Transcript of Pelosi, Reid Press Conference Today
Contact: Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616
Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid held a press conference today to discuss the latest in their efforts to fund the Department of Homeland Security by passing a clean, long-term measure to avoid a Republican Homeland Security Shutdown. Below is a transcript of Leader Pelosi's opening remarks, as well as a question and answer session:
Leader Pelosi. I brought my glasses to be with Harry, but he switched on me.
[Laughter]
Senator Reid. I tricked her.
[Laughter]
Leader Pelosi. Good morning, everyone. It's an honor to be here with the Senate Democratic Leader, to see him being so fit. We come together because we're faced with a challenge for our country – a challenge to honor our oath of office, which we all take, to protect and defend the American people. And now we have had this comedy of errors that has been going on, this major amateur hour in non-legislation that is standing in the way of our honoring our oath of office.
But as we have the debate on it, it's important to recognize what it means to people. Harry, you remember when we established the Department of Homeland Security and the Committee on Homeland Security. It was controversial. And I don't think we still have it exactly right. But nonetheless, the title "Homeland Security" was the source of great debate. But it has the word "home" in it. And this is what it means to people, in their homes:
A shutdown will block $340 million in Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grants – you know it as the SAFER grants – critical funding for local communities used to help fire departments increase the number of frontline fire fighters. It means that the Urban Area Security Initiative – a shutdown will block $600 million dollars in the Urban Area Security Initiative that supports the preparedness of nearly 40 high-threat communities across the country.
FEMA and disaster preparedness grants, think of this: under the Republican Department of Homeland Security shutdown, 3260 employees will be furloughed. Furloughed means: stay home and you do not get paid. Do not under any circumstances come to work. Critical disaster preparedness grants will be blocked. Local jurisdictions – for example, in Massachusetts, which has been inundated with snow – local jurisdictions will be denied the disaster assistance grants they need to deal with the snow.
ADHS shutdown will, in terms of Secret Service, prevent new hires, vital training and upgrades across the Secret Service's protective activities – not only to protect President Obama but to prepare for the upcoming presidential elections. Under a Republican shutdown, 30,000 DHS employees will be furloughed. Another nearly 170,000 DHS employees, made up primarily of frontline security personnel, would have to come to work without pay. So that's nearly 200,000 employees that will either be furloughed or asked to work without pay. I don't know about you, but I think almost everybody I know cannot live without having a paycheck on time – Members of Congress, even. And yet, they're asking these Department of Homeland Security people to do that.
And of those nearly 170,000 DHS employees: 40,000 are Border Patrol; 50,000 are TSA; 13,000 ICE; 40,000 active duty Coast Guard; more than 4,000 Secret Service law enforcement agents – all of these people asked to come to work without pay. As we all know, many of these people – practically all of them – depend on their biweekly paychecks, and the lack of pay can cause real hardship. Wouldn't it for you and your family, including the ability to pay your mortgage, your rent, your car payment, whatever it happens to be?
So let's just get down to passing a clean bill until the end of September. The gamesmanship should end. The Texas court case – while I disagree with the court decision – gave them a face-saving way to just end this. Now, Harry and I agreed that Peter King will probably be the most quoted man in America in the next few hours, when he said – Peter King, the Representative, Republican Member of Congress from New York, he said: "We cannot allow DHS not to be funded. People think we're crazy. There are terrorist attacks all over the world and we're talking about closing down Homeland Security." Peter King, Republican of New York, then said: "This is like living in a world with crazy people." I associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman from New York. With that, I'm pleased to yield to the distinguished Democratic Leader of the Senate, Mr. Reid.
***
Q: Senator Reid, so if the House sends over an amended bill with riders does the department shut down in your view?
Senator Reid. If they send over a bill with all the riders in it, they've shut down the government. We are not going to play games. We have been working for a month to come up with a clear funding proposal the President can sign. So they can put all the riders on it they want; we will not allow that to take place.
Q: Would you accept a short-term CR?
Senator Reid. Manu, I'm not going to be here playing all these hypothetical games. Let the House act. The rules are very clear what rights they have, what rights we have. They have to do what I think is the right thing to do and that is to fund the government. I was happy to see Chairman Rogers, head of the Appropriations Committee, say that he believes there should be full funding. There's a score or more that have publicly spoken out – Republicans – that it should be fully funded. So, I'm not going to get into all these hypotheticals: what if they send us a two-day CR; what if they send us all these riders? We are where we are. Here in the Senate, we will vote on fully funding Homeland Security. We're not going to allow conferences to take place. And if they want to debate immigration when this is all over, we're happy to do it.
