Is more relevant than ever on television and online cspan is your unfiltered view of government so you can i cup your own mind so you can make up your own mind. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke about the legislative agenda with reporters at a Christian Science monitor breakfast in washington. She addressed trade policy, escalating tensions with iran, border security, and other political and policy debates. This runs one hour, five minutes. Speaker pelosi oh, food. This would be more like french. Like brunch. Im good. Maybe you can i will get around to eating later. One of the main reasons i wake up in the morning, my motivation is to have breakfast. Otherwise, it is like, what time is it . Good morning. Today is speaker of the house nancy pelosi. It is her 13th appearance at a monitor breakfast. The first was in 1995 before she was even elected to the house. At that point, she was serving as the finance chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee, and i do not know how they figured out she was the speaker, but the future speaker, but i applaud my monitor predecessors for inviting her 34 years ago, so welcome back. Speaker pelosi has been in politics pretty much her whole life. Her father was a member of congress and then mayor of baltimore. After college, she married and moved west to San Francisco where she became a fixture in the state democratic party. A special house race in 1987 and has been a member ever since. Speaker pelosi is now in her second tour as speaker of the house, and we are delighted to have her here today. Now, the ground rules. Please, no life logging or live blogging or tweeting. 9 00 session ends at we will be malia pictures from pictureskfast email from the spec first to everybody as soon as this breakfast end s. Police set me a signal and i will call on as many of you as time permits. Now Speaker Pelosi, would you like to make brief opening remarks . Speaker pelosi think you, linda, very much for the invitation to be here this morning. I did not realize it was this many times. 1985, that is a wild back. A wild back. A while back. Me,ge mitchell asked because he became chair of the Senate Campaign committee, we were friends through all of that. He said, they asked me to be chair, but we are not a big fundraising state, so will you help with winning the senate . Number of our large significant establishments, forces in california, to say, i have been asked to do this, but i need to know that we will have the full force of california here. And, i do believe that we can win. That is a very important element. I do believe that we can win the senate for the democrats. This was a very big deal. Not a fundraiser organizer. But, you have to keep the doors open. Think,y night, i would how do i stay three months ahead with the payroll, utilities, rent, Political Activities . Like a small businesswoman, actually. Because you are organizing, you have to have the resources, hence the contact with the community. That was a necessity. I am an organizer, the essence of my being. Anyway, we did win. That was 1986. Then i came into the congress a few months later in a 1987. In 1987. Had good rapport from the start, but never thinking that i would be from 1985 to now, speaker. Anyway, here we are today. When i first came here, this is a much smaller table in every way. Now, it is much bigger and much more diverse. Now, i am happy to see many women here. Not that women are more so than men, but the beauty is in the mix. That diversity is important. Expandinglate you for the universe of those telling the story. Today is an interesting day, today is the day the administration will be eliminating one of the last vestiges of what president obama did to protect the environment. I think the environments i think they are calling it a dirty power scam. That name just emerged this morning. This is fundamental for the air our children brief and the water they drink and the safety children brief and the water children breez children breathe and the water they drink and their safety. Today is the day that Prime Minister trudeau is coming. About the will talk trade agreement, he may want to talk about that, but that is in the past. Also today, we are obviously Going Forward with our appropriations bill, and later today, we will have the meeting, a bipartisan meeting with the white house and how it relates to the debt ceiling. Just a few things that are happening today on the policy side. I would really rather hear what you want to talk about, but i do feel exhilarated, because this weekend, over 140 of our members participated in town halls or events, whether press conferences, townhall meetings, whatever, on the issue of health care. And the response was just spectacular across the country. It still remains the heart of the matter for americas families in terms of the good health, but also the Financial Security that having access to pollard two Affordable Health care having access to Affordable Health care. It is one of the reasons i ed, because Prime Minister trudeau is coming today thank you so much. He is coming today, i will see him tomorrow. Thank you, staff. [laughter] Speaker Pelosi it happens. [laughter] thank you. Appreciate that. Thanks very much. Temple markers. They are being brave. This is what is happening today, this week, etc. Thank you for refining my temple marker. Dont we hearwhy what you want to hear about . We are in a mode of legislate, investigate, litigate. Obviously, we take seriously the constitutional challenge that we have. We share some concerns about that with you, we are concerned about freedom of press, we believe you are the guardians of the gate of our democracy. We do believe that the president is undermining the heart of the matter of the actual constitution, before the bill of rights, in terms of separation of power, go equal branches of government, check and balances. Threat that weus have responsibility a responsibility to hold the president accountable. Our focus is legislate at the same time as we investigate and litigate. We are happy to take any questions you have. I dont even remember 1985, but i do remember a series of meetings. I must have been very nervous that day, can you imagine coming in as a volunteer and politics to this very distinguished group of journalists . They give her the opportunity to be here today. