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] House Speaker nancy pelosi also announcing today in a letter to colleagues that remote voting can begin in the house legislators return for work. The procedural change approved last week by a partyline vote will last over 45 days. This marks the first time in history congressional members. Ill be able to vote remotely in this instance by directing another member to vote on their behalf. Numbers can attend Committee Meetings virtually during the pandemic. The house plans to resume business next week with work on a bill to give Small Businesses more flexibility with Financial Aid required to the Pay Protection loan program. You can follow the house live on cspan. With the federal government at work in washington, d. C. And the country, use the congressional directory for Contact Information for members of congress, governors, federal agencies. Rder your copy online today secretary of state pompeo was asked about the recent firing of the state departments Inspector General while speaking to reporters at a news conference. Other topics included china, the israelipalestinian conflict, and u. S. Relations with taiwan. This is 20 minutes. Utes. Sec. Pompeo good morning, everyone. This morning, early, i had the chance to drive through arlington cemetery. As we approach memorial day weekend, i want to reflect o sec. Pompeo good morning, everyone. This morning, early, i had the chance to drive through arlington cemetery. As we approach memorial day weekend,an