House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Weekly Press Conference Transcript April 29

Nancy Pelosi: (01:57)
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning it is today.

Today, we celebrate 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration. In that time, working together, Democrats have made historic progress to defeat the pandemic and to address the economic crisis, administering over 200 million doses. Imagine, the President had a hundred million as his goal, and we’ve exceeded 200 million shots, delivering over 160 million checks, and putting $1 trillion into workers’ pockets. And we’ve made historic progress to build back better, cutting child poverty in half. Imagine in the rescue package initiative to cut child poverty in half, delivering healthcare to an additional 800,000 Americans through the ACA because of the provisions in the rescue package that enabled more people to have access to the subsidies.

This is so exciting. I feel very proprietary about the Affordable Care Act. And creating 1.3 million jobs, more jobs in the first 100 days than any president ever.

All of this puts our economy back on track to grow six percent this year. That’s not my figure. That’s according to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has said. And this is the fastest pace in nearly 40 years. As the President said last night, America is moving.

Last night was historic. It was the first time two women, the Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House, sat behind the President as he delivered his address to the nation. It sent the message to girls and women that beyond the sky is the limit. We would say the sky’s the limit years ago, but now with the technology that we see, there is no limit. The President’s speech reflected that message.

It’s one thing to have two women there. It’s remarkable actually I say immodestly, but what was really important about the night was what the president said in his speech. It was a triumph for women. Women at home women in the workplace. Equal pay for equal work. Paid family and medical leave. Affordable childcare. Universal pre-K. I love that because it’s children learning, parents earning. Men and women, but largely women as caregivers. The Violence Against Women Act that he urged the passage of in the Senate and many other initiatives for women. The list goes on.

This address was a recognition that we can only build back better with the fuller participation of women in our economy. So I indeed thought it was a triumph for women.

This is an ambitious, transformative vision for seizing a once-in-a-century opportunity to build back better. The bold investments of the American Jobs Plan, the American Family Plan invest in the foundations of our strength. Families, workers in the middle class. The Jobs Plan is the largest plan since World War II and the Families Plan will make historic differences for families. The Democratic House looks forward to working with the administration to enact this vision. Congress will work it’s well. We have many ideas in our caucus and our committees at hard at work advancing American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan.

Just to go back to the President’s address, we’re talking about it, but specifically he lifted up the progress made by the rescue plan, told people what’s in it so that they can be sure to avail themselves of the benefits of it and what can be done in the American Jobs Plan. In addition to all of that, he talked about other priorities for our community and, therefore, some pieces of legislation already passed the House or the Senate. The George Floyd Justice and Policing Act that we are optimistic will see some progress in a bipartisan way soon. Gun violence prevention bills, very popular across the country among gun owners and the rest. Only in the Congress of the United States is there objection, but there is bipartisanship or non-partisanship on this subject across the country.

HR1 for the people. This is about our democracy. We must pass this legislation. We have in the House. The Leader has called it a priority in the Senate, Mr. Schumer, and then what they did pass in the Senate and we have to take up in the House is the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act led by Mazie Hirono in the Senate, Grace Meng in the House. We’ll take this up when we come back.

The Equality Act and the discrimination against LGBTQ community passed the House, popular in the country. Corporate America by and large supports the legislation. Let’s just get that done.

Immigration reform as the President called for Dreamers and TPS, et cetera. Popular across the country in a bipartisan way.

Action to lower prescription drug prices. We’ve been working on this for almost a generation. It’s time to do that. But we can pass the legislation to enable the Secretary to negotiate for lower prescription drug benefits. It will be an assist to America’s working families overwhelmingly. And any poll that you take, the cost of healthcare is a challenge to America’s working families because of the cost of prescription drugs. The Affordable Care Act, we have lowered the rate of increase of the cost of medical care except for the cost of prescription drugs.

These and other initiatives will be addressed by either one of our Houses as is appropriate. And the House is proud of the progress that we have made, and we are committed to ensuring that these bills become law.

