Transcripts For CSPAN House Democratic Leaders On Government

Losey pelosi good afternoon everyone. They q4 inc. Here. Thank you for being here. Crs are a way to debilitate government. You dont quite shut it down, but you debilitate the opportunity for our country to add full force as we go into the rest of the fiscal year. Our numbers new that the right thing to do was to vote against the cr even though the republicans were advertising this that and the other thing. What do they do in cr . They hid behind their children. They said a we will put chip in their, oh really . Chip is something that has been a priority of the democrats and a bipartisan agenda all along. What they did not do there was a Company Check with the complete program that goes with it. About 27 million americans get their health from Community Health centers. Did not put that, they did not put medicare extenders, they private doctors or medical training, the list goes on and on. They thought they would tantalized by saying we are just about children. No, we are about children and families. In any event by virtue of process and what it means in debilitating government by and bya fourth cr substance, i was very proud of our caucus in a great unified way said no. I am so appreciative of that. The response of we are getting from all over the country is a very positive one that we stood our ground. This subject of shutdown, the president said we need a good shutdown in september to fix the mess to. Who is the same president said in april of 2011 that if there is a shutdown, i think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the u. S. He is the one has to get people together. He went on to say in 2013 after the shutdown, it always happens to be the top. ,he problem starts from the top and have to get solved from the top. The president is the leader and has to get everybody in the room and has to lead. The president of the u. S. Saying that about other president s and now failing to lead. As president he said our country needs a good shutdown. No, there is no such thing as a good shutdown. That is an oxymoron, democrats have never been for it. 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 congress, voted yes to shut down government. October 16 when the vote was government, 144 republicans voted to keep Government Shutdown. Among those who voted to shut down government, or speaker ryan, he was not speaker then, mccarthy, scullys, and mulvaney. Up, it was time to open it they all voted to keep government shut down. We believe in governments governance. Event, i am hopeful that the overtures that are being made by the other side and on the other side will lead to something very positive. In the meantime, we had a very positive caucus this morning a champion and rallying those forces with our distinguished majority whip. Whatever i am at any given moment, i am 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 when it out this morning, they control the supreme court. Some 140 days into the fiscal year and we have not sent a single appropriation bill to the president of the u. S. Why have we not done that . Because it would have required compromise. It would have required sitting down and talking to one another and is saying how can we agree . Not how can we disagree, but how we can agree. Mccarthy just a few hours ago sent out a message to his members that they could believe we made a motion to adjourn, which we knew we would vote against, because we knew we needed to be here and do the peoples business. Republican friends did not make the motion to adjourn, so we made it indicating clearly that 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. That 90 days was squandered. Congress and the house voted to kick the can down the road twice more. Was squandered. It is time to stop squandering the opportunity to come together and agree. Democrats have always mr. Hoyer we want to enact bipartisan agreement on things that we already agree on. Let me repeat that. Whicht to agree to that we have already agreed upon democrats and republicans. Agree on anlly andl increase on defense nondefense discretionary spending. That is the deal that paul ryan made. That is the deal we have followed for the last four years. That is all leader pelosi has asked speaker ryan to agree on. Beenfrankly, we have not able to get to an agreement. We could do so this afternoon. We all agree that dreamers should remain here in america. 87 hat extent, we reflect of the american public. Lming majoritywhe of people believe that dreamers 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. Republican and democrat. The communityhat Health Center and other Health Programs should be reauthorized. We all agree on helping our fellow americans impacted by natural disasters. Americans are saying to themselves, if you agree on those points, articulate it. Why can you not resolve this issue and why can you not resolve it today . We are all here. We are going to stay here. We are going to resolve these issues. Fun government. Protect dreamers. Provide relief to those damaged by natural disasters. Protect our veterans as well. Provide resources to deal with the Opioid Crisis. We can do that today. Democrats have consistently been ready and willing to sit down at the negotiation table and reach an agreement. We will not be blackmailed. We will not be blackmailed because republicans are unwilling to compromise. Do not shut down this government. Sitdown at the table with us and let us move this country forward. Now, i want to yield to my dear ofend, the assistant leader south carolina. The republicans run the house. They run the senate. 