To start its second and final round of votes here in the house today including a shortterm funding government measure. While they are gaveled out, we ook at todays briefing by House Minority leader, nancy pelosi. Ms. Pelosi good morning. Good morning. Be with you momentarily. Sadly i begin by saying once again we are heart broken by the images of wildfires in california. Its so sad having just experienced this in northern california. Its easier to understand how field in a otball second, the fire travels that quickly. So were praying again for all of those who are affected and praying also for our first responders. They are truly no built and so ourageous out there. Two months after the sickening attacks in las vegas and sutherland springs, texas, the g. O. P. Has decided to bring a gun bill to the floor. It does further damage to gun safety in our country. It is stunningly dangerous and opens the floodgates. An early Christmas Present to warnings against the of Law Enforcement groups, republicans are throwing open the door to violent criminals, Domestic Abusers. This is very important in terms of Domestic Abuse and tore convicted stalkers to carry concealed weapons wherever they please. Understand this. States that have concealed carry opportunities. You get your ability to do that in that state and you carry it with you to other states. You dont even have to live in the first state. Just go there or go online and get a concealed carry license if thats the term of art, you can go any place in the country with a concealed carry. This is their response to the tragedy in texas in that church and the tragedy in las vegas, the tragedies l tragedies over and over. In fact, it happens every day in our country. While republicans fight efforts to protect communities, democrats continue to fight for urgent action on the gun violence protection. This is appalling. This violence oh, we dont have the votes to do commonsense background checks, which has bipartisan support in the congress. Peter kingmike thompson legislation, but they have the time to do concealed carry and make it even easier. So here we are. The g. O. P. Tax scam has the consequences for americans in every stage of life. Yesterday, we had little children and what it meant to them. And later in the day, to seniors nd what it means to them and everyone in between. They say it is a tax break for the middle class. T raises taxes on 78 million middleclass families. 62 of the benefit in the senate bill goes to the wealthiest 1 . 13 the a. C. A. Repeal, million more americans may be unshurd under this legislation. Its just appalling. And you have to give them credit for their gall. This is an assault to pillage the middle class. Why . To give tax breaks to the wealthiest people and Corporate America to 1. 5 trillion. Who pays the price . Republicans made no see dret of it. The speaker said once the g. O. P. Adds trillions of dollars to the national debt, they openly admit that they plan to begin historic crusade by destroying medicare and medicaid for everyone else. Thats been their goal all along because they dont believe in medicare and medicaid and engineering the budget to say this is to justify getting rid of this because we give tax cuts to the high end. Its important to note that the 11 republicans in california voted to do violence to the economy of our state, hurt the prospects of californias working families. Kevin mccarthy, doug lamalfa, l cook, jeff denham, david evin, steve knight, duncan hunter. Exact number that if they had voted correctly would have stopped the bill. In addition to that, though, mr. Issa, mr. Mcclintock and mr. Rohrabacher voted before for a bill, the budget bill that takes us to this place. And guess what that does on this day of fires in california and how they voted against the interests of our state and of the American People. If you had damage to your home or whatever, in a hurricane, you can have ar Tax Deduction for your losses, some of your losses. Losses came from fire. They actually voted for that ill. 11 voted to discriminate against victims of fire. Certainly want to have a deduction for victims of hurricanes and the rest. But why are they doing this to the state . The g. O. P. Tax scam. Later today, we are going to go to the white house and meet with the president and hopeful that the president will be open to an agreement to address the urgent needs of the American People and keep government open. Democrats have never supported shutting down government and we dont do so now. In the interest of the meetings and we had this conversation before, as we raise the caps and thats the subject now, what are the caps if we raise the caps we are calling for parity. We need resources for a Strong National defense but we also need a strong domestic budget. I our domestic budget includes homeland security, antiterrorism activities of the justice department, veterans affairs, and state department. Thats 1 3 of the domestic budget. But is a security function. So when theyre saying were keeping a lid on the increase on that side, were hurting our national security. While preaching that were raising the cap for defense. And again, thats not our fight. Our fight is to bring up the domestic agenda to parity. And what are some of the things wed like to come to an agreement on president . All bipartisan. Any of which is on the floor would pass with a strong bipartisan majority. Fighting the opioid epidemic. Its a priority for the president , for all of us. It effects every district in the country. But theres no money. We need part of that domestic that increase in domestic budget