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Pelosi Remarks Following Bipartisan Leadership Meeting With Obama, Biden

January 5, 2009

Pelosi Remarks Following Bipartisan Leadership Meeting With Obama, Biden

Monday, January 5, 2009

Contact:Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. â€" Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Democratic House and Senate leaders held a press conference today following their bipartisan meeting with President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

Below are the Speaker’s opening remarks:

"Thank you, Mr. Leader. It is a new day here on the Capitol. The President-elect came and called together a meeting of the bipartisan leadership, Democrats and Republicans of the House and Senate. He talked about extending a hand of friendship, to work with civility, with fiscal responsibility, and with a sense of urgency, because the American people are hurting.

"People are concerned about losing their jobs, their savings, and their homes. Families are concerned about the health of their children. States are concerned about their financial situation, which affects the education and the health of their children, the well-being of seniors.

"And our country and our economy need an economic recovery package that will create jobs immediately and will grow the economy. And that's what we talked about today -- how we could do this expeditiously, deliberatively, and to act upon it soon.

"I won't make an announcement about how soon, but we all know what our tasks are. We'll return to our houses, and respective houses, to work on legislation.

"This legislation will begin in the House of Representatives. We know what the time constraints are. They are dictated by the sense of urgency that the American people have about their economic well-being.

"Lots of expectations have been placed on the new President. As a new Congress, we look forward to working with him, again, in a bipartisan way to bring relief to the American people.

"I commend the President-elect for his determination to act in a bipartisan way. That's what we all came here to do. And now we have a President who wants to work with us to that end."