Q: Has Speaker Boehner asked you or any Democratic votes? Have you had any conversations with him or Republican Leaders in the House?
Leader Pelosi. I've had brief conversations with him on the subject – Wednesday, probably, most recently – where I said: we are not prepared to do a two-month CR. I agree with the Leader: we can't get involved in five days, seven days and all of that nonsense. Let's just get the job done on time because this is all about time. It's about the time that they kicked the can down the road from December. In December instead of making this part of the compromised bill for funding the government they said: we're separating this out. In that time – and the Speaker said at that time: don't worry about this; we're going to pass it in January. That's what he said at the time. In that time, in January, we had Je suis Charlie – the whole world was galvanized around the issue of homeland security in each of their homelands, except in the hermetically-sealed House of Representatives chamber. We still haven't faced our responsibility. And so I would say, Harry, with all due respect to everything you said, I have a grandson in eighth grade and his knowledge about how to pass a bill is superior to what we see among the Republicans there.
[Laughter]
So it's harmful to our national security, our homeland security, for us to be inching along – whether it's two months, four months. Stop the games-playing. Let's just get serious. We're only talking now about, like, eight months; we've lost some of the time. The uncertainty is really bad. If you want to build a firehouse, if you want to train a workforce to protect the American people, we are already weakening that because of the time that the Republicans have used up with their frivolity. It's about time for them to grow up and pass this bill.
Q: Madam Leader, there are conservatives in the House who say that they can still win this immigration fight, who say they're more optimistic about winning this funding fight than they were about winning the ACA fight in 2013. I'm wondering what both of your responses are to that.
Leader Pelosi. Nothing. I mean, you'll have to talk to them about that. I think what they're demonstrating, though, is that immigration is not the reason they're shutting down government; it was the excuse they were using because now they have an out from what the judge said in Texas. And now they still want to shut down government. So, understand: shutting down government is their motive, and that's what they have to be held accountable for.
Senator Reid. Now I've lost track – I'm sure you know – I think they voted to defund Obamacare 57 times. So maybe we have 56 more times left on immigration.
Q: Sen. Reid, if DHS funding is taken care of, do you think there will be enough votes to get onto this Collins bill, reversing the 2014 order…
Senator Reid. I've said here, make sure that you all understand this: if the President signs Homeland Security, fully funds Homeland Security, doesn't shut down – we don't need 60 votes. We'll go to it. We relish the debate on immigration. But it has to be after we fully fund Homeland Security.
Q: And how would you want to amend that bill?
Senator Reid. Let's see what bill they bring up. If it's Collins, Senator Durbin yesterday said we'd have two or three weeks of work on that bill. It would be longer than Keystone Pipeline.
Q: To clarify, can you all give Speaker Boehner cover for a temporary CR – two week, two month?
Leader Pelosi. It's not a question of giving him cover. We're trying to give cover to the American people, so that our homeland is protected. The cover for the Speaker is very much less important than the cover that the American people need from us, to do our job and to pass a Homeland Security bill. But getting back to the immigration point for a moment, understand this, and you probably know this, but just to review: the President of the United States acted with full legal authority under the law, and with precedent, and with the ability for prosecutorial discretion to protect the people that he did. President Ronald Reagan, President George Herbert Walker Bush, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush all acted, and presidents before them – President Eisenhower, President Nixon – I'm just trying to go into your lifetimes here, Reagan.
The President said: if you don't like what I've done, act. Pass an immigration bill, a comprehensive immigration bill, and then we can have that debate. But they didn't, and they're now saying the President is acting in a way that they object to. They say, "unconstitutional." But they never said that about President Reagan. And while our President is saying: "Pass a bill," President Reagan – the Congress passed a bill, and President Reagan said: you did not go far enough to protect people. So he had his Family Fairness – the family protection piece that he added, that President George Herbert Walker Bush then followed through with, and protected a higher percentage of people, immigrants in our country, than President Obama has done with his action.
And I think one of the strongest presidents we have had in his advocacy for immigration reform has been George W. Bush. They never had a complaint, except for this President. So it rings hollow when they talk about the Constitution, when with presidential precedent and the law of the land, our President has acted within his legal authority. So as I say, it's really an excuse, not a reason.
Senator Reid. One more question.
Q: Leader Reid, and Leader Pelosi as well: if there's this much trouble on what is important, but is frankly a very small portion of the federal government – how is everything going to go when it gets to be a debt ceiling September 30th, when you have a whole fiscal year, everything else, if there's this much trouble with just Homeland Security?
Senator Reid. You should write a story about that. I'm interested in what you would think.
[Laughter]
Senator Reid. Thanks everyone.
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