to fight the opioid epidemic. Veteran funding. We need more money for veterans. In addition to that, chip and Community Health centers. Because theyre spending so much time on this, theyre ignoring this. Children and Community Health centers. Passing passing the dream act. All of this has bipartisan support. Would pass with strong bipartisan majority. Mergency disaster funding. Texas, florida, puerto rico, virgin islands. Now the disasters in california. And saving some endangered pensions. To name a few. There are other areas of bipartisan agreement that need to be addressed, can be addressed by taking making it 5454 rather than 5437. And calling it parity. So, thats the fight that were in right now. Democrats are advocating, again, for priorities that have broad support. And thats what we would have brought to the president last week. We called for that meeting, to bring, in a nonconfrontational way, finding areas of agreement, working together. Hes asked for this meeting today. Hopefully this will be on his agenda as well. Any questions . Reporter on the issue of Sexual Misconduct ms. Pelosi im happy to get to that. Im not happy to get to it. But i will get to that. Ut we have a big focus here on a fork in the road that our country is at. That will either be about a country that is creative and letting people thrive and reach their success, or a road that is only about power and money at the exploitation of those. This is a moment of truth for america. Id like to keep up. And the decisions made in the tax bill have an impact on the budget because of the resources that will be reduced under that lan. In order to support funding bills this year . Ms. Pelosi that is part of our part of our priorities that are listed here and there may be some more. We have student loans. You know, there are other subjects, too, that need attention, but these need immediate attention, and those are our priorities. Democrats are not willing to shut government down, no. Reporter question, first on the white house meeting. Five times. What has changed between november 28 and today . In terms of substance, i dont see on your list the destabilization of the Health Care Markets which the tax bill would most likely repeal the individual mandate . Is it your expectations that will already be baked in . Ms. Pelosi i hope. We have to defeat there are many issues that could be on this list, and that could be one of them. However, what we have to do is defeat this tax scam first. As you know, they have a consideration in there that repeals the individual mandate. I dont know that survives the conference. There are members on the republican side who would like to see the cost sharing funds in the bill. Thats all in the egotiation. A lot of that is over here, and could be over here. Second one. Reporter whats changed in terms of your discussions with the white house between november 28 and today besides time and besides who called for the meeting . Ms. Pelosi well, thats a big difference. We called for the meeting last week to go and we said, were not there to fight your defense number. We think it should be subjected to scrutiny, whats the mission and the rest, but if thats what you think it should be, that may be a place we can go to. So that wasnt about, you just have less and we should have more. It was about parody. We were concerned when the president started mocking the meeting and saying, there would be no deal and we thought, if youre not ready to talk, then were not ready to come. Now he has made the overture for us to go. Hopefully that means hes more receptive towards finding a solution. But the time is important because, again, the clock is ticking on the year end and thats when we have to have a bill. Yes, maam. Reporter leader, thank you so much. Will democrats support the c. R. On the floor and why havent they been more outspoken on it . On a broader negotiation, how do you respond to republicans saying fiscal 2017 broke parody . Ms. Pelosi that isnt even true. That isnt even true. Thats how ill respond to it. No, i think this nonevent. They have the votes or not have he votes today. But we have been outspoken what our priorities are, and this is a fight that as i say a fight for our country. Reporter but on todays c. R. , will democrats support the c. R. Today . Ms. Pelosi no. No. And the reason why, because it has nothing about the opioid epidemic, nothing about veterans funding, nothing about chip. Chip. Children health insurance. Community health centers. Nothing about the dream act among other things. Emergency disaster funding. Saving some of the pensions. That may be more maybe they dont know as much about that but those that do support that. As you mentioned, the quost sharing and the rest. The cost sharing and the rest. His is a waste of time. There could be some good things that could be advanced, and because it doesnt have things in it doesnt mean that makes it ok. Yes, maam. Reporter followup on your answer to a dreamer question earlier. Are you backing off your stance from last month where you said we will not leave here in december without a daca fix . Ms. Pelosi no, i stand by that statement. We will not leave here without a daca fix. Yes, maam. Reporter who questions. Back on daca ms. Pelosi yes, maam. Reporter have you changed your mind about willing to accept some border wall funding or immigration crashdown unding within a dream act fix . Ms. Pelosi when you say, have you changed your mind, we said to the president the night he agreed to the daca legislation that we have a responsibility to protect our border and we think there are many things we can do working together to do that and members have been working in a bipartisan way to address that. So were not backing off anything, and including meeting the needs of protecting our border. We are not going to turn this country into a rain of terror of domestic enforcement, and have the daca, the dreamers pay that price. Im optimistic. I always have been. God is with us on this. Our country is great. We know that great ngs springs from the vitality that new comers bring to our country. 