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 thatry people think washington is broken. The fact of the matter is, i have worked and lived within the of the secondlargest army facility in the country. I want to support those men and women at fort jackson. I was born and raised in south carolina. We have the third army. Mr. Clyburn i want to do what is necessary to support those men and women at that base. Force base. The air you see the men and you see themoff, leaving on c17. An airplane from charleston, south carolina. Entiresent my international airbase. All of the women in the National Guard who go off to active duty. They all leave from mcintyre. I represent them. I need to do what is necessary to support those men and women. Menhe same time, when those and women leave to go defend this country, they leave their children behind. They leave children who needs 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, republicans do not do. They want to see all these disproportionate facilities be facilitated as Health Centers need health who care through the Childrens Health Insurance Program. Do to authorize and if there is no hospital to receive treatment . We have got to look at this holistically. Friends, if wen were to reauthorize, it would save the government 6 billion, but they refused to do it. Take care of all of the children and save the government 6 billion and they are refusing to do that. That is the sort of thing that i want the American People to look at. Dont Pay Attention to these tweets. The headlines can be distracting. Look at what these people are doing to our government. Stay here onto behalf of the American People and invite them to stay with us. Never before have i seen such a rush to create websites and s. They control every facet of government today. They may even control the supreme court. Yet, they cannot do the most basic responsibility of governing. C. R. s are these hurting us. The American People expect that much. The least they could do is show that they can govern. Me turn to my colleague from california, ms. Sanchez. I think it is pretty clear that a group of folks standing and all of you agree that this is no way to run government. We are ready and we have been ready and willing and have essentially asked time and time again to be a part of a to come up with a bipartisan agreement to fund the government. Ms. Sanchez i cannot think of a single business that would run their business this way. Large from month to month, not knowing if they are going to be able to fund the next month of expenditures. Keep kicking the can down the road. Theirlion americans get health care through Community Health centers and yet, the c. R. Does not provide funding for them. Militarydeprived our of a certainty that they need in order to be prepared. That puts the security of our country at risk. There is no relief for dreamers in this c. R. , even though a majority of the members of congress, if 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 over 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 say were here waiting patiently for them to extend a hand to Work Together to address these issues that there is agreement on. And get our government on a sane path towards certain funding that allows our country to provide the quality of life that our constituents deserve and have earned. Thank you. Ms. Pelosi thank you. One of those issues of agreement, our colleague, representative peter welch of vermont, led the letter to the president that he received either yesterday or maybe hopefully saw this morning. Which spelled out what those priorities are, about opioids and addressing the needs of our veterans. National institutes of health. To promote the health of the American People. Issues that relate to the pensions that are endangered in our country. Of course the issues that relate to natural disasters and, as mr. Hoyer mentioned, and all over 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 the thanksgiving break, we had the christmas break, and every year the republicans plan the davos break. We come in for a week or two and then were out. And why would that be . The senate is in. Why is the house out . Some of the Republican Leadership can go visit their top 1 friends in davos . And celebrate the passage of a very unfair tax bill that increases the deficit, undermining our future by having 83 of the benefit goes to the top 1 . These are all connected. Because the increase in the deficit and the reduction in revenue are from the high end, haven aim county on an impact on what we are able to afford as we go into budget discussions. So we know that well be able we know that the caucus wants to resist any increase 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 brothers grandson is going to fort jackson. He just enlisted. Our family is so proud. One of my brothers my Four Brothers who served in the army, one of them started out