Skip to main content

Pelosi Press Availability after Congressional Leadership Meeting with President Obama

November 7, 2014

Contact: Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held a press availability following the Congressional leadership meeting with President Barack Obama today at the White House. Below is a series of questions and Leader Pelosi's answers:

Leader Pelosi. You can see my pendant – the San Francisco Giants winning the World Series, hence the orange and black. But good afternoon. Good to see you. I went up because I was hearing about a Supreme Court, when I say decision, a decision to take up a case, which is – in my view – is very clear cut. The intent of Congress on subsidies in the Affordable Care Act, for not only those in the state exchanges, but those who are in states without an exchange but are part of the federal marketplace would be entitled to a subsidy. And I'm surprised – I'm not surprised – why they're taking it up, I don't know. The intent of Congress was clear. The CBO reporting on the cost of it were always part of how we went forward with the legislation. So it's troubling that they would even consider this.

Q: And you still believe that the law is ironclad? That was the verbiage you often used.

Leader Pelosi. Yes, the language is very clear. The intent of Congress is very clear. The CBO projections as to cost, which were an integral part of the Affordable Care Act as to how much it would cost and how it was offset, all included that. So we shall see.

But I only mention that because we were coming from a very interesting meeting with the President. We thank him for hosting an expanded number of House and Senate Democrats and Republicans, members of the leadership. The intent was to talk about what we do in the lame duck and then what we do beyond. The President started with some of the good, positive progress that's being made on Ebola. We spent a good time on national security with a briefing from General Austin about what's happening in relationship to ISIS. We talked about starting on an Authorization for the Use of Military Force. I think we should be doing it now. I think we should have done it weeks ago. It looks like they'll start working on it and then do something probably according to what the Speaker was saying, when we come back into a new Congress. And we had some conversation about other items on the agenda.

Q: To the degree you can, what did you say about the ISIL authorization? I know you had said previously that you thought they had the authority. The President said we need to do something different.

Leader Pelosi. Oh, I do, yes.

Q: But how did he sort of break that up between the money and also what the authorization — and the hurdle to get that through the Congress?

Leader Pelosi. The President has the authorization right now. When we were in there it was classified and we were not public. When we came out there was an announcement of some additional troops requested there for resources, for training in Iraq. But it was clear and understood that the President had the authority to do what he was doing. Congress needs to make some decisions about the money.

Q: Leader Pelosi, Mr. McCarthy said that Republicans in the meeting pushed back at the President, told him he should not take executive action and use the legislative process to deal with immigration.

Leader Pelosi. That's right.

Q: Can you talk about that discussion?

Leader Pelosi. Well I'm sure he told you what their point was, that the President should use – I want you to see this because you may have missed it during the break: Zoe Lofgren, Luis Gutierrez and I did an op-ed: "As presidents before him, Obama has the authority to act." The President has the authority to act by executive order on immigration. It's in the law, but it's also in the precedent of other presidents, whether it's President Eisenhower, Kennedy, both Bushes, President Reagan – it just goes on and on. I want you to read this; I really want you to read this because it has every president taking executive action in terms of immigration.

They are saying: give us a chance to pass a bill. Well, we could take up the Senate bill next week and that would be good. But we've been waiting a long time for that. And I hope we do have a bill; it's preferable in our legislative language but presidents – more than the lifetime than all of you here – have been using executive action.

Q: Did the President also make that clear in the meeting? Did he communicate he was still planning to move forward…

Leader Pelosi. I wouldn't be conveying to you what the President said in the meeting. You're telling me what one of the Members who was there said. Yes, that's what he said. And this is what I say.

Q: Did he indicate to you the biggest priorities during the lame duck? What is his message to you that you needed to do during lame duck?

Leader Pelosi. Well in the lame duck – first of all, our responsibility, we have a lame duck because we have to deal with the budget and how we go forward with the omnibus, the CR, whatever it happens to be. Again, that involves some additional funding for Ebola and additional funding from OCO probably for this training…

Q: Leader Pelosi, how do you feel about the extra troops in Iraq?

Leader Pelosi. Well, we just got the briefing on it and it's consistent with what we talked about before in terms of not our folks being on the ground but training the Iraqi troops. What was interesting was the confidence that they have in the Prime Minister of Iraq to reach out as was promised before but not delivered under Mr. Maliki.

So in any event, I thought it was a constructive meeting, a good exchange of ideas. And we, of course, congratulate the Republicans on their success at the polls. I don't consider it a wave; I think it's an ebbing of Democratic voters rather than a wave of Republican voters because I don't think the American people gave anybody a great big seal of approval in the election. But they have won; they have both houses; they have the chance now to show how they would govern. We look forward to working with them in a positive way. I hope that they would treat the President how we would treated President Bush when he was president and we had the House and the Senate, which was to disagree on certain issues like privatizing Social Security, but finding every other possible area of agreement.

Thank you all.

Q: Your argument on immigration – you brought that up in the meeting…

Leader Pelosi. No, I just said I want you to read this. I didn't bring copies. I just said I want you to read what other presidents have done.

Q: You said that to people in the meeting, too?

Leader Pelosi. In the meeting, yeah. So I'm going to be sending them back and I refer to you for your consideration because it is completely in keeping with some of what the President has suggested. He has a great deal of authority under the law and under the law and under the actions of previous presidents.

Q: And your thoughts on Madison Bumgarner?

Leader Pelosi. Hey. Our guy. Our guy. I told you all that we're on the every-other-year plan, right? for winning? 2010, 2012, 2014. We may accelerate that, I just don't know. And they may be more frequently.

Q: It's always election years too, though. You think there's some connection there?

Leader Pelosi. Well, we can do some another time. But we're very, very proud. I'm looking forward to licking my chops to get the beautiful ribs from Kansas City. And it was great; it was absolutely great.

Thank you.

# # #

Issues:Health Care