Pelosi Remarks at Media Stakeout Following White House Meeting

Contact: Speaker's Press Office,

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Speaker Pelosi. I looked at my watch to see if it's still morning or afternoon.

Good day to all of you. I'm so delighted to be at the White House, and I know I can speak for all of our colleagues when I say that, to visit with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. I'm here with our chairs of committees who have a direct input on to the Biden Rescue Plan that will be on the Floor today. As we leave here we'll go back to the Capitol. Mr. Hoyer, our distinguished Leader, will take us to the Floor with the package. Our distinguished Chair of the Budget Committee, Mr. Yarmuth, will lead us in the debate this afternoon – early this afternoon, so that we will have established the budget plan.

On Monday, we will begin working on the specifics of the bills. Hopefully, in a two-week period of time, we'll send something over to the Senate, and this will be done long before the due date, the expiration of so many initiatives.

In terms of this meeting, the President was his usual: values-based, knowledge-informed and strategic-thinking in his presentation. It was a joy to hear his commitment to meeting the needs of American people, open, as we all are to bipartisanship. But nonetheless, interested in getting results, as soon as we can in the best possible way. We passed the reconciliation bill, and we will later today, to have as an option. We would hope we can proceed in a bipartisan way. And that was part of the thrust of our meeting with the President. Most of the time, the President heard from the leadership of our committees in the House, which are so – our leadership is so beautifully diverse, representative of our country, in every way. And I couldn't be prouder than to hear their values-based, knowledge-informed presentations to the President. So, as we leave here we do so happy that he's there, and the Vice President, and that the Senate, well into the early hours of the morning, passed the bill that we will be able to finish off with today.

So, again, we thank the President for his leadership, for the opportunity to share some thoughts with him, but more importantly to hear from him about his vision for America. This is the American Rescue Plan to save jobs, as Mr. DeFazio tells me, to save jobs. Next, we'll prepare for the Recovery Act to create many more jobs. Any questions?

Q: Madam Speaker, is it your understanding that the bill, as it is now, would be able to pass the House with reconciliation as is? And do you anticipate that it will go through reconciliation and not have Republican support?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, as I said, our hope would be that we would have bipartisanship. I think that having a reconciliation bill is necessary so that we know that – we will guarantee that – we'll have results and hopefully give us some leverage with the Republicans. I hope that we can work together, because we are going to work together. Mr. Hoyer, would you like to –

Leader Hoyer. First of all, you ought to remember we passed four reconciliation, excuse me, COVID-19 bills with economic recovery and health with overwhelming bipartisan support. And then for whatever reason the Republicans decided, ‘let's wait.' And we waited a long time, a lot of people got hurt. And then we passed the $900 billion-plus bill in December, December 16. That was an overwhelming bipartisan vote as well. Can I just – let me finish. We call it reconciliation. There's nothing in reconciliation that precludes Republicans voting for it.

Now, I want to say this was a unique meeting that I had in the White House just now, that all of us had. Over the last four years, this is a unique meeting – we're gonna have a lot more – because it was not focused on the President. It was focused on the people that we needed to help.

Q: My understanding is that there are some Democrats, though, that are pushing back on the bill and saying it should be smaller. Is your understanding that –

Speaker Pelosi. Mr. Clyburn, the distinguished Whip.

Q: My understanding is that there are Democrats pushing back on the bill because of its size. Is your understanding that it would have enough votes to pass as is without any changes?

Whip Clyburn. Absolutely. And the only size that I've heard anything about before I got in this morning – and I mentioned to the President – that is making sure that we don't dial back on $1,400. $1,400 is on top of the $600, and therefore this is the $2,000 that we promised. He said $2,000. They only agreed to $600. Now, we put in the $1,400 the break into $2,000. So, that's the pushback that I'm getting. And I'm also getting a little bit of pushback on people to make sure that we target what we're doing. And we're all for that. We believe that it should go to the people who need it most. It's just that we are there, we just can't get it reported that we are there.

Speaker Pelosi. If I just may say on that score, we have passed seventeen reconciliation bills in recent time in a bipartisan way. And so, I want to yield to the distinguished Chair, because we – the bill that the Senate passed is identical to our instructions to the budget, as said to them. Mr. Yarmuth, get behind the microphone.