So again, 100 days. What a difference a day makes. What a transformation 100 days makes. Thank you, Mr. President. Especially, thank you for making your speech, your presentation. Such a triumph for women.

Any questions?

Yes, ma’am.

Speaker 2: (09:07)
Hi, good morning, Madam Speaker.

Hi. Good morning.

Speaker 2: (09:12)
You covered a lot of topics this morning on CBS. I want to ask about something that didn’t come up about the House itself. Two questions. Roughly what percentage of the House do you think is fully vaccinated right now? And then second, there’s been some pushback from both the right and the left about requiring social distancing and fully masked participants last night. Why not consider something like requiring that everyone be fully vaccinated? Why require masks at a time when public health officials want the message to be about vaccination?

Well, public health officials still encourage wearing masks indoors, but your question is an excellent one that should be made to every member of Congress. We are guided by the Capitol’s attending physician and the Sergeant-at-Arms, but the science demands why we have masks on still. As you rightly point out, with more vaccinations, we should be able to have shorter period of time for voting so that if we’re all vaccinated still with a mask inside, but nonetheless. Perhaps when we are speaking would be a time we could, as you did, take down the mask. But, so far, that’s not what we can do.

So here’s the thing. We cannot require someone to be vaccinated. That’s just not what we can do. It is a matter of privacy to know who is or who isn’t. I can’t go to the Capitol physician and say, “Give me the names of people who aren’t vaccinated so I can go encourage them to be, or make it known to others to encourage them to be vaccinated.” So we can’t do that, but you would hope that science would guide them to protect themselves, their family members, and be good colleagues in the workplace to get vaccinated. And the sooner that that happens, the better for everything.

Because all of the requirements that we had last night were not about security by and large. That security issue was always there when the President of the United States as present. But in terms of COVID. COVID had us in a room where normally 1600 people would be gathered for the address by the President of the United States. 1600 people to I think it was 204 people because the Capitol physician insisted that that social distancing, that mask wearing were necessary so that we’re not contributing to the spread of COVID. Especially with the president of the United States there, but also in terms of the Congress of the United States.

So if we could, but we can’t require vaccinations for the members much less for the American people. Some people want to say, “Don’t come into my store unless you’re vaccinated,” this or that. It causes commotion, but we don’t have too much. There are some individuals who say … And I don’t even know who they are, but if you say there are that they don’t want to social distance and they don’t want to wear a mask, but that’s incidental. It’s not anybody important.

Speaker 2: (12:30)
Do you what percentage of the House is vaccinated? Do you know right now?

The percentage?

Speaker 2: (12:37)
Yeah.

I think it’s about 75%. Maybe in the last few days, some more, but I think it’s about 75%. But again, the physician cannot tell us Democrats, Republicans, or who. And that’s right. We should be respecting people’s privacy, but that’s approximately what it is. And the Republicans come up to me and say, “Let’s shorten the time for votes. Let’s shorten the time for votes.” I said, “Well, tell your friends to get vaccinated. That would help. That would help a lot.”

Chad: (13:06)
Madam Speaker?

What do you got, Chad?

Chad: (13:10)
[crosstalk 00:13:10].

Well, he sits in front. You guys have to just ace him out because he just is so … He’s so Chad.

Chad: (13:18)
[crosstalk 00:13:18] 49ers [inaudible 00:13:20].

I got the Warriors’ colors on today.

Chad: (13:23)
I see that. In any even, did you get to hear any of Senator Scott’s responses?

No, I didn’t because we were thanking the Capitol police and the custodial staff for making the day possible, so I didn’t see it. I usually don’t see it.

Chad: (13:42)
Is there anything that you have maybe read about or something from his message that gave you hope that you could work with them from that message or no?

I didn’t see it, but the one thing I did hear was that he was ready to continue the discussion about the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, and I think that was a very good message to come from that. And we’re very proud of Karen Bass and the work that she has done in a bipartisan way on the House side and now on the Senate side, working with Cory Booker and Senator Scott, for sure. A very important factor in all of this. So that was one thing that I saw on the news that came out.

