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Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference Today

November 19, 2015

Contact: Drew Hammill/Evangeline George, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference today. Below is a transcript of the press conference.

Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here later. A lot going on on the floor right now. As you know, we are taking up a bill on the floor, in my view, that does not make us safer, does not honor our values, and does not have my support.

We had a better option. We had hoped to work in a bipartisan way with our new Speaker, but nonetheless they went down this path. We had a better idea, but they would not give us a chance to have an amendment to the bill. And that would have been the Thompson-Lofgren bill that validates what is in the law now, the 18 month to two-year process that refugees have to go through in order to be, hopefully, passed and admitted to our country.

And, it is important to note that only 2,200 Syrians have been admitted to the country in the past few years. Half of them are children, a fourth of them are seniors – all of them have gone through the very long process.

But it really is encouraging to hear the overwhelming support that we are receiving from the faith-based communities, from the humanitarian communities to say this Republican bill is not the way to go. Instead, we should be working together in a bipartisan way, House and Senate and the rest, and we should be reforming our visa waiver process.

It is amazing that you can come from any of our countries that has a visa waiver but have a provenance that is very dangerous to the American people, and yet you get in. And yet if you are a refugee, you have to undergo – women and children – such scrutiny.

And the other part is the gun issue. It's just amazing. Peter King, Republican Congressman, has a very important piece of legislation that would stop the sale of weapons to people who are on the terrorist-watch list. So averse are our colleagues to touching anything that has to do with guns. Hopefully, they will take up this bill because if we want to make the American people safer, that is one place we can start. Probably ten to one, let's say, of people on the terrorist-watch list who go into a store to buy a gun get to walk away with a gun of their choice.

And then of course what is big for us now is the omnibus, the budget discussions, which I think are proceeding at the subcommittee level right now. I am confident that the Speaker has talked about a timetable to have us finish in a timely fashion to avoid any shutdown of government.

So, it is about the offsets, as we have said before, it is about the top line of the money, and now it is about the – how we blend all that together and have a discussion of riders. We can't have any poison pill riders.

But that is the next discussion. Any questions?

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Q: Madam Leader, I heard from a lot of Democrats coming out of the briefing this morning that they did not hear from Mr. McDonough and Secretary Johnson why this bill would be so burdensome. They said it seems like commonsense legislation to them, and that they plan to vote for it. Can you explain why this bill would be so burdensome and would be so unfair?

Leader Pelosi. I think some people walked in the room prepared to vote against the bill. So when they walked out – I mean for the bill – they solved their own problem.

I think this bill sends a complete wrong message in that the Refugee Council has said in their letter – I have one of their letters right here – but this sends a message to the world that does not improve our safety.

A piece of legislation is more than the to wits, to woes and the various positions. It is a message to the world about our country. And we have a responsibility to keep the American people safe. It is the oath of office we take. Count me as a lioness. Anybody comes near my cubs, you are dead.

So, we respect the concern, the horror that exists in our country following Paris, Beirut, the Russian airliner coming down. And we must be strong to do it. I believe the bill that we have put forth is stronger because it's smarter. It's more discrete, it more targets in on what we have to do, where their bill is more of a message, and I think the wrong message.

But I said to the Members, ‘You are going to make your own judgments on this, and nobody is asking you to do anything except pay attention.' And that's what we are doing.

I am very, very proud of Bennie Thompson, our ranking member on Homeland Security. He has done a superb job. But again, this all went so fast. This is serious. This is our national security, the oath we take. That we should have this rushed and ignoring some of the concerns that we have put forth, which make the bill stronger and made our country more secure, I think it is a missed opportunity. It sends the wrong message. It doesn't make us safer. And it does not have my support.

Q: Madam Leader, what is the negative message that gets sent by a bill that simply says that the DNI needs to certify that every person who comes into this country via the refugee program from Syria is not a security risk?

Leader Pelosi. It isn't just the DNI. It's the DNI, it's the head of the FBI – it's more than that. But that's not the breakdown of the bill. It's the missed opportunity that is here. And what are we not doing? We are not addressing visa waiver, we are not addressing guns, we are not addressing the fact that this bill just only talks about people coming from Iraq and Syria.