there too. So 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 letter. Did you want to speak to that at all . Mr. Cicilline i just wanted to reinforce what leader pelosi said. That we have over 170 of our colleagues who communicated to the white house the five priorities that we thought were important to be included in the continuing resolution. This parity between defense and nondefense spending. Responding to the Opioid Crisis in our country. Making sure we fund the Childrens Health Insurance Program. Take care of the dreamers. And be sure that we ensure our veterans have the resources they need. As the leader says, these are not controversial. This wasnt sort of a wish list of every democratic wish. These are all bipartisan issues which enjoy bipartisan support. And all weve asked the republicans is to engage with us, include these issues so we can Work Together and so far they have been unwilling to do that. There are over 170 of us who joined in that communication. Ms. Pelosi having said, that i think we could come to an agreement, as mr. Hoyer said. I think agreement is in reach reach. They just have to make the decision. Questions . Reporter right now your colleague, Chuck Schumer, is over at the white house meeting oneonone with President Trump. What do you think this signals for the chance of President Trump making a deal . Ms. Pelosi well see. When they come out of the room. We have worked very closely, house and senate, democrats in trying to work in a bipartisan way on what our priorities are. In this debate. Ive said before, even if there were no dreamer on the face of the earth, we still have our issues about parity and payfors and thats we can just sit down and settle that. I dont know the extent of the conversation because it was an invitation of the president. But mr. Schumer is well aware of the priorities that we share. So im optimistic that that overture was made. Hopefully to be constructive. Reporter with the idea that they did pass the bill last night, the republican c. R. , with just enough votes on their side. No democrats went up on the board until they hit 220. Obviously the bigger problem on this bill seems to have been with the senate. You said you expect senator schumer to represent some of your priorities. What does that mean they have to figure out something with the senate first, but obviously they have to enlist your side so theres buyin over here. Theres certainly going to be a lot of republicans who dont want \[inaudible] what will that potentially look like, depending on the message senator schumer delivers . Ms. Pelosi that was quite a convoluted statement. \[laughter] honest to god. You want to repeat the question . Just the last part of it. What does that look like . Im going to defer that one to steny. Its far too complicated. Reporter \[inaudible] mr. Hoyer the reality is the republicans over the since 2011, have not had the votes on the house side in almost every matter of fits cal of fiscal policy. Ms. Pelosi they have the majority. Mr. Hoyer theyve always needed democrats. I told you, on the first c. R. , the 90day c. R. , the mr. Perdue in which we should have ream the period in which we should have reached agreement, 90 republicans voted against that. So when mr. Mccarthy or somebody else says youre letting down the military, the chairman of the Armed Services committee, republican, Mac Thornberry of texas, voted against that c. R. Now, having said that, senator schumer and leader pelosi have been working for some time to try to get to an agreement. So senator schumer knows what our priorities are. And im sure hes going to be discussing with leader pelosi on a very close basis as soon as he gets back as to what was discussed. Having said that, i hope they reach an agreement. I hope they reach an agreement on the things that i mentioned, on which we have agreement. Including the caps, including dreamers, including chip. And including all the other things that i mentioned. So im hopeful that the president of the United States, as did he in september, we had a nodrama action, having to pass the c. R. Every democrat voted for it. It was a no drama. Why . Because the president said, that makes sense, we have agreement. Lets move forward. Which is exactly what we did. I hope that senator schumer and the president get to that point and because i think we have a basis for agreement that, as i said, i think we could do as early later on this afternoon. Reporter \[inaudible] mr. Hoyer yes. Did i see daylight . You mean differences . Yes. Reporter how about getting something done . Ms. Pelosi how many questions are you going to ask . \[laughter] mr. Hoyer let me reiterate. 24 members of the senate and the house were in the white house sitting around the counter table and the president of the United States said, we need to protect the dreamers. He actually used daca. We need to protect daca. And we need to do that first. We agree. Ms. Pelosi let me just say, in that vain, that vein, that if he would speak to the speaker or mr. Mcconnell they will say to you, well, theyll say to us, we have to know what the president will sign. Is that not the ongoing course . We have to know what the president will sign. Hopefully mr. Schumer will find out what the president will sign. Because i d