Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at Press Availability with Leader Schumer Following Meeting at the White House

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Leader Chuck Schumer spoke to the press following a meeting with President Biden and the bicameral, bipartisan Congressional Leadership at the White House. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Leader Schumer. So it was a productive meeting. We talked about a bunch of issues, all four of us agreed we got to resolve this rail shut down as quickly as possible, we'll work together on doing that. The Speaker will talk about what the House is going to do. Leader McConnell and I said we have to resolve it in the Senate. We also had a very productive discussion about funding the government. We all agreed that it should be done this year. We all agreed we had to work together and everybody had to give a little bit. We also – the Speaker and I believe and we all said we would try to work towards getting an omnibus as opposed to a CR. All of us agreed that the CR did harm on the military side and on the domestic side. Or at least that was the consensus in the room. So it was a good meeting, we made some good progress. Speaker.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes, well let me congratulate you on the bill that's coming up today and on your daughter's marriage. A couple of years now? A couple of years ago. It's pretty exciting to have this marriage equality bill come up so – we passed it a while ago in the House, we look forward to having a beautiful signing ceremony for that. Okay, so the business at hand. First of all, I think it's really important for people to know that we left – if we don't have an option, we may have to have a yearlong CR. We don't prefer that. We don't think it's a good idea. But nonetheless, we have to have a bipartisan agreement as to what the top line is defense, domestic discretionary, non defense spending. And that's what we have, I think, in good spirit, have said we'll go to the next step –

Leader Schumer. It was really a good spirit of all four of us, trying to have a meeting of the minds that we could get enough votes to pass both the House and the Senate.

Speaker Pelosi. And that is something that we would like to get to work on right away, our appropriators have been working on it. Now we want to take it to the next step as soon as possible. On the subject of the rail strike that – to avoid the real strike, the President made his statement yesterday. Tomorrow morning, he asked Congress to act, tomorrow morning, we will have a bill on the Floor, Steny said we can come up as early as nine o'clock in the morning with the legislation that accepts the original agreement plus the additional benefits that were gained in further discussion.

I salute the President and Secretary Walsh for their leadership in improving that. That was a negotiation between labor and the railroads presided over by the President and the Administration. So we would bring that agreement to the Floor. It's not everything I would like to see, I think that we should have paid sick leave, every country – every developed country in the world has it, we don't. But nonetheless, we have an improved situation. And again, I don't like going against the ability of unions to strike. But weighing the equities, we must avoid a strike, jobs will be lost, even union jobs will be lost, water will not be safe, product will not be going to market. It is – we could lose 750,000 jobs, some of them union jobs, that must be avoided. So tomorrow morning, in the House, we will bring up the legislation, send it over to the Senate.

Leader Schumer. And Leader McConnell and I agreed, we try to get it done ASAP. And while the actual deadline of the railroads being shut down is the 8th, our real deadline is sooner than that. Because, as the Speaker mentioned, many of the people who – many of the suppliers, if they believe there may well be a shutdown, will then not send their goods. Chlorine, desperately needed, perishable, and cities and towns throughout America need that chlorine for their water supplies to keep them safe. So the real deadline is sooner and we will try to solve this ASAP. And just the one other thing I just say on the budget, which the Speaker mentioned and on the funding, there was goodwill in the room and a desire to come together and solve this problem. And that gave – made us feel quite good about it. Okay.

Q. Do you have the numbers? To pass it in the Senate?

Leader Schumer. To pass?

Q. Rail. Rails.

Leader Schumer. Look, the Speaker – the Leader and I are going to have to get together and try and get that done. And we're working on it. We're working on it.

Speaker Pelosi. And if I just may close on a personal note, as the Leader began, last – yesterday, sadly, we lost one of our Members, Congressman McEachin of Virginia. I bring that up because my last communications with him last week, during the Thanksgiving week, were about the strike. And he was expressing the concerns of his constituents about the downside, shall we say, of a strike. And I told him what I thought, that the President would be making a statement, I couldn't speak to what that would be, but that he should be alerted to that. He thanked me for keeping him posted. Little did I know that by Monday, he would no longer be with us. But right up until the end, he was advocating for the people of Virginia and for his district.

Q. Madam Speaker –

Leader Schumer. Okay, let's go. Okay, