Masks to see how exciting it is to come before you today with joe biden having the tremendous mandate he has in that pretty soon, the hyphen will be gone from Vice President to president elect, joe biden. It is a happy day for our country because joe biden is a unifier, because he is determined to bring people together, because he respects all points of view, and as he has said, i ran as a democrat, i will govern as president for all of the people whether they voted for me or not. I am so officially pleased with the outcome that is imminent and also personally delighted because of the quality and caliber of leadership that joe biden will provide. This morning, it is clear that the bidenharris ticket will win the white house. His election is historic propelled by the biggest vote ever in the history of our country, 73. 8 million and counting americans, the most votes ever received by any president ial ticket in history. President elect biden has a strong mandate to lead and will have a strong Democratic House with him and Many Democrats in the senate. This has been a life or death fight for the fate of our democracy, as he says, the soul of our country. We did not win every battle in the house, but we did with the war. In 2018, we won 40 seats, 30 or 31 in districts where trump had won before. They were trump districts. In preparation for the 2020 election, i said to people, you have to help us. They say, oh, you have won. We won in trump districts with trump not on the ballot. In the next election, he will be on the ballot and that makes winning those districts a steeper climb. I am pleased that we have went overwhelmingly won those districts, not all of them. Not all of them, but next time, he wont be on the ballot. One of the reasons we were able to win so many seats was because of leadership of our members. Some of them one. A few did not. All of them excellent. I hope that some of them will consider going at it again. As you all know, the right to vote is a sacred right in our country and having that vote counted as cast, it is the foundation of our democracy. So we must be patient. I said to people be calm. I said this monday, tuesday sunday, monday, tuesday, be alm, be confident, be patient. And the votes are tallying, the races are called. We look forward to continued victories in house races. We have some out there. And we look forward to progress for the people, which was our agenda, continues to be for the people. Lower healthcare cost, bigger paychecks, cleaner government, hr1 which will be the first on the agenda in january. Again, it will be hr1. While we prepare for the new Biden Administration, we must move to a new Coronavirus Relief bill. We want the republicans to come back to the table, the white house, the leadership, whatever, 100 for two days in a row, over 100,000 cases were reported. The imperative to act could not 95000,000. Ver im calling the administration to come back to the table. Congress has committed to to passing an omnibus appropriations bill. This is the core of our work in the lame duck. When we dont have a pandemic, infecting millions, making people food insecure, housing insecure and the rest. But our responsibility to keep the government open to keep an am any bus bill. Not a c. R. And we want to give confidence that we will have government open and continue to be rather than having a c. R. It appears that the Trump Administration will use its final moment in a desperate last step to take away american prerks health and wellbeing. Some of you have told me and perhaps along the way, what damage do you think trump will do between losing the election and the swearing the inauguration of joe biden . Maybe you didnt phrase it quite that way but thats how i heard it. And we knew that he would be up to mischief. Separate and apart from trying to destroy the credibility of our elections which we criticize two other nations for doing, all enemies foreign and domestic. Well, we have one domestic. But apart from that, on the policy side which is why we are here, people ask that question. What will he try to do that is harmful . They had the suspicions on it. They couldnt speak publicly on it. This week they put forward a radical new rule that would make regulations from the f. D. A. And other health and Human Services agency automatically sunset unless the agency undertake a cumbersome time consuming process to renew them. This is a time when we need full attention of the f. D. A. On the development and approval of vaccines. , butis an opportunity cost it is a reflection of their disdain for science and governance. They have been messing with the whole process at the fda, trying o diminish the importance of the trials that are necessary to approve efficacy and safety of a vaccine. The lameduck trump rule seeks to paralyze government in generations of lifesaving protections and try to burden a new president elected by the American People. He Trump Administration was to seek this regulation rule beyond hhs to other agencies as well. People have been asking, what can he do . Clean air, clean water, food safety. You name it. This is a dream of the radical right wing. First, they started undermining the Civil Service, and now they are trying to say, unless we review all of these regulations, they will be sunsetted. We do believe that regulations should be subject to review. That is part of the process. But there is a way to do it. The way to do it is not to first zero in on the fda at a time when we are trying to achieve a accine for the people. This is the work of the