Chairman Yarmuth. The Speaker's right. We get the same amount in instructions back from the Senate that we passed, so we can pass it with a simple vote today and attend to and then the committees will draft the legislation that actually creates the assignment of those dollars, and we'll bring that back to the Floor in just a couple of weeks, and we only lost two Democrats in the vote for – they just voted for $1.9 trillion. So, we don't anticipate a problem with –

Q: Madam Speaker, do you have any concerns that a package this large, verging on $2 trillion, might sacrifice progressive policies going forward?

Speaker Pelosi. Absolutely not. One of the things that we always discuss is, as we try to address the emergency that we have now to crush the virus to save the lives and livelihood of the American people, we're not going to perpetuate any injustices. We spent a great deal of time in the meeting, early part of the meeting, talking about the disparity in access in many ways, but including access to the health provisions that are necessary to fight the virus. Now, including the distribution of vaccine. Absolutely, positively not.

Q: Madam Speaker, there's been a lot of discussion on the $1,400 direct payments. You raised the issue that they should be targeted. To whom will they be targeted? Where's the cut-off point?

Speaker Pelosi. Let me just say this, because I think that there isn't a clear understanding. This is the overarching budget bill. Next week, the committees of jurisdiction will take those targeted amounts and make the established priorities there. So, we're not going to have a negotiation right here.

Mr. Neal, the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, that falls in his jurisdiction. Did you want to say something about that?

Chairman Neal. Thanks, Speaker. So, in the CARES Act, if you recall, we used a ceiling of, for joint filers, of $150,000 for single filers under $175,000. We had a great deal of difficulty, believe it or not, because there are in America joint filers under $24,000 a year. Single filers under $12,000 a year who don't have tax ID numbers. We attempt in this package to address many of those issues. What the President mentioned, in discussion with the Speaker, of a ceiling that we would construct, as we go to negotiations, as Speaker Pelosi has noted.

Q: Beyond this issue, was there any discussion of a potential infrastructure bill or renewing the Voting Right Act?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, actually, this was a jobs meeting. Mr. DeFazio, the Chair of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Chairman DeFazio. Actually, when the President acknowledged me he said, ‘you're next.' And he's committed to doing an infrastructure package. It'll draw on the elements of my Invest Act and the Moving Forward package we passed in the House. We're going to deal with climate change and create a hell of a lot of jobs in this country, and we're going to do it through Bobby Scott's committee – massive job retraining, reaching out to communities that have been left behind and bring them in. And they're going to get good jobs.

Leader Hoyer. Woah, woah. I want to make a comment on your question.

We had, and I mentioned this to the President, a very, very successful 116th Congress in the House of Representatives. We passed very meaningful legislation. We passed four major bills – actually five major bills – to help people who were suffering from the COVID-19 in our economy, and we passed Voting Rights. We passed Equal Rights. We passed H.R. 1, we passed so many very big bills that the American people overwhelmingly supported, and McConnell would not put them on the Floor. We're going to move that agenda.

Speaker Pelosi. Hold on a second – just hold on a second. As I said originally, this is the American Rescue Plan, the Biden American Rescue Plan. The next bill will be the recovery plan. And, again, even before any of us spoke, and even the President addressed us when we sat down he said to Peter, ‘You're next' before anything else.

Q: Madam Speaker, walk us through if you don't mind: if infrastructure is next and Democrats also want to raise the minimum wage and there's also talk about cancelling student loans up until a certain level —

Speaker Pelosi. Well, let me say — we're not going to go into that level of specificity right here, now. That is, that is a discussion for next week when the Members and the committees — now, because the Senate finished this morning — welcome to our world: more than you want to know on the subject — because the Senate finished this morning, today, we can notice for markup starting Monday, the beginning of next week as the committees are prepared to go forward and some of the preparation depends from one committee to the next —

Q: Tax reforms?

Speaker Pelosi. We're talking about this subject, to talk about this subject. That's it. Yeah, we're talking about this subject.

Q: Obviously I know – I'm just curious –

Speaker Pelosi. Why don't you have a jacket?

Q: It feels pretty good.

[Laughter]

Q: I also ran up here because I –

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, that's your reason.

[Laughter]

Q: Because of the minimum wage, obviously that's not going to be included right now, I'm just curious –

Speaker Pelosi. That's not obvious.

Q: That's not obvious? Can you just talk to those folks who maybe thought, based on the Senate's vote last night, that the minimum wage increase would not –

Speaker Pelosi. We just don't know. We just don't know.

Q: Madam Speaker, can you guarantee that –

Speaker Pelosi. Wait a second. You had a question. I'm so sorry. Yes, sir?