Our bill is more inclusive. It's smarter. And therefore, it's stronger in terms of protecting the American people. So it's an interesting tactic for them to take, but it's a total missed opportunity from what we need to do to honor our responsibility to protect the American people and give them confidence.

The system that exists now has worked – has worked for at least seven years or beyond. It has worked. Our bill validates that, enhances what is there, is better than the Republican bill in many respects.

But you know, I said, ‘Make it a non-event. Vote for it if you want, don't vote for it if you don't want. But don't think it's a reflection of our values because it is not.'

Q: Madam Leader, last week President Obama said ISIS was contained. Was he right when he said that?

Leader Pelosi. We are prepared to defeat ISIS by any definition. The President has engaged with more than 65 other countries to defeat ISIS. The President knows better than any of us the threat that they pose to the security of the world and to the American people. So, I have confidence in the President's take on what is out there.

Q: Madam Leader, taking into account the expectation that many Democrats will probably vote for this bill today – would you consider it a poison pill rider if some permutation of this were added onto the omnibus?

Leader Pelosi. I am not going into riders right now. We have several hundred poison pill riders. So, we have to compare them to what?

I don't think this bill will go any place in the Senate. You know, the Senate Democrats have – they put forth their principals today that relate to a visa waiver reform and stopping [the] sale of guns to terrorists – people who are on the terrorist-watch list, which I think is an appropriate focus.

But you know, here we are – a new administration here – a terrible challenge that has happened. You would think we could have been able to do the strongest possible values-based bill that doesn't send the wrong – Nancy [Cordes] – the wrong message to the world that gives fertile ground to those who recruit terrorists. Terrorists, their goal is to instill terror, instill fear. We cannot let them have that victory.

So, why don't we do something that makes us stronger, protects the American people more securely, instead of fanning that flame?

Q: Is there any place, though, in the omnibus for that conversation?

Leader Pelosi. You know, we have so much conversation on the omnibus. I don't even know. We were out, and then we came in for a few days, or hours, and now we're going out again. When we get down to what our differences are, then we'll see how we prioritize them. And then I'm just going to have to go back to floor – yes, ma'am?

Q: Back to the guy's first question, some Democrats are upset that the Administration did not give a sufficient argument and air cover amid the challenging vote on the refugee bill. What did the Administration do wrong, and are you worried at all that we are getting into override territory on this bill?

Leader Pelosi. Let me just say this: I am really, very proud of the Administration. What they were presenting to the Members was reality.

You cannot have thousands of applications reviewed by the top law enforcement people in our country. It is an obstacle to the resettlement program, and that's why all of these organizations who really do care about refugees – our Republican Members said: ‘Our hearts go out. Our hearts go out. Well, ‘our hearts go out,' that's interesting. Let's have a hand of friendship go out as we review the resettlement.

But you know what, nobody is making judgements. Any time we have – we're the Democratic Party. We're like a family. We have our give and take all the time, and some Members just were set to vote for this bill. And so, I don't know that there would have been any answer that would have satisfied their concerns. But I was very proud. Jeh Johnson is doing a great job. Denis McDonough knows the national security ramifications of the message this bill sends very well.

Yes, sir? Okay, that's it.

Q: You are familiar with Silicon Valley in your state. You are also familiar with Intel from your time there. I am wondering if what happened in Paris to you means it is time for a discussion about the widespread availability of hard encryption on consumer devices such as cell phones in light of the Paris attacks?

Leader Pelosi. Well, I think that's a discussion we should have had with or without the Paris attacks. But it is – on all of these issues that relate to our technology, and that we are the leader in the world, it's about security; it's about privacy and civil liberties; and it's also about Brand America.

We cannot have a situation where we make decision where nobody will want our technology, because we make decisions that are more emotional than factual. But it's a very legitimate debate that we should have. Myself, I'm a big believer in technology. And whatever challenges we have now – task for correcting them. But it is a very big issue, and you rightly point that out.

Thank you. Bye bye. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

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