energy and Commerce Committee and that is why i am so glad and honored by the presence of the distinguished chair of the energy and Commerce Committee. You will hear from him about this. Refer you to the National Register of november 4. The day after the election, they put this destructive rule in the congressional record. More from our distinguished chair. Thank you, mr. Colon, for coming down to be here for this conversation, which is important to the health and wellbeing of the American People. With respect for science, governance, especially at a time of pandemic, when the fda should be focusing on a vaccine and not on a Heritage Foundation genda. R. Chairman. Thank you, madam speaker, and let me say, like you, like all democrats and i think most americans, it is a very happy day because we do believe it is quite clear that joe biden and Kamala Harris will be our next president and Vice President. We cannot help but be happy about that, as the speaker is nd i am. I also want to commend the speaker for stressing so much that we have to crush the virus, which she has been saying for so many months. I think the last time i was here with her, we talked about the need for Robust National testing, tracing, and treatment, which is in the heroes act and which she kept insisting on as she negotiated with the white house. She realizes, as most of us do, that we are never going to get the economy back on foot, we are never going to create jobs and we are never going to make this country strong again unless we can crush the virus. She is like a laser beam, keeps insisting that that is so crucial. As she mentioned, the numbers, the virus continues to spread. Yesterday, more than 116,000 americans contracted covid19. T was a oneday record since the pandemic again. O when the speaker says that this has to be crushed, its because its getting worse. We have to address it. The sad thing, my role is to get into more specifics about what the Trump Administration is doing, what President Trump is doing in this lameduck in these last few months is exactly the opposite. N other words, rather than trying to help with the scientists, with the Health Experts, with those career servants who have been helping us try to come up with a response to this virus, he is trying to undermine it all. He is trying to make it more difficult for us to crush the virus. He is making it more difficult for the Health Experts to speak out and to be there at all. To help with this effort. Hat is so unfortunate. He is moving in the opposite direction of what the speaker and most people say we need in order to crush the virus. I wanted to talk a little bit about these two things that the speaker mentioned. One is an executive order threatening the Civil Service employees. A lot of the people who are helping us within hhs and other agencies are career Civil Servants. He issued this last ditch effort to fire career Civil Servants on october 21. His executive order. This includes people at the fda, the cdc, as the speaker mentioned. It basically says that over the next month or so, the president and his administration could put out a new schedule classifying career Civil Servants, someone like dr. Fauci, as nonCivil Service employees who can be fired. You remember at one of his rallies just before the election, he suggested that he might fire dr. Fauci after the election. Dr. Fauci is an example of the type of person who could be fired under this executive order nd possibly be replaced by eople like dr. Atlas who are not qualified. To deal with this virus because of their lack of background or heir policies. All of this before he leaves office on january 19. Some said, is he really going to fire these people . Dont know, but the fact that this is in place is a threat. In other words, its either im going to fire them or threaten them with the fact that if speak out and do things contrary to what i want to do regard to covid19, they will know they might lose their job, and lose their Civil Service job. It is really basically the same thing. The other one is that the speaker mentioned is this rule hange that was put in place, issued a proposed rule this wednesday that could be finalized by early december. What that says is Something Like 2500 regulations within health nd Human Services, this is particular to health and human ervices but we may see it with other things, that says if any regulation has been around for more than 10 years, then you have a period of time to justify it, otherwise it expires and sunsets. These are all regulations that deal with food safety, approval of drugs, which has been such a controversy because he has always been trying to approve the drugs that we know the scientists think are not effective, and beyond that, it lso diverts resources. In other words, if the staff who are working to crush the virus, have to be diverted to justify and spend their time dealing with these regulations they would not want to sunset, it is also a question of staff time it takes away from our ability to deal with the virus. The Comment Period of that closes december 4 and he could put in place and start this process to undermine not only the regulations that now are more than 10 years old, but others that might become 10 years old later during the joe iden administration. We are trying to emphasize why is this president doing these things that undermine our ability to crush the virus rather than working with the speaker and trying to put together a plan like the heroes act that would make a difference and effectively crush the virus . I