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Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference Today

October 1, 2015

Contact: Drew Hammill/Evangeline George, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference today. Below is a transcript of the press conference.

Leader Pelosi. Good morning, everyone.

We just had two votes, so we are behind schedule. And speaking of schedule – last night, just under the wire, [in] Congress, the House voted to keep government open. That's the good news. That's good news.

What's not good news is that 151 Republicans voted to shut down government – 151 to shut down government, 91 [voted to keep government open]. Over 60 percent of the Republicans went that way. It's really a very – so as we go forward, hoping to be inspired by His Holiness Pope Francis, who told us to work together for the good of the people, to do so with transparency – no, openness was his word, and pragmatism – that's how I think that we should proceed in the weeks ahead.

We have important work to do. We have to keep government open by putting forth an omnibus bill that creates jobs, reduces the deficit, enables us to protect the American people. We have to invest in a transportation bill that, again, creates jobs and grows our economy. We have to pass an Ex‑Im Bank reauthorization that, again, is about jobs in the U.S. And we have to honor the full faith and credit of the United States of America later by lifting the debt ceiling.

Really important issues that have not always enjoyed the strongest bipartisan support, but that we have to accomplish. And it's just stunning.

So we'll either have transparency – the American people will be paying attention to this, and you are our ambassadors in that regard – to see what the choices are, what creates jobs, what increases the paycheck of the American worker, and not what is an ideological path to shut down government, dishonor the full faith and credit, curb our exports, and therefore hurt our job creation and not invest in the infrastructure of our country, be that the physical infrastructure or personal infrastructure, as we hope to do in the omnibus bill.

We can either have that clear path or we can have a calendar of chaos in the next 10 weeks; a calendar of chaos that rejects what we have usually been able to solve in a nonpartisan or bipartisan way in the past.

As this is going on, as the Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility, and we all subscribe to that, they are willing to use millions of taxpayer dollars for their own political purposes. It is just a stunning admission on the part of the Republican Leader that the Benghazi Committee was created with a political purpose in mind. That's really an ethical question. It makes the whole operation practically an unethical operation.

You'll probably ask me if I think the committee should be shut down. I think the Republicans should shut it down. If they need any further evidence, they should just look to their own statements. Millions of dollars, the longest congressional investigation in history, longer even than the Watergate Committee, $4.5 million in taxpayer dollars and counting.

So it's obvious that it should be disbanded, based on the Leader's own words. But since we recognize Republicans do not intend to do that, I would encourage my Members to continue to participate. And then we will see how much longer they want this to go on. And then, respecting the judgment of my Members on the committee and the Ranking Member, Mr. Cummings, we'll see what we do next.

But for now, I'm calling on Republicans to shut it down. We will participate. How long we will participate depends on how serious they are, and we haven't seen any signs of seriousness, not any results.

They are also trying to launch a committee, another taxpayer‑funded committee for political purposes, the Select Committee to Attack Women's Health – Select Committee to Attack Women's Health, that's what we call it – even though Chairman Chaffetz of the Government Reform Committee admits that Planned Parenthood has done nothing illegal. His comment, "I am not suggesting that they broke the law."

I think it's important to note even Chairman Cole's words on the subject. He said, "Well, first of all, look, on Planned Parenthood" – "look," that was his word – "first of all, look, on Planned Parenthood there is no money in the short‑term CR for Planned Parenthood. Ninety percent of their money comes from Medicaid, not from anything we're going to do." It's a reimbursement. It's not a line item. You would never find a line item for Planned Parenthood. "So the idea that we are fighting over money for Planned Parenthood, it's a canard. It's just not true." Tom Cole, Member of Congress on the Republican side.

So here we go. Today, we will take up the defense authorization bill. This is a bill that Ash Carter has said – I want to use other people's words because you know my characterization of some of these issues – but Ash Carter has said, "The Republican approach is clearly a road to nowhere. Because it doesn't provide a stable, multi-year budget horizon, it is managerially unsound, and also unfairly dispiriting our troops. Our military personnel and their families deserve to know their future more than just 1 year at a time." Secretary Ash Carter. The President's vetoed the bill, we will sustain the veto.

So that's where we are. Any questions?

Q: On the Benghazi Committee, Republicans argue that without the Benghazi Committee we would never know that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a private server as Secretary of State, and that that alone makes the endeavor worth it.

