Transcripts For CSPAN House Democratic Leaders On Government

Ms. Pelosi thank you for being here. I stand proudly with the democratic leadership of the house of representatives. Leadership of a caucus that voted overwhelmingly and with great unity to support our values and re in rejecting the illfounded republican c. R. C. R. s are a way to develop debill tate government. You dont quite shut it down but you debilitate the opportunity for our country to act full force as we go into the rest of the fiscal year. So on the process, our members knew that the right thing to do was to vote against the c. R. , even though the republicans were advertising it as this, that, and the other thing. They hid behind little children. They put chip in there. Chip is something that has been a priority of the democrats and really a bipartisan agenda all along. But what they didnt do in there was accompany chip with a complete program that usually gos with it. Mr. Mceach inof virginia duodeuced legislation, 27 million americans get their health from Community Health centers. Mr. Clyburn of our leadership has been a champion on that issue. They didnt put that. They didnt put medicare extenders. They didnt put primary care Doctor Medical training, the list goes on and on. But they thought theyd tantalize saying were about children no, were about children and families. What they did is not what we have done before. In any event, for the virtue of process and what it mean derks bill dating government by having a fourth c. R. And by substance, i was very proud of our caucus which in a great, unified way, said no. Im so appreciative of that, not only means the response were getting from the that were getting from all over the couldnt vi a positive one. They still get the shutdown. The president said our country needs a good shutdown in september to fix the mess. S the this is the same president who in 2011 said if theres a shutdown i think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States, he is the one who has to get people together. In 2013 he said after the shutdown, it always happens to be the top, i mean the problem starts from the top. And have to get solved from the top. The president is the leader. Hes got to get everybody in the room and hes got to lead. The president of the United States saying that about other president s and now failing to lead. What our country needs is a good shutdown. As president he said that. No, theres no such thing as a good shutdown. Thats an oxy moron. Democrats have never been for it. So i just want to say, and close with this. When we had the shutdown in 2013, just imagine this. On october 1, the vote was taken. 221 republicans, the majority of the congress, 221 republicans voted yes to shut down the government. October 16, when the vote was aken, to open up government, 144 republicans voted to keep government shut down. Among those who voted to shut down government were speaker ryan, wasnt speaker then, but a leader in his country in his party. Speaker ryan, mccarthy, scalise, Mcmorris Rodgers and mulvaney. And when it was time to open it up, ryan, scalise, and mulvaney all voted to keep government shut down. We believe in governance. We believe in meeting the needs of americans. Democrats are not about shut do you think government. So dont hand us that. In any event, im hopeful that the overtures being made by the other side, on the other side, will lead to something very positive. We had a very positive caucus this morning where members again following up on acting upon their values determined to get the job done. Champion in rallying those forces is our distinguished majority whip for the moment, well, steny hoyer. Mr. Hoyer whatever whatever i am at any given moment, im pleased to be here. All of you know republicans control all the levers of government. They control the house they control the senate, they control the white house, and as dick durbin pointed out this morning they control the supreme court. Notwithstanding that, we are now some 140 days into the fiscal year and we have not sent a single appropriation bill to the president of the United States. Why have we not done that . Because it would have required compromise. It would have required sitting down and talking to one another and saying, how can we agree . Not how we candice agree but how we can agree. Leader mccarthy just a few hours ago sent out a message to his members that they could leave. We made a motion to adjourn which we knew we were going to vote against because we knew we needed to be here and do the peoples business. And our republican friends did not make the motion to adjourn so we made it. Indicating clearly that we would oppose that because we wanted to be here and get the work done. We have kicked the can down the road once. Every democrat voted to do that. Every democrat voted to give 90 days so that we could reach agreement. And that 90 days was squandered. Then the congress, the house, voted and the congress voted to kick the can down the road wice more. And that time was squandered. It is time to stop squandering the opportunity to come ogether and agree. Democrats have always opposed shutting down the government of the United States. We want to enact bipartisan agreement on things that we already agree on. Let me repeat that. We want to agree to that which we have already agreed upon, republicans and democrats. Let me go through it. We have agreed on parity. In other words, equal increase in defense and an equle ncrease equal increase on nondiscretionary spending. Thats the deal paul ryan made with senator murray. Thats deal we have followed for the last four years. That is all leader pelosi has sked speaker ryan to agree on. And payfors, of course. We have not been able to get to an agreement. We could do so this afternoon. We all agree