Q: Madam Speaker, and maybe for Chairman Neal as well, is there anything that was not in President Biden's proposal that any of your Chairmen or Chairwomen intend to include in their reconciliation bills? I know there was a question asked here yesterday about aid to airlines to help make sure people stay on the payroll – flight attendants and pilots. Is there anything that's not in the President's blueprint that we should expect to see in one of the bills in markup next week?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the blueprint is what the Senate passed and what we passed yesterday. So, Mr. Neal.

Chairman Neal. That's what a markup is for. The Ways and Means Committee will begin on Wednesday morning and finish by Friday afternoon. That's our plan. We, as the President said and the Speaker has repeatedly said, if they can offer suggestions that will improve the bill, then that's the system I came through.

Speaker Pelosi. Wait a second.

Chairman DeFazio. Just to your question, I was in a long hearing yesterday on COVID impacts on transportation workers. But I saw a Reuters story that said I had been silent on PSP. And I have not been silent. And there aren't – there is a large transportation component to this bill, saving well over a million jobs. We're dealing with transit, we're dealing with rail, we're dealing with contractors, we're dealing with concessionaires, we're dealing with airports, and we're dealing with aviation.

Speaker Pelosi. Anybody who hasn't had a question yet?

Q: Madam Speaker, can you guarantee that this will be done by March 15th when the –

Speaker Pelosi. Absolutely. Without any question. Before then. Before then.

Q: What's the timeline?

Speaker Pelosi. Again, more on the subject than you'd ever want to know. We'll be finished by today. We will pass our bill. When our bill is passed, we can notice for markup. The committees of jurisdiction that have impact on this bill – and it's not every committee of Congress, but it's most – will then do their markups. They'll coordinate among each other so there's no contradiction or whatever. And then by the end of the week, no later, by the end of the week, it will go to the Budget Committee. There are all kinds of things, a couple of days for dissenting views, a couple days for notice of meetings – that kind of stuff that takes a little time, that goes to Mr. Yarmuth's committee, the Budget Committee. Do you want to go from there. Mr. Yarmuth?

Chairman Yarmuth. Well, then what we do is – we take all of the bills, we package them together and then we essentially scrub the bill to make sure that there are no fatal errors in it regarding the Byrd Rule or any procedural steps that might kill it in the Senate on technicalities. So, we do that – that'll take a few days, and then we bring it back to the Floor –

Speaker Pelosi. We go to the Rules Committee

Chairman Yarmuth. We'll go to the Rules Committee and then back to the Floor.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes, ma'am?

Q: Speaker Pelosi, did President Biden comment on the criticism from Larry Summers that there is a risk of going too big here?

Speaker Pelosi. No, we didn't talk about Larry Summers.

Q: What about airlines?

Chairman DeFazio. Excuse me, we aren't doing – will you listen? We're not doing airlines. The payroll passthru program is airline workers only. We limited – no stock buyback, no dividends, no executive bonuses. We're using them as a very efficient unemployment division to pass the payroll through to their workers, which is hundreds of hundreds of thousands of jobs – that's what we're doing. It's not for the airlines. It's not like 9/11 – we didn't let that happen.

Speaker Pelosi. Okay, that's it. Thank you all very much. More to be continued. Oh, you didn't have a question, dear.

Q: I know you're focused on rescue, but when can Americans expect the second piece of this bill?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, let us get through the phase one first, okay? Right now, we have been focused like a laser on getting this done. This is about crushing the virus. It's about honoring our heroes, our people who work to get this done. It's about putting money in the pockets of the American people. In a matter of more than – less than two weeks, I hope, around that time – we hope to be able to put vaccines in people's arms, money in people's pockets, children safely in schools and workers in their jobs. And that's what we are doing now.

At the same time, the committees of jurisdiction, the Transportation Committee, they have what we started last year with Moving America Forward. The President has put forward Build Back Better. We have the ingredients for what will come next. But we first have to get this done. At the same time, the groundwork is being done for the recovery.

That's it. Thank you all very much!

Q: It's your first trip here in a while. How is it different today than those ones before?

[Laughter]

Speaker Pelosi. Do you really have to ask? I mean, it was, as I said, the President at the beginning – as a figure of speech people will say, ‘I'm delighted to be here.' But I know I speak for all of my colleagues when I say we are really delighted to be here for what it means to the American people. Thank you.