Leader Pelosi. That would then justify forming a committee for a political purpose using taxpayer dollars? I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't agree to that or subscribe to that. And Hillary Clinton will come, she will defend the truth, and we look forward to that.

Q: Madam Leader, at midnight the James Zadroga Act for 9/11 first responders started to be phased out. It does have bipartisan support this time, more so than the last time, but from conversations with those first responders, many of them are worried because they depend on this to survive. From your conversations with your Republican colleagues, do you think this will get done by the end of this year?

Leader Pelosi. Yes. This is really a very important piece of legislation, the 9/11 health legislation. As you may recall, when we passed this bill before we were up against very strong Republican opposition. You referenced that. Very strong and very negative and very dispiriting to people who had risked so much at the time of 9/11.

This time the conversation is an easier one, but the question is, do we do it for a couple of years or do we make it permanent? Well, the 9/11 survivors that I have met with and recently, ongoing and recently, a couple of years and you have cancer, all the things they have developed, you can't ‑‑ we have to make this permanent. Not only the funding for the health piece of it, but some of the other compensation that is in the legislation.

So I would say the big question right now, is it a 2‑year or is it permanent? We'd like to see it be permanent. But it will be done. And I don't want to – I heard one of the survivors last night say we don't want to – he didn't use the word "frighten," but I will – frighten those who need this assistance. We will get it done. We would like to have seen it be part of the CR yesterday, but that wasn't possible. But I do see a spirit of cooperation that will lead to it being done?

Q: Madam Leader, you mentioned the Benghazi Committee, and now we have Trey Gowdy, who will be investigating the Secret Service for snooping on Mr. Chaffetz's employment application. What are your thoughts on that snooping, for one thing? And can Mr. Gowdy do that?

Leader Pelosi. Well, I don't know about Mr. Gowdy's role in that, but I think that what has alleged about the snooping on Mr. Chaffetz is ridiculous and should never have happened and people should be held accountable for it.

Q: Madam Leader, back to the Benghazi question here. On the remarks that the Majority Leader made about Benghazi, do you think that that disqualifies him to be the Speaker of the House?

Leader Pelosi. Well, that's up to the Republican caucus.

Q: But this is a House‑wide issue. You made a strong assertion here that this is political.

Leader Pelosi. Yes. No, no, I quoted him. I do believe that this could be an ethical issue in the House for whomever established this committee or the Republicans in this term. So the question is: is this an ethics violation of the rules of the House? Is this a violation of the law that anything that brings discredit to the House in terms of using – and you ask any Member, one of the things that you have to be very specific about is that none of your taxpayer dollars are used for any political purpose. And I think he clearly, gleefully, claimed that this had a political purpose and had a political success.

Q: Madam Leader, can I ask what you said about the omni earlier and reflecting on what you did?

Leader Pelosi. The omni? I'm sorry. The omnibus?

Q: And reflecting on the doc fix earlier. Do you feel that the sunset of Speaker Boehner's term here now gives you an opportunity to actually do some kind of deal, if not a grand bargain, some type of deal that would include the entitlement changes that Republicans seek and a lifting on discretionary that Democrats seek? Is this a moment that could happen?

Leader Pelosi. Are you talking about after the Speaker leaves?

Q: No, before he leaves.

Leader Pelosi. Well, let's hope that we can find common ground. I don't know. We have three areas, as I think we discussed last week. We have to see what the pay‑fors are, how are we going to pay for this.

We have said very clearly, as has the President, as we go forward with a new budget for the next fiscal year, we must lift the caps. The Senate, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, has in essence said that. Senator McCain, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has referenced that. I think there is general agreement if we are going to do what we need to do to meet the needs of the American people, we must lift the caps.

We would like to see the caps lifted. Of course, we are insisting that it be parity, dollar for dollar, domestic and defense. We all want to have what we need for the national defense of our country. And we consider the strength of our country reflected in investing in the people of our country as well, the education and well‑being of the American people.

So the first thing we have to do is find out what the offsets are and how high does that enable us to lift the caps. We would hope it would be $70‑, what is it, $74‑, $75 billion evenly split between defense and domestic. Then we have to find those offsets.