that dreamers should remain here in america. To that extent, we reflect 87 of the american public. An extraordinary majority, overwhelming majority, of people believe that the dreamers, young people brought here through no conscious effort of their own, should stay here. We had a meeting at the white house. There were 25 members present. The president said he was for protecting and making sure the dreamers stayed here. Everybody around the table agreed. Republicans an democrats. We all agreed that chip, Community Health centers and other Health Programs should be reauthorized. We all agreed on helping our fellow americans impacted by natural disasters in texas and florida and puerto rico and in he Virgin Islands. Americans are saying if you agree on those points, articulated agreement, why cant you resolve this issue and why cant you resolve it today . We are all here. Were going to stay here. And we want to resolve these issues, fund the government, protect dreamers. Provide health care for children. And provide relief to those so damaged by natural disasters. Protect our veterans. As well. And provide resources so that we can deal with the Opioid Crisis. E can do that today. Democrats have consistently been ready and willing to sit down at the negotiating table and reach an agreement with our republican colleagues. Ut we will not be blackmailed. We will not be blackmailed because republicans are unwilling to compromise. I say to my republican colleagues, dont shut down this government. Sit down at the table with us and lets move this country forward. Now i want to yield to my dear friend, the assistant leader, im clyburn, of South Carolina. Mr. Clyburn thank you very much. Madam leader, fellow colleagues. I think it bears repeating, the republicans run the house. They run the senate. And they have the white house. The fact of the matter is, we want to stay here and do what is necessary for congress to work with the president to run this country. People think that washington is broken. The fact of the matter is, i work and live within the shadows of fort jackson, the second largest Training Army Training Facility in the country. I want to support those men and women at fort jackson. In south and raised carolina, headquarters for the ninth air force and third army. I want to do what is necessary to support those men and women at that joint base. I represent claussen air force base. Every time you see men and women taking off to iraq or afghanistan and coming back, you usually see them leaving on c17s. And other airplanes. From charleston, South Carolina. I represent Mcintyre Air National Guard base, all the men and women in the National Guard who go off to active duty, they leave from mcintyre. I represent them. I want to do what is necessary to support those men and women. But at the same time, when those people leave, those men and those women leave to go up and defend this country, they leave their children behind. They leave children who need the Childrens Health Insurance Program and we ought to be funding it. They come from rural communities. They want to see their rural hospitals funded. Which they do not do, republicans do not do with this c. R. Ey want to see all these facilities, Community Health who get the children chip, health care through the Childrens Health Insurance Program. Most of them go to Community Health centers for the care. So what does it do to authorize chip and fund it if you dont have a hospital or Community Health center for them to receive treatment . Weve got to look at this holistcally. , for my republican friends if we were to reauthorize chip permanently, it will save the government 6 billion. But they refuse to do it. Why wouldnt they save 6 billion. Its a simple thing. Take care of the children and save the government 6 billion and theyre refusing to do that. That is the kind of thing i want the American People to take a close look at. Dont Pay Attention to these tweets. Ed the headlines can be misleading. What we need to do is look at what these people are doing to our government. And we are going to stay here on behalf of the American People and invite them to stay with us. With that, i yield to my friend joe crowley. Mr. Crowley never before have i seen such a rush to create websites and hashtags to deflect blame from the ruling party because of their inability to govern. It was said before they control every facet of government today. I would argue they control the supreme court. Everything, every level of government. And yet they cant do the most basic responsibility of government and governing and that is to pass a budget. That is to pass a spending bill. And the c. R. s, the continuing c. R. s, are hurting our preparedness as a nation. Militarily and domestically. The c. R. s are hurting us. Democrats continue to stand ready to work with our republican colleagues, to advance the cause of the American People. The American People expect that much. And the least they can do is show they can govern. Heretofore they prove once again they cannot. With that, let me turn to my colleague from kale, ms. Linda sanchez. Ms. Sanchez thank you. I think its clear that a group of folks standing behind me and the American People believe that this is no way to run a government. The American People expect congress to make tough choices and to get its work done. And democrats are committed to staying as long as it takes to finish our work. We are ready and weve been ready and willing and have essentially asked time and time again to be part of a discussion to come up with a bipartisan agreement to fund the government. You know, i cant think of a single business that would run their business this way, that they would lurch from month to month, not knowing if they were going to fund the next month of expenditures. There are so