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I would ask that you limit yourself to one questions is there are so many of us. Speaker pelosi i want you to obey what linda had to say. Her son and daughter and mom. At your less monitor breakfast in march of 2017, you last monitor breakfast in march of 2017, when President Trump had taken offer, you told us that you were ready to retire to california because you thought Hillary Clinton was going to win, but that obesity didnt happen. And you said it was really shocking that somebody like donald trump to be president of the United States, but he e to stay. My question for you is, now that we have had president ial for 2. 5 years, what are the stakes . Speaker pelosi i think i was right. But the main reason i stayed was to protect the Affordable Care act. It wasnt necessarily just about him, but about the Affordable Care act, because that is a pillar of health and Financial Security similar to social security, medicare, medicaid, the Affordable Care act. I knew that it would be under threat with this president. Forgetting any of the personal aspects from his behavior, from a policy standpoint. Give creditly, ive to the i give credit to the grassroots. Of course, in his first two years of office, to protect the Affordable Care act. With all of our inside maneuvering, we can only go so far without the outside mobilization. Threat,s still under and it has made the difference 2018. Election in between 100 million and 150 million families are affected by preexisting conditions in addition to the people we added, for larger, tens of millions of families in our country in terms access toe limits, health care. I wont go into the whole thing, but suffice to say, that was my motivation to protect the Affordable Care act from him. Is american democracy at risk . Speaker pelosi our country is a great country. Our founders, we were really blessed with our founders. Thank god they made the constitution amendable, so that we could expand even more freedoms than in the original document, including freedom of the press and the bill of rights would even be on that later in terms of voting rights, etc. I have confidence in the American People. I have confidence in the strength of our democracy, that it could withstand this president. Jerry from the buffalo news . Hi, jerry. Osi reporter he reversed himself and called for an impeachment inquiry. His argument is really based on the fact from the administration stonewalling, the house investigation using the term that there is a legitimate legislative purpose to the documents that were turned over and the testimony. What do you think of congressman higgins argument . Speaker pelosi i respect everybody and think there should be an inquiry, but i do not think you should have an inquiry unless you are ready to impeach. I am not asking members what to do in their own time, what i believe is when we go forward, as we go forward, it has to run deep. It cant be the democrats in preaching the impeaching. This president must be held accountable. I feel no pressure from my members to do anything, and i have no pressure on them to do anything. This is not about politics. This is not a bipartisanship, it is about patriotism, to one of the constitution of the United States to honor the constitution of the United States. But i do think that it is important for the American People to see a purpose of why we would go forward. And now, this week, i dont know if this was news last week, but we will be having access to less redacted versions of the mueller report. , unlessaid originally the country can see what they show us, we shouldnt see it, but i have when we had the offer of the redacted for many more people than just the leadership, ive accepted that i accepted that because i really do not trust the attorney general of the United States and i am afraid that he may, depending on what is in there, try to, shall we say, deal with ongoing matters in a way that is not constructive for our constitution. I cant say anything more than that. Npr laura from npr . [laughter] reporter have a question about legislation. I have a question about legislation. Youre passing a whole bunch of bills even if they cant go anywhere in the senate and members are getting frustrated the are not getting the same attention from the American Public that you would like. In order to get more attention for these bills, do you need to pick the bigger fight with Mitch Mcconnell . Speaker pelosi well, actually, we dont think that these bills are not going anyplace, because they have overwhelming support among the American People. Do we have the graveyard . Gravestone . I want to show you something we gave out at our caucus this morning. Yes, mitch has to be held accountable. Thank you. This is mcconnells graveyard. He has said he is the grim reaper, he takes pride in being the grim reaper. That is his political stolen, because my dear husband for some reason, gets the republican mailers and he brags about being the grim reaper as he is raising money. Here they are, for the people act. Protecting people with preexisting conditions, gun , thence prevention equality act ending dissemination of the lgbtq community, gps, paycheck fairness, climate action, saving internet act. To name a few. He has said they are dead on arrival in the senate. We