Once that top‑line is determined by the amount of money we can invest, then the committee can really work its will, the Appropriations Committee, and they have worked in a bipartisan way historically and currently. So they will come up with their bills once the top‑line is determined. And then we have to make sure we don't have any damaging riders, policies, on the appropriation bill.

Q: Do you think the Speaker is actively negotiating to bring about those offsets in the top‑line?

Leader Pelosi. You'll have to talk to him about his patience. But I am optimistic that we can – I don't know what the timetable is. The Congress takes time to work its will, especially on the Senate side, as you know.

We can't go down this path without being optimistic that we can find common ground for the good of the American people and where we have our differences to not be – we have to have some pragmatism, as His Holiness said, about making a decision. But also it's important for the American people to understand what the decisions are. And if the conclusion on the Republican side is that they want to shut down government, they have to make a good case to the American people as to why it's a good idea.

Last time they did it, $25 billion were lost to our economy. Our GDP growth was slowed down when they threatened to not honor the full faith and credit of the United States of America. Even by not doing it, but just threatening to do it, it affected our credit rating.

So we have a short timespan. As I say, it can be a productive several weeks or it can be a calendar of chaos. Let's hope that it is not the latter.

Q: On the funding for Planned Parenthood, is an unborn baby with a human heart and a human liver a human being?

Leader Pelosi. Why don't you take your ideological questions. I don't…

Q: If it's not a human being, what species is it?

Leader Pelosi. Listen, I want to say something to you. I don't know who you are, and you are welcome to be here, freedom of the press. I am a devout, practicing Catholic, a mother of five children. When my baby was born, my fifth child, my oldest child was six years old. I think I know more about this subject than you, with all due respect. I do not intend to respond to your questions which have no basis in what public policy is that we do here.

Q: How concerned are you about Russia's actions in Syria?

Leader Pelosi. Very concerned. Thank you for the question. I am very concerned about Russia's actions there. And it's just Russia's actions period. I recently, in August, was in a delegation in Ukraine and saw the concern there. And really Russia walked into Crimea, nothing really happened. Moved into the eastern part of Ukraine, and it is, you know, it remains to be seen how that will be resolved.

The concern about Putin's – they said of Catherine the Great she carried her borders in her suitcase. Wherever she went, that became Russia. This is a little bit different in terms of Syria. And I think we have to find out exactly what is there. I do have confidence and hope that we can deconflict, that whatever it is we are doing is in furtherance of resolving the conflict in Syria.

The Russians have agreed in the past in Geneva that Assad had to go in order to have a resolution. Maybe they have changed their timing on that subject, but let's hope that whatever actions – my concern is that not only are they bombing ISIS, they may be taking action that affects the opposition there. And so we have to see. And we have to know what we are talking about.

But I am very concerned about it, yes. And that's why I support many more refugees coming into the United States, and also for us supporting refugees where they are in the neighboring countries, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon.

One more.

Q: Will Democrats sign on to the Fincher initiative to force a vote on Ex‑Im?

Leader Pelosi. Yeah. Let's see what the Republicans put on the table. I think this could be very hopeful. The one other time the majority was involved in a discharge petition, I was just newly-elected Whip, and I was part of getting the Democratic vote for McCain‑Feingold legislation on campaign finance reform. And we had bipartisan names on a discharge petition which discharged the – was it Meehan? Shays, Shays‑Meehan, Meehan‑Shays bill in the House. But it was the McCain‑Feingold bill. And that's how we passed that legislation, by a bipartisan discharge petition.

It would be really important for us to see how many signatures the Republicans have on the discharge petition, because we will have an overwhelming vote if they bring the bill to the floor. We want to see what number they have. And I'm excited about it, yeah.

So that's one that we hopefully will be able. If the Republicans have enough people on their discharge petition, then we will join in and go from there. And I'm optimistic that they will, from what I hear on the other side. Then we have to deal with the transportation bill, which has an October 31 deadline on it.

Sometime in November we have to deal with lifting the full faith and credit of the United States of America. And by December 11, we have to pass an omnibus bill, when the CR expires. And hopefully, that will be one that lifts the caps, has parity in terms of how we invest as we go forward, and again, creates jobs, grows the economy, protects people, reduces the deficit. And we are very excited about that prospect.

So it's either be that or a calendar of chaos. Stay tuned. Thank you very much.

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Issues:Health Care