many priorities that democrats and republicans agree on and that quite frankly we need to address. We cant just keep kicking the can down the road. As the leader said, 27 million americans get their health care through Community Health centers and yet the c. R. Doesnt provide funding for them. The department of defense has been funded by shortterm c. R. s for several years now. And that has deprived our military of the certainty that they need in order to be prepared and that puts the security of our country at risk. Theres no relief for dreamers in this c. R. Even though a majority of the members of congress, a bill would come to the floor, would vote to support providing relief to dreamers. And there are many, many other areas that my colleagues have pointed out. Mr. Clyburn gave an excellent example of Community Health centers and how republicans are stepping other dollars to pick up dimes. Its foolish. Its wasteful. And the basic function of keeping our government open, keeping the lights on, is not that hard. Yet their dysfunction continues. So i call on our republican colleagues to work with us to resolve these issues and put them behind us and move on to the next set of challenges because there always are next challenges for us to try to resolve. But instead they continue to lock us out of the room and then cry that were not at the table helping them. And i cant think of anything thats more hypocritical. So democrats will stay. Were here. Waiting. Patiently. For them to extend a hand to Work Together to, again, address these issues that there is agreement on. And get our government on a sane path toward certain funding that allows our country to provide the quality of life that our constituents deserve and have earn earn and have earned. Thank you. Ms. Pelosi thank you. On those issues of agreement, our colleagues, representative the welch of vermont, led letter to the to the president he received yesterday or maybe hopefully saw this morning which spelled out what the priorities are, about opioids, addressing the needs of our veterans, National Institutes of health, the health of the American People, issues rah that that relate to pensions that are endangered in our country. Of course the issues that elate to natural disasters and as mr. Hoyer mentioned, all of our country, especially focusing on puerto rico and the Virgin Islands which have been underfunded in the previous bill that came forward. You know, we have to think , in recent week well, had the thanksgiving break, the christmas break and every year the break. Ans plan we come in for a week or two and then were out. Why is the senate is in, why is the house out . So the republicans can visit their top 1 friends in davos and celebrate the unfair tax bill that increases the deficit, undermine ours future by having 83 of the benefits go to the top 1 . These are all connected. Because the increase in the deficit and the reduction in reknew are from the high end have an impact on what we are table afford as we go into budget discussions. So we know well be able to, we know that their caucus wants to resist an iven crease in domestic spending. I want to make this point further. Domestic spending includes homeland security, veterans affairs, antiterrorism activity at the Justice Department and the state department. These are security functions. Yet they are on the domestic side of the tally. So when they try to suppress that budget, theyre suppressing not only security functions, but other measures of the strength of our country. I was so excited to hear mr. Clyburn talk about South Carolina because just last week i learned that my brother, tommys grandson is going to fort jackson. He just enlisted. Our family is so proud. One of my brothers, of my Four Brothers who served in the army, one of them started out there too. This is about certainly supporting our defense, our department of defense and general mattis told us he cant take these c. R. s. Its just not a way to run a military. And its not a way to run a government. My colleague, mr. Cicilline, reminded me of mr. Welchs mr. Welshs letter, did you want to speak to that at all . Mr. Cicilline we have over 107 of our colleagues that communicated with the white ouse, the parity between defense and nondefense spend, responding to the Opioid Crisis in our country, making sure we fund the Childrens Health Insurance Program, take care of the dreamers, be sure we ensure that they have the resources they need. These are not controversial. This is a bit of a wish this isnt a democratic wish list, these are bipartisan issues that enjoy bipartisan support. All weve asked of the republicans is to engage with us and include these issues and so far theyve been unwilling to do that there were 170 of us who joined in that communication. Ms. Pelosi having said that, i think we could come to agreement, as mr. Hoyer said, i think agreement is in reach, they have to make the decision. Questions . Yes, maam. Reporter chuck shumer is meeting oneonone with president trump. What do you think of the signal this sends about making the deal . Ms. Pelosi well see when they come out of the room. We worked very hard in the house and senate to work in a bipartisan way on what our riorities are. Even without dreamers, we still have issues about parity and payfors and we can sit down and set that will. I dont know the extent of the conversation, it was an invitation from the president but mr. Schumer is well aware of the priorities we share. Im optimistic that that overture was made, hopefully to be constructive. Reporter they pass the bill last night, the republican c. R. , with just their side, no democrats went up on the board until they went to 220. The bigger problem on this bill was the senate. You said senator schumer can represent your priorities. They have to