Transcript of Pelosi, House Democratic Leaders' Press Availability Today on Health Insurance Reform

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

Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leaders, and Committee Chairs held a press availability this afternoon in the Capitol following a Democratic leadership meeting to discuss health care legislation. Below is a transcript:

Speaker Pelosi. Happy New Year. Welcome back. It's great to see you all. We just had a very productive meeting with our Chairs and I want to commend all of them - Chairman Rangel, Chair of the Ways and Means Committee; Mr. Miller, Chair of the Education and Labor Committee; Chairman Waxman, Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee; Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, Chair of the Rules Committee - for the important work they have done and that they are doing.

We are very pleased that our conversations continue with our counterparts in the Senate - at the leadership level, at the committee level, and at the staff level - and are optimistic that there is much that we have in common in both of our bills and that we will resolve or reconcile this legislation in a way that is a triple-A-rating: affordability for the middle class, accountability for the insurance companies, and accessibility to many more people in our country to quality, affordable health care.

With that, I would like to yield to our distinguished Majority Leader.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. We passed a very historic health care reform bill. The Senate has now passed its health care reform bill. Obviously it is necessary for us to reconcile these two bills. There are significant differences. We will be discussing these over the next coming weeks. We expect to move very, very forcefully on this effort to bring these two bills together. We are very hopeful that we will pass a conference report in the near term and send it to the President for his signature.

Teddy Roosevelt started this effort almost a century ago and said that we needed to make affordable, quality health care available to all Americans. Over the ensuing century, we have not accomplished that objective. We have now moved further than in any time in history on a bill that does exactly what Teddy Roosevelt and many Presidents - Republicans and Democrats - who followed him said that we needed to accomplish. We are here working on that effort. We are going to be successful. I know that the President looks forward to signing a health care reform bill which provides affordability and accessibility and accountability, of which the Speaker spoke.

Thank you very much.

Speaker Pelosi. Mr. Clyburn, our distinguished Whip.

Majority Whip James E. Clyburn. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was trying to hide behind here because I am dressed for the weather today.

Majority Leader Hoyer. I just changed. [Laughter]

Majority Whip Clyburn. I do believe that all of us have heard from our constituents over the holidays and we know that they are looking forward to us using the time between now and when we reconvene to have legislation well on the way to reconciliation. We are trying to reconcile two bills that are good bills. They are real good things in the Senate bill, great things in the House bill. What we have to do now is meld these two together and do it in such a way that the American people will feel that the time and energy in this effort has been worthwhile.

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much. We are particularly delighted with the leadership of the President of the United States. Without his leadership, without his vision; without his encouragement, we would not be right on the verge right now of passing this historic legislation which will be placed, I think, in its rightful place alongside Social Security, Medicare, and now health care for all Americans.

Any of my colleagues wish to add to the conversation? Any questions?

Q: Madam Speaker, as you know, a number of Senate moderates have said that the Senate legislation can't change too much and still get 60 votes in the Senate, so what changes are critical for House Members to see?

Speaker Pelosi. Well we want, as I am sure everyone in the House and Senate would agree, to ensure affordability for the middle class, accountability for the insurance company as it provides accessibility by lowering cost at every stage. Those are the standards that we have which I think are shared in the House and in the Senate.

Chairman Charles Rangel. And you should know that we need 218 votes.

Speaker Pelosi. We need 218.

Q: Madam Speaker, is it fair to say that the public option, given the realities of the Senate, is going to be dropped?

Speaker Pelosi. Well the fact is, is that the public option, I prefer to call it the public's option - an option for the public to hold the insurance companies accountable and to increase competition. There are other ways to do that and we look forward to having those discussions as we reconcile the bills, but unless we hold the insurance companies accountable, we will not be able to have the affordability for the middle class. The reforms of the insurance industry that we must have to end discrimination on the basis of pre-existing conditions, to cap payments and co-pays and all the rest. Again, it's about affordability, which is essential to accessibility. So, it's"¦

Q: "¦sounds like the public option is"¦

Speaker Pelosi. "¦Well, we will have what we need to hold the insurance companies accountable. I contend that whatever we have coming out of this bill will hold them accountable and they'll be crying out for a public option. [Laughter.]

Q: Madam Speaker, it came to light today that C-SPAN wrote a letter, Mr. Lamb wrote to you guys to have this process be transparent in regards to the conference committee. Right now it's being done with a ping-pong. Any response on that? Mr. Boehner announced the favor of this to be out in public. President Obama was in favor of that on the campaign trail"¦

Speaker Pelosi. Really? [Laughter.] There are a number of things that he swore on the campaign trail. But I have referred that letter to the Assistant to the Speaker. Mr. Van Hollen, would you like to respond?

Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Let me just point out first that the health care debate in this piece of legislation has been subjected to an unprecedented degree of public scrutiny and input. The original bill was put on the Internet for the public to inspect. You then had a summer where you had thousands of hearings around the country and town meetings and both town hall meetings where people were showing up as well as telephone town hall meetings. You had a whole series of hearings. In fact, I think it is important to note that there were over 100 hearings held by the chairmen of the three committees who are here with us today - heard from 181 witnesses, 83 hours of markup, the list goes on.

So we will continue to have that kind of open process as we go through this next phase. There will obviously be discussions between Members of the House and Senate, but we will continue to keep the American people informed as we have in the earlier stages.

Q: Will you allow the C-SPAN cameras in?

Assistant to the Speaker Van Hollen. We don't even know yet whether there is going to be a conference, as the Speaker said.

Speaker Pelosi. It's not excluded.

Assistant to the Speaker Van Hollen. It's not clear whether that is going to happen.

Q: Madam Speaker, one of your colleagues today called bypassing conference committee - he told me that it's an assault to democracy. So how are you going to convince some of your Members that"¦

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I don't know who you are talking about, but what I will say that there has never been a more open process for any legislation and anyone who serves here has experienced. As Mr. Van Hollen said, and as you know, tens of thousands of people participated in our town meetings, over 100 witnesses in our bipartisan hearings that were held, and the list goes on. I'm not going to repeat what he has said.

We now have another town venue and that is the Internet. And our legislation has had visibility for a very long time in that place.

Q: "¦but this is a Democratic Member"¦.

Speaker Pelosi. Well, you know what? I don't know who you're talking about, but what I will say is, I completely disagree.

We don't know what route we will take. We will take the route that does the job for the American people. It gets this done in a timely fashion - in a city where the special interests are so entrenched and would like any avenue in order to stop this legislation. We will do what is necessary to pass the bill for affordable, accessible legislation which holds the insurance companies accountable and we will do it when we are ready and in a timely fashion.

Q: Madam Speaker, do you foresee a hybrid of taxation methods to raise money for this legislation?

Speaker Pelosi. We'll see what that is. If we think that we have the fairest approach in our bill. I always say when it comes to tax policy around here, it is like a mirror. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" The Senate thinks there's is fairer, we think ours is. We'll see which mirror cracks. But we will precede in a way that is fair to the American people.

Majority Leader Hoyer. If I may just add to that, though. Whatever the funding mechanism, the President and we and the Senate have pledged that this will be paid for, it will bring down costs, and it will bring down the deficit.

Q: Leader Hoyer, you said that there would be significant differences that have to be worked out between both bills. How will we know about that process? I understand that it will be posted online for 72 hours after. But during that process, while these differences are being worked out - what kind of public mechanism - if cameras are not allowed in the room because there is an issue - how will we know what's being made here?

[Crosstalk.]

Majority Leader Hoyer. My experience has been: you know before I know. And I presume that will continue to be the process. Thank you very much.