But, for us, when the President comes, whatever the party, whatever the capacity, it’s until midnight. And the President was very gracious in being willing … Not being willing, wanting to, suggesting that he say thank you to the custodial staff who suffered so much January 6th and who continued to make the Capitol work as well as the security.

Speaker 4: (15:06)
Madam Speaker.

Yes, ma’am.

Speaker 4: (15:07)
As far as the metal detectors are concerned, Jim Clyburn was just fined $5000 for breaching one of the metal detectors, and now a pending lawsuit that Andrew [Clyde 00:15:20] is being talked about. Can you respond to that now, that one of your own-

I think that we are safe protecting the members of Congress and if people have a disagreement on the charge that was made, then they can appeal it, and that’s what’s happening.

Yes, ma’am. What do you got? You had a question?

Speaker 5: (15:42)
Yes, thank you. Sorry. Madam Speaker, just to follow up on police reform, maybe a word of families George Lloyd, Botham John, Terence Crutcher, and Eric Garner on the Hill today. And, number one, are you meeting with them? And number two, besides Karen Bass, who have you designated to negotiate with the Senate lawmakers on this issue today and what have you tasked them with as far as trying to get this done?

What’s the last part there? You said have I chatted with the families? The second part was who have we designated-

Speaker 5: (16:18)
[crosstalk 00:16:18] to negotiate with-

I heard that part, but what was the third part?

Speaker 5: (16:22)
And I guess is what your hope is or what you have tasked them with to try to get this done by the Floyd anniversary? I know you [crosstalk 00:16:29] to get it done, but what has been your mandate to them to move the ball forward?

Well, Karen Bass certainly has received my authorization to proceed with discussions, and they will be having a meeting today. Nearly one year ago, as you know, toward the end of May, George Floyd was murdered in full view. His assassination was something that caused demonstrations, show of support for his family all around the world. Millions of people turned out for days and weeks in some cases, certainly in our country. Beyond congressional black caucus leadership, it was spontaneous. It was organic. People turned out.

And in that period of time, by the second week of June, Karen Bass introduced her legislation. At that time, when it came for the hearings, I met with the family, and at that time they said to me, “Madam Speaker, will you name the bill for our brother? It will mean so much to his daughter.” And I said, “Well, we will name the bill for your brother. We will name it for George Floyd if it is worthy of his name.” We then went through the committee process by a month, four weeks or so after the death of George Floyd. The bill passed the House.

Nothing happened in the Senate. The bill came up again this year, and I met with the family again in preparation for it being passed in the House. I have spoken to them by phone. Because of COVID, we’re limited in terms of actual meetings. But I had met with them in person, but most recently spoken to them by phone on the day. Actually right before the verdict and then after the verdict. So I had been in touch with him all along though long before COVID, but in the course of so many other sad deaths, I have met with many of the moms involved here.

And, of course, we serve with one. Lucy McBath. She lost her son. She’s an inspiration to us in so many ways. And for years, we had been in touch with the families of victims, and we have promised them in terms of victims of gun violence that we will never give up until we pass legislation to stop gun violence. And that is part of the tragedy of many of these moms who’ve lost their children, and some of it relates to a need for justice and policing.

We will bring it to the floor when we are ready, and we’ll be ready when we have a good, strong bipartisan bill. And that is up to the Senate, and then we’ll have it in the House because it will be a different bill.

Speaker 5: (19:41)
[crosstalk 00:19:41] are willing to bend on qualified immunity?

You know what? Why don’t we let them have their negotiation. The President, I thought, calibrated his remarks beautifully last night to say let’s continue the negotiation.

Yes, sir. What do we got? Okay.

