Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on Democracy Reform Task Force’s Announcement of By the People Project

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Caroline Behringer, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Congressman John Sarbanes, Chair of the Democracy Reform Task Force, and House Democrats for a press conference to announce the development of the By the People Project, a comprehensive package of democracy reforms to fight back against efforts by President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to degrade America's democratic institutions, subvert federal ethics standards and undermine the public interest in favor of special interests and wealthy donors. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks

Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for being here. I'm very honored to be here with this very distinguished group of the House of Representatives who are helping us all honor our oath of office to help us protect and defend our Constitution of the United States and the democracy that it stands for.

I want to say before yielding to them that I want to send my best wishes, prayers to Senator McCain, wishing him well. My first bill that I worked on when I was elected Whip was ‘McCain-Feingold' [Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002] and we were able to pass it out of the House. It was called ‘Shays-Meehan' in the House, but ‘McCain-Feingold,' and its goal was to reduce the role of money in politics and it did. And we worked in a bipartisan way to get that done. I hope we can return to that model.

A few years later as you know, the courts and the Citizens United Decision and the McCutcheon [v. Federal Election Commission] and Shelby [County v. Holder] decisions have increased the role of money in politics. We're here to talk about how we reverse that.

I want to extend deep, deep gratitude to [Congressman] John Sarbanes who has been the Chair of the Democracy Task Force, and the others who are gathered here. He will introduce them, I just want to acknowledge the great work they're doing.

As you know, we have instated a DARE, an acronym, D-A-R-E.

Disclose – where does this money come from?

Amend – the constitution. Overturn citizens united.

Reform – our campaign finance laws, as Mr. Sarbanes does with his laws.

Empower – remove obstacles to participation to voting in our country.

Again, I salute the actions of colleagues and the organizations outside they are working with on this, all of us, to strengthen our democracy, to weaken the cynicism people have about their vote.

The middle class is the backbone of our democracy. We have to work for economic policies that strengthen the middle class. We cannot do that effectively unless we reduce the role of money in politics. With that, I am pleased to yield to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland, with great pride in his leadership, Congressman John Sarbanes.

Leader Pelosi Closing Remarks

Leader Pelosi. I thank all of our colleagues and we had been joined earlier by our colleague Sheila Jackson Lee who had to go to a committee meeting but when we are working on these issues, as we mentioned, we are working with Mr. [John] Conyers but also Mr. [James] Clyburn the Assistant Leader, [Congressman] John Lewis, [Congresswoman] Terri Sewell of Alabama on issues that relate to voting rights and voter suppression and the rest. So this is the point of the spear of how we go forward with this and many of the colleagues that I mentioned are part of this operation.

I just want to read this one thing because it is July. We came back from the Fourth of July celebration and I saw this article and it said, have you ever wondered—now our Founders, they sacrificed their lives, their liberty, their sacred honor to establish this democracy. It was quite a remarkable thing—but did you ever wonder what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons during the Revolutionary War, another had two sons captured. Nine of 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners. Men of means, well-educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the sea by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts. He died in rags. Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly without pay and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Ellery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, Middleton, other signers.

At the Battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters and quietly urged George Washington to open fire; the home was destroyed. Francis Lewis lost his home and property. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside when she was dying, their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields were laid to waste and for more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So take a few minutes, while enjoying the Fourth of July, this says. But as we ponder the sacrifices that so many people made at the start of our country, what Abraham Lincoln did to keep our country together, what the suffragettes did to expand the right to vote, what civil rights leaders have done to expand that right to vote, and understand what our responsibility is to protect what so many people sacrificed so much to achieve for our country. The establishment of democracy, the first time in the history of the world. Aren't we proud of our country? Let's work, in as far as we can, in a bipartisan way.

As I said about Senator McCain at the beginning, that was in 2002, all that was referenced where worked together to diminish the role of money in our politics. As Mr. Sarbanes said, we want a government of the many, not of the money. We want a government where people choose their elected officials, not elected officials choosing their voters.

So with that, again, I thank the Task Force for the work that they have done, the work that they will do. Mr. Sarbanes has offered to answer any questions and I'm sure that his colleagues will as well.

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Q: Leader Pelosi, can you react to the health care bill being–?

Leader Pelosi. I can but first let's stay on this subject for a moment. Does anyone have any questions about this or any comments from my colleagues? Okay thank you all very much.

Rep. Cicilline. Thank you Leader.

Leader Pelosi. Oh you know Mr. Cicilline is one of the co-chairs of our [Democratic] Policy [and Communications] Committee and I'm so glad that he made the connection between making a difference and policy. Thank you, Mr. Sarbanes, for your extraordinary leadership. What was the question again?

Q: Your reaction to the–

Leader Pelosi. I mean specifically, I know it's about healthcare.

Q: Your reaction to the Senate grappling with the health care bill and now the Leader saying that he would move forward with just a repeal.

Leader Pelosi. Yes. The repeal and the other actions that the Senate are talking about would take us up to 32 million people losing their access to health care and health insurance. Really a monstrosity, but as the Democratic Leader, Mr. Schumer, said on the Floor today, we look forward to a time when we can go forward– I don't know if he said that but how we move forward would be after recognizing that we cannot eliminate the tax cut, the taxes on the high end. We cannot cut Medicaid and we must do this under the regular order.

But first, the Republicans in the Senate have to complete their business. If their next order of business is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I doubt that they would have the votes to take that up, but let's see. And as soon as that's finished, of course, we have stood ready from the first day the President became President to extend a hand of friendship to talk about how we can improve and update the Affordable Care Act and stand ready to do so as soon as the Senate decides that it has finished with its business.

Q: Leader Pelosi, what are the chances that, given that they have targeted you, you know, their enemy, the Republican Party, what are the chances of Republicans actually allowing Democrats to work with them on health care?

Leader Pelosi. Well I would hope so, it is about the American people. Your question as to what would they would do to allow us, the President in a statement today said that his health care proposals were defeated because he didn't have the cooperation of any of the Democrats and some of the Republicans. No. He has never really been about increasing access, lowering cost, improving benefits. That's what the Affordable Care Act is about.

So the reason the Republicans in the leadership, in the Senate, have found themselves in this situation is because people have spoken out. Nothing is more eloquent to a member of Congress that the voice of his or her own constituents, we all know that. The town halls worked, the outside groups weighed in with, not political organizing, but with storytelling of people and what the Affordable Care Act means in their lives and what taking it away would do to the health and well-being of their families, what their assault on Medicaid means to the good health of our country.

So it's not about they and us, that's inside maneuvering. It's about the outside message and mobilization from so many people calling their Senators and members of the House and saying, listen to my story. And as I said yesterday at one of the filibusters on the lawn outside the Capitol, we believe that there is some goodness in the hearts of our Republican colleagues otherwise we wouldn't be telling these stories. Hopefully it will be falling on fertile territory where people will listen, will learn. When they know, they will care about what their monstrosity of "mean" legislation means in the lives of the American people. Thank you all very much.

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