are seeing no, they are alive and well in the public. If you intend to not bring them up, there will be a price to pay. Again, i go back to lincoln, public sentiment is everything. Without it, practically nothing with it you can accomplish anything, without it, practically nothing. We insist this legislation we brought up. Some of these things have 70, 80, 90 support in the public. We selected issues that we ran on. When we talk about Lower Health Care cost, lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs, the preexisting conditions, he will have even more legislation in that regard. Building infrastructure of america in a green way, cleaner ,overnment Lower Health Care bigger paychecks, we think the president could be agreeable to legislation in those two areas. Cleaner government. Inont see any hope for that terms of the president , but we do see it in terms of the American People. In all have legislation added to this list that talks about the integrity of our elections and the security of our elections, and that legislation is in the works. I think they will announce it in a day or two. We were hoping to also have republicans, and that is taking a little more time. Thatnt accept any fact of that these will not see the light of day. However, in order for the public sentiment to weigh in, the public has to know. That is why we are having these town meetings and the rest on these subjects as we go around the country. Tomorrow, we will have a big event here on gun violence prevention. 90 popular80 , even among gun owners and members of the nra. That is part of our fight. He is the point person who is standing in the way, and we have to make sure that people know. Is to the second part, no would say our members are not happy that these are being taken up, but there are no frustrations from keeping us from doing even more and pushing even harder on all of this. Bloomberg . Rom reporter you mentioned you will be going later to the white house to talk about the president 750 billionant for spending. On 750ocrats insist billion for nondefense spending . Also, the timing of the deal, do you need it now or are you going to wait until closer to the debt limit increase . Speaker pelosi two things come offer similar, we are not talking about parity in terms of the amount of money, we are talking about parity in the amount of increase. The domestic nondefense discretionary defense domestic has to be increased with how the Defense Budget is increased. , the nondefense , a thirdnary domestic of it, 34 of it is veterans, antiterrorismty activity at the justice department, the state Department Issues the state department, issues that relate. And wehave to listen up have additional initiatives that relate to our veterans. I dont necessarily love them to death, but it has to be paid for. It is the law and we have to pay for it. We are making the case that we need more money on the domestic side. That is what the budget agreement calls for. This, we want to do it as soon as possible so that the Appropriations Bills can move. Or. M not an appropriate propriator. I believe they can come to agreement on the bills. I am still optimistic about that. In terms of the debt ceiling, we said that we have to have an ps, that is not a good thing for anybody. There are some in the administration that do not mind shutting down government, that is not a good idea. We have to recognize there needs to be compromise, but we have to have the budget agreement consistent with parity in the increases, not parity in terms of the amount, because the fence is so far ahead of defense is so far ahead of everything else. In terms of the debt ceiling, we will lift the debt ceiling. We have to have the agreement first so that we know we are on the same page as we go forward. Reporter my question is about china. The situation in hong kong. What do you think about the protest . Am Going Forward, what is the most effective way for the u. S. To help maintain hong kongs legal economy . Legal autonomy . Speaker pelosi thank you. A quarter of the whole population of hong kong was on the streets on this extradition law, which is appalling. You know what it says. In hong kong, you would be tried in beijing, and they can cook up any charge on any person, including journalists. Close to regenerations of hong kong democrats, martin lee, mr. Chan. Mr. Chan. Daschle wong joshua wong. It has always been bipartisan. So dear question, we have legislation to your question, we have legislation that updates u. S. Hong kong policy. Under our law now, hong kong is treated as an Economic Zone for lack of a better word, and has othervileges privileges separate from china. In this legislation senator marco rubio was introducing, and jim mcgovern, i was part of the lead on it, it is very bipartisan, to pass the legislation that says that we no longer assume that china is , twoting under one country systems. We have to have the administration certify that that situation exists in hong kong in order for them to get the separate privileges. In china, they dont get these privileges. I was pleased with the Administration Statement so far, such as they happen, pompeos statement on what is happening, this is a big issue. Has been really taking china backward in terms of repression. There could be 2 million, 3 million in education camps right now. I myself am taking a delegation to see what they are doing to suppress religion, culture, languages of tibet. All over china, there are incidences of suppression of human rights and democratic freedoms. Im not talking about democracy, just freedom of speech. I dont think what they are doing in hong kong is a very taiwan, one to country, two systems. Election is in january, and they always try to weigh in on that, but they do not do themselves a service. I can talk on this subject all day, because we live