80 of the American People support the dreamers. Some members at the president s holiday event the other night, he calls it a holiday event it was a christmas party. It was a holiday event. Republican members were saying to me, this is 80 in my district people support the dreamers. I had some of their spouses say, we have to get the dream act. Again, this is bipartisan support. We can find our common ground. Reporter the second question, what do you think was the straw that broke the camels back in calling for frankens resignation . Ms. Pelosi thats a different subject. Reporter will you answer ms. Pelosi i said i would come o it but i am prioritizing because i want to make sure we have time to do this first. Yes, maam. Ok. Any other questions on the tax yes, maam . Reporter on the spending. Republicans are talking about after the twoweek c. R. , a spending package that would fund the defense and the rest of the agencies, is that a nonstarter . Ms. Pelosi yes. Reporter the g. O. P. Tax bill, you dont mention anwr. Does that mean that democrats have given up hopes of not ms. Pelosi no. Anwr is a very important ssue. I can wrap it around the floor and the corner, do you know what it doesnt mention . It doesnt mention if you are a student and have Student Loan Debt and have a Tax Deduction or 2,500, its now gone. It doesnt mention that since 1944 when president roosevelt was president in the new deal you got a medical deduction for extraordinary medical expenses. If you have a child with disabilities, a senior with alzheimers, dementia, whatever, you now cannot deduct those medical expenses in the house n the house bill. It has a tax break for people with private jets at the expense of americas working families. Do you want more . Because we could have a very ong list. But in terms of overarching and what it doesnt say, also, robs from the future by putting mountains of debt onto the future. 1. 5 trillion they admit to. That doesnt account interest which takes it over 2 trillion. Taking us down a path that is very hard to return from until one day you decide to raise taxes. But there is a very long list here, but i thank you for bringing up anwr because that really its really sad, but i see he that senator murkowski is on the conference so i guess they are making a serious commitment to that. That no more belongs on a tax bill. Its really tragic. But it is who they are. It is who they are. Ok. No more anything else on our meeting today with the president or would you rather well, well see how it goes. If is i assume since he invited us hell have an offer to make. E made it clear that this is what we support. This is what we support. This is what he supports. It isnt as if theres anything that were going in there saying this is an agenda item like anwr. That is specific and separate from what were dealing with that were asking you to come our way. Were coming your way. Were there together. And on this, we should go there together. You cant have legitimate, longlasting tax reform until you go this way. What creates growth, generates goodpaying jobs and reduces the eficit. When people say wheres your tax plan were saying we want to do it working together, but we have a better deal. Tax plan that will produce better jobs, better wages, a Better Future, Better Future for our country and all the American People. So, again, this could be a very long list. Next time we will have it long. Hopefully well defeat it before then. Now well go back to you. Reporter how much of a ballot issue do you think it is for how the parties dealing with issues . Would you urge a primary hallenge . Ms. Pelosi i dont see this as a political issue. This is something remarkable that has happened in our country. Im so glad that long last Time Magazine placed some women as women of the year. First time we ever had a woman of the year. Multiple but nonetheless. Its great. Our country, because of the courage of these women, has crossed he rubicon. The die is cast on a whole new place. Its pretty exciting. And so many of the women have come forth. Some of them currently with complaints. Others telling us what happened to them when they were young, when they were not when they were ignored or afraid to come forward and the rest and they are fighting for justice for women today. As we go into the future. So this is a new day, something to be excited about. Sad in many respects, but, yeah, we are pleased with the way we expeditiously dealt with our issue. I dont see it as a political issue, though. I see it as a community i [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] back now to the house, gaveling back in quickly. A final series of votes for the day. Passing of h. R. 477, passage of house joint resolution 123, and the motion to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 2658. The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15minute vote. Remaining electronic votes will be conducted as fiveminute votes. The Unfinished Business is the vote on passage of h. R. 477 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk Union Calendar number 318, h. R. 477, a bill to amend the