Pelosi Remarks at Press Availability Calling on Republicans to Keep Military DREAMer Amendment in FY16 NDAA

Contact: Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today at a press availability calling on Republicans to keep the Gallego military DREAMer amendment in the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Below are the Leader's remarks followed by the question and answer session:

Leader Pelosi's Opening Remarks:

"It is my honor to join Congressman Gallego in support of his amendment that is under assault on the floor of the House in the consideration of the defense authorization bill. He has spoken eloquently to what his amendment does and described what the opposition to it has misrepresented. I congratulate him for his service to our country. He has served as a Marine, as he said, in Iraq. I have seen his grassroots operation of enthusiastic, idealistic people who want to serve our country and I thank him for his leadership in the Congress.

"As it was indicated, this is yet another example of anti-immigrant attitude on the part of the House Republicans. We know that there was a bipartisan bill passed in the Senate that was not even given a chance to be brought to a vote by the House Republicans. We know that they were ready to shut down government when it came to homeland security in order to eliminate the President's administrative actions to protect people in our country – something that President Reagan did, something that President George Herbert Walker Bush did, President George Bush did. And yet they said it was unconstitutional when President Obama did it. We have even seen them try to reverse the constitutional birthright of a person born in America being a citizen – this xenophobic, anti-newcomer attitude is something that is un-American. And now of course we have this attempt today to reverse the success Mr. Gallego had in committee.

"We will fight this. We hopefully will defeat what they are doing and also break down their barriers to young people in our country, patriotic, who want to serve the only country that they know, the only country that they love.

"With that, I'm pleased to yield to our distinguished House Democratic Whip, Mr. Hoyer."

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Q: Do you think that – maybe this should be directed to leadership – is this enough to blow up this bill? I know that obviously you feel very strong about this. I know there is concerns about other parts of the bill as you alluded to this morning, but is this enough you think to really make Republican sweat – if they're going to do this, they are going to have to pass the bill on their own?

Leader Pelosi. Well, I think they are going to have to pass this bill on their own. And since you mentioned that, I will just reference that the Speaker mentioned that we shouldn't oppose a defense bill – to remind he did in 2010 when we won the amendment to repeal ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. When the bill was brought to the floor with that amendment to repeal ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell', only nine Republicans voted for it. One of the Republicans who voted against the defense bill was the now Speaker of the House, John Boehner. So the sanctimony of saying we should be ashamed if we're not voting for the defense bill – as our Ranking Member has said: do you feel the shame yourself because you voted against it?

We don't think people should be ashamed. We think people should vote their conscience. And their conscience says in this bill, what Mr. Gallego is putting forth, is doing the right thing. Bipartisan support in the committee affirms that. Some on the floor want to undo that good amendment that was contained there. And I don't know if it blows up the bill. You'll have to ask the Republicans. But we have concerns about the bill that relate to the budget and that's the debate that we will be having on the floor when that bill comes forward.

Vice Chair Crowley. Can I just add one point to that? And that is this: poison pills are what bring down bills – poison pill amendments that are designed to bring down a bill as a poison pill amendment. Only the most extreme Republicans would call this a poison pill. This amendment uplifts lives in this country and gives opportunity where they've been denied it in the past. How is that a poison pill? This is the furthest thing from a poison pill. This is not an effort to tear down this bill, to bring it down; it's to make it a better bill. And that's what Mr. Gallegos amendment does.

Q: Congressman Gallego, according to Ray Odierno, the active army will be cut by more than around 80,000 uniformed personnel by the end of 2017. Now, with that being said, because we are losing a number of American citizens from the military, why are we putting a priority on a number of individuals who aren't American citizens yet?

Congressman Gallego. Well, first of all, it's not a priority. And second of all, citizens – legal permanent residents are currently allowed. So this is, again, a sense of Congress. We're not putting a priority on anything. Lastly, the military still has a tough time integrating people from recruiting to actually be eligible. And many times, they have failure rates up to 70 percent of people [not being] eligible for different reasons, health reasons, criminal records, things of this nature. So any attempt to actually expand the pool of available recruits that are going to be qualified and patriotic enough to serve is good for this country.

So I don't like this idea that we're pitting one group of Americans versus another group of Americans. What we're trying to do is find the best Americans to defend this country. And all this bill is saying is that the available pool may also be DREAMers. But there is no teeth to this. And again, this goes back to radical rhetoric from the right, from the Steve King wing of the party, that's trying to pit this idea that if one DREAMer gets a position in the military, another American loses its opportunity to serve in the military. And that's just not true. It just does not even work that way. If Mr. King actually served in the military like I did, and like many of us did, like Tammy did, he would actually understand that. Question back there?

Q: Congressman, if the Brooks Amendment fails, and your provision remains in the bill, would you ultimately support the NDAA on final passage?

Congressman Gallego. Can you just repeat that one more time? I want to make sure I heard that right.

Q: If the Brooks Amendment fails and your provision remains in the bill, would you support the NDAA on final passage?

Congressman Gallego. I believe I will. I'm still waiting to see what other amendments are going to be attached in whatever else comes up. And I still believe there's a lot more life to go to the NDAA. I worked on the NDAA for 19 hours, along with all my other Committee Members. But I am also unhappy about the use of Overseas Contingency Funds to bust up the sequestration, something I think we all had agreed to lift at the same time. And I think that the President is correct in saying that this is an end-run around that.

Q: Speaking of the 19-hour markup, some Republicans are now saying that this was very late at night, that your amendment passing is kind of a signal that they perhaps didn't know what they were doing at this three a.m. markup.

Congressman Gallego. Right.

Q: Can I get your response to that?

Congressman Gallego. Well, I mean, I think that's patently false. If I remember correctly, it was around 10:30, 11:00, some [time] that most of us do work to, at that level. And also, at the same time, Chairman Thornberry specifically said that he was speaking out against my amendment, cluing [in] everybody else the sense of the, what I would say, leadership. And the Republican Members clearly knew that was happening. And they decided to join me in a bipartisan manner to push this forward.

Q: Mr. Gallego, how many Republican votes do you expect to get to keep the amendment? And do you expect you'll continue to have the support from the committee?

Congressman Gallego. I'll be honest. It's going to be close. And I think we will keep most of the Members from the Committee. And I hope to, I think they are willing to do that. I apologize, I'm getting the wrap up sign. But I will also be available, you know, on and off, for any more questions. Thank you, guys.

Q: So you're saying the vote on the amendment will be close?

Congressman Gallego. Yes, yes. The vote on the amendment will be close.

Q: Are you speaking to Republicans, trying to help them?

Congressman Gallego. I am.

Q: Yeah? Working with them on their side to whip votes?

Congressman Gallego. Doing a little texting.

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