want to conclude by saying this. We need the scientists and the public Health Experts. We need to scale up the testing, contact tracing, treatment. This is going to be, unfortunately, likely to be a dark winter. T doesnt make any sense for the president to use the short time he still has left to undermine the National Response. It is also an insult to the Civil Servants. One of the things we are going to do, i will go back to the committee, we are going to spend our time in energy and commerce and the other committees trying to shore up these agencies like hhs, cdc, fda that he is trying to dismantle for the last four years. Morale is very low, but i want everyone who works in these agencies to know that we as democrats, Speaker Pelosi, joe biden, our next president , we are on their side. We are committed to crushing the virus. We are going to support the public servants. We are going to work with the Biden Administration to undo the damage and ensure that Civil Service protections remain in place and we have a National Response to the virus. Thank you for all that you do, adame speaker. Speaker pelosi thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to commend you for the testing, tracing, treatment, etc. That is in the heroes act that was a product of your committee under your leadership as well as working with scientists about what is really necessary to crush the virus so we can put our children safely back in school, open up our economy, thats what we need to o. But we need to do it safely. Urther to a couple of points you made, in terms of the Civil Service, Civil Service is a very important part of a democracy. It takes the politics out of the performance of Civil Servants. It is about Public Service being a noble calling. But if those Civil Servants are directed by political appointees to make certain scientific decisions or else they will lose their jobs, that undermines the purpose of safety and efficacy in terms of the fda, but also the health and wellbeing of the American People. I want to commend the head of one of the centers at the fda for an important oped he had i think about a week ago talking about how the scientists were going to stick with the plan to o this in a way that gives people confidence in the vaccines that would come forward, because a vaccine is only effective as its merit, but also how people will take it. The vaccine is a big hope for us, but it is not the only way for us to stop the spread of the virus. But it is an essential way for us to curtail the further spread. Again, i thank you for your leadership in that regard and the idea that you referenced. January 19 is the day they want this all done by. January 19. Can it be undone . Yes. But it takes a great deal of time and effort to undo which took a lot of time and effort to make matters worse in terms of approvals, etc. , at the fda. I am pleased to take questions. Reporter you opened by talking about the big win that joe biden might have in the popular ote. In that same environment, you will end up losing seats off your majority. What does that tell you about hat the American People want from congress . Speaker pelosi we lost a few seats. As i said, we won the seats in trump districts. He wasnt on the ballot, he is now. What happened with the democrats with congress across the country helped contribute to the biden success. We are very proud to be part of that mandate. Ery proud of that. Would i rather while i have the utmost respect for the members whose districts were almost insurmountable with trump on the ballot, i do believe that we will be with biden in the white house and a Democratic Congress and hopefully a democratic senate, we will see in january, we will be able to do great things for the American People. We lost some battles, but we have the gavel. Reporter you dont see any policy or corrective methods rom the American People . Speaker pelosi i do think we should always be evaluating and respecting what the people have to say. I, myself, and i have said this over and over again, income, the disparities in income and equity in america must be addressed and everybody must be at the table. That is something that frank has worked on from the perspective of new jersey and his committee. We have to go to that place. People are concerned about the threat to their jobs from technology, from trade, from other people, newcomers to our country. We have to show them this is not a zerosum game. Somebodies somebodys success here is not taking away from your success there. I see this as a tremendous opportunity where people are respectful of peoples opinions, he diversity of opinion, and again, some members had some concerns about what happened in their district, but most of the people expressed concerns. Most of them won. We had an opportunity spreading across a wide net. I was disappointed we didnt win some seats in texas, i will be honest about that, but nonetheless, we are paving the way. We made our investments. We held the house. That was our goal. If we could win more, that would be good. We are still in the hunt on a number of seats. We could have this conversation next week with some numbers. For right now, safely, the gavel is in the hands of the democrats. Safely, we have the prospect, momentarily if not happening while we are here, of president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris. Reporter how do you address with a more narrow majority, how o you address this is omething i asked you last week the philosophical differences in the caucus when going to be more to the left