Speaker 6: (19:58)
I just wanted to follow up on that. I know you said one of your members, but it’s some of the more progressive numbers of your caucus have been pretty outspoken about how they don’t like some of the compromises that are being floated. How confident are you that house Democrats … Because your margin is smaller at this point, that house Democrats will band together and pass something if it passes the Senate?

Very confident. Yes, ma’am.

Speaker 7: (20:22)
Last question.

Yes, ma’am.

Speaker 8: (20:29)
What do you see as the legislative path forward on prescription drug? Do you envision that passing with other proposals in the American-

Excuse me. You’re far away. Just a little bit louder.

Speaker 8: (20:38)
What do you see as the legislative path forward on prescription drugs, even though it was not included in the family’s plan? Could you envision them passing together?

Well, I have been, as I say, almost a generation advocating for enabling the Secretary to negotiate for lower prices. I appreciate your question because it relates not only to a legislative agenda but the kitchen table concerns of the American people, which is what our legislative agenda is, how it prioritizes that. So there is big interest in our caucus and the committees of jurisdiction as well among the leadership that we want to see a path to that. What is in one bill or another is not really what is important. What is the path that we are on to accomplish what we need to accomplish, to do what we said for the people? We would lower the cost of healthcare by lowering the cost of prescription drugs. We would have lower healthcare costs, bigger paychecks by building the infrastructure of America in a green way. And we would have cleaner government by passing HR1, the For the People Act.

Those are still part of our agenda and in the rescue package. I guess we call it ARC now, but in the rescue package, we did a great deal to lower the cost of healthcare for America’s working families. I’m so proud of what was done in terms of increasing the subsidies for ACA so many more people, even a hundred thousand more signing up in the President’s extended enrollment period, and I thank him for that.

Bigger paychecks. It’s really important to note that if you’re going to build the infrastructure of America for the future, it’s not just roads, bridges, mass transit. That’s all very important. It’s water systems, it’s schools, it’s housing. It’s broadband, broadband, broadband. A very significant part of our package that might not have been 10, 20 years ago in a package. Should have been, but it wasn’t.

So as we go forward, if we’re going to build back better, we have to do so with a strong workforce development piece. Workforce development piece. The personal infrastructure must be built in order for the physical infrastructure to involve everyone in its success. And that’s why, whether it’s women, minorities, people of color, veterans, rural Native American communities, as well as businesses must be able to participate in all of that.

So the question you ask is one that is very supported in our caucus that we would negotiate for lower prices. When we first did it way back when, and, again, you’ve heard me say this almost every week, in 2005 in our campaign to win back the House in 2006, our Six-for-06 agenda had six priorities that we would pass in the first 100 hours. Five of them became law. One did not because we didn’t have 60 votes in the Senate enabling the Secretary to negotiate for lower prices for Medicare. Now, we go beyond that, and that those lower prices would be lower prices in the private sector for America’s families, not just those on Medicare.

So this is a central issue for us, but we are all, to get back to your question, we are all united around what the President put forth last night. It was an agenda for the people. It addressed their concerns, and he did so extending the hand of friendship so that we could do this hopefully in a bipartisan way. But we must get it done, and the shared values that we have in our caucus enabled us to discuss our enthusiasms, our exuberances, and see what emerges. And that’s called Congress working its will.

So I’m proud of every member of our caucus and their ability to weigh the equities in terms of a bill coming down the pipe. Unlike the Republicans who vote against the bill and then show up and take credit. “Oh, I voted for restaurant.” You didn’t vote for restaurants to have a grant. You didn’t. And so a number of them are trying to take credit for something they did not vote for. And that’s not unusual. Vote no, take the dough. That’s what the Republicans do. But that doesn’t help people.

What we’re there is to have the courage to pass the laws that hopefully are in a bipartisan way, but if not, to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the people. And all of these things will come to the floor, every part of it, when they are ready. And I’m hoping that the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act will be soon. Today, they are meeting. I think that’s great. I pray. I pray that they will be successful in a very strong bipartisan way, bicameral way.

Thank you all very much.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Weekly Press Conference Transcript April 29

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