and from a governing standpoint if youre going to get something done regardless of the cr, that legislation has to be in the iddle. How do you sort that out Speaker Pelosi it is not both nds of our caucus. Our caucus has its differences, i would not want to lead in a caucus that is a rubberstamp lockstep caucus. Thats called republicans. We are the democratic party, and we have several exuberances in our midst and that is representative of the districts that people come to congress to serve. We respect that. Ut our unifying principle is americas working families. Everybody is there to make progress for americas working families. I always say, in terms of the children, our children, our children, our children, their health, their education, the Economic Security of their families, a safe, healthy nvironment in which they can thrive including from gun violence and a world of peace in which they can reach their fulfillment. About the families, the Kitchen Table issues, nobody is more attuned to that or connected to americas working families and they on than joe biden as president of the united tates. You will see as we build consensus, we dont govern from on high, we build consensus. I didnt say unanimity, i said consensus. I see it as an opportunity. I do say, and i have said ublicly, i represent San Francisco proudly. Some issues that would be wonderful in my district are ust not winning issues and other places in the country that we have to win. That doesnt mean we curb our enthusiasm for our boldest progressive agenda, but it does mean that if we are going to win in other places in the country, Common Ground with respectful of what works in my district for me, but also respectful for how it works for members in their districts. Frank has a variety of points of view in new jersey. Did you want to speak to that . You could use new jersey as an example of what the speaker is saying. E had four frontline members who, over the last two election cycles, took back republican districts for democrats. These were republican districts. You look at the performance, they leaned republican by 2 to 6 . Over the last election cycles, we captured them. What i liked to have seen jeff andrews lose . Ure. Hat would have been a net gain and it may still happen. I take pride in the fact that we were able to keep these were able to keep these four front liners that took republican seats over the last two cycles to a democratic majority. I stand here today with the speaker. Joe biden is going to be president. We retain our majority, we have elected using new jersey again a lot of these members and districts that were for donald trump in the past, we are proud of the fact, our success and we have more opportunity now ecause we have the white house as well as the house and maybe the senate depending on whats what happening in georgia. Reporter Speaker Pelosi welcome to my world. We always have a beautiful dynamism in our caucus. But no, i think people some people i would say we have a healthy difference of opinion within our caucus, but not to be problematic in how we legislate. What the conversation was about, what is the winning message outside . The message in the districts that we have to win is the message that unifies us. A message for americas working families. Verybody knows that. Reporter the previous four president s, clinton, bush, obama, and trump, entered their first year with their party fully in control of congress. The house and the senate. How much do you have to trim back the ambition knowing that at best, its a 5050 senate, and some think the republicans are favored in georgia and you still have majority leader mcconnell . Speaker pelosi how many times have you heard me quote lincoln . Public sentiment is anything. With it, you can accomplish practically everything. Without it, nothing. That is what i think is going to save the day. The public once the virus to be crushed, they want the economy to be open, they want children to go to school safely. The public wants a big jobs ill. I dont care if you are in San Francisco, michigan, alabama, wherever it is, people want jobs. Hen we talk about the health and wellbeing of the American People, job security is an important factor of health for those people. If we go forward with an infrastructure bill, that is usually not partisan. Were going to blanket the country with a build back better, we call it moving america forward. We have a great deal in common between those two agendas and we think when we did for the people in 2018, we werent looking for a fight to lower the cost of prescriptions, the president said he would do that, he said he was going to negotiate like crazy to lower the cost of prescriptions by having negotiation. Going to fight like crazy to negotiate a price. He didnt, but he said that and that was Common Ground. He said he wanted to build the infrastructure of america. Very conversation i had with him starting with congratulating him, then after that, every conversation before he was president and months after, i ant to build nfrastructure. Until it came time to make the tough decisions about paying for it and then he stomped out of the room. Those were two areas where he ad espoused in the campaign. We were looking for the most impactful initiatives to affect people at their Kitchen Table ssues. The cost of health care, etc. Preserving the preexisting conditions, how many times has he talked about that . Never did anything about that. The republicans have taken a lot of time saying how much they support the preexisting medical conditions. Thats see what the court does. That will be that is franks purview as well. Do you want to speak to the ealth issue . Again, if you listen to what the Republican Leadership says in the house and senate, they say they want everybody to have health insurance. They say we are going to repeal the aca, but were still going to make sure we have health insurance, but i dont believe that because the aca is the most effective way to accomplish it. Whether the courts undermine the aca or certainly the president has, there is a recognition with both sides of the aisle that we need to have as close to 100 or owever close we can get of americans covered. I think there are opportunities to work with them to deal with this. Hopefully, the court doesnt repeal the aca, because that would be hugely tragic for the country. But it is certainly possible to work with them on a number of these Health Issues and we ill. Now we have the upper hand because we have president. They will have to come closer to what we want than what President Trump wanted, which i dont even know what he wanted. Speaker pelosi this is where we o from here. We want to unify, joe biden is a great unifier. Where are the issues where we can find as much Common Ground as possible . If we are talking to our supporters in the labor movement, jobs. If you are talking about the oorest people, jobs. Everything in between, jobs, jobs, jobs. Its a four letter word. That is where we should be focusing on the health, jobs, education for our children. We have to show with our initiatives, for example, the timetable that our planet is on. The climate issue is a big issue or us. It is also a jobs issue. We can create good paying, green jobs. We can be preeminent in the world and in Green Technologies as we advance it as a health issue, clean air, clean water, as a National Security issue to protect the habitat and resources and prevent migration that causes unrest as well as a moral issue. We have to have everybody at the table so that people are not afraid of the future, because it is inevitable. We will have to address the limate crisis. The technology has an inevitability to it. We have to address what it means when you are having precision farming and robots on the Assembly Line and the rest. Trade, we are a global economy. There is no getting around that and we want to be because we want markets for our products. But people are intimidated by that and we want to make sure that, again, it is not a zerosum game. Your section wins, your section loses, no, how do we go down his path together . I see everything as an opportunity and that opportunity is greatly enhanced by joe biden and his vision for our country. His knowledge of the issues, his Strategic Thinking about how to et it done, and his connection hearttoheart with the Kitchen Table concerns of americas working families. Reporter does the election change your strategy . Republicans are out saying there are good jobs numbers, lets to a smaller package. Does that appeal to you . Speaker pelosi no, it doesnt appeal to me at all, they still have not agreed to crush the virus. If you dont crush the virus, we are still going to have to be dealing with the consequences of the virus. That is why we have said the three pillars of the bill. Crush the virus, honor our heroes that is state and local, over one Million People ave lost their jobs in state and local, teachers and people in education because of the funds that have been used to address the virus and lost revenue because of the virus. So no, that isnt anything that we should be looking at. It wasnt the right thing to do before. By the way, while they refused to sign up for the testing initiative, which is what science says we need, and they refused to give an earned income tax credit to poor families to keep them out of poverty, working for families where 8 million more people have gone into poverty as the covid money has run out, they still insist on having 150 billion for the wealthiest tax break for the wealthiest people in our country. O we are different there is a difference between democrats and republicans. We have a responsibility to find Common Ground. Stand our ground where we cant, but make it clear to the American People what the choice is because public sentiment is everything. But sentiment cannot weigh in unless people know. For us, the fact that we have the president of the United States to speak to the american to the American People what the choices because public sentiment, as lincoln said, is everything. But it cannot wait unless people know. For us, the fact we had the president of the United States to speak to the American People in these terms is an advantage for us to Work Together in a bipartisan way rather than republicans mischaracterizing what we are trying to do in the congress of the United States. I see it as an opportunity. I think joe biden had a big mandate, a bigger mandate than john f. Kennedy had when i was in school. T is pretty exciting for the country because he respects every Single Person in our country, certainly everything will person who voted and it espects all of them. We have challenges that need to be faced because of the future is inevitable and all that it contains, but we want people to know the decisions start at the Kitchen Table, not at the corporate boardroom and trickle down. Thank you very much. Use your mobile devices to follow the Election Results at cspan. Org election. Interactive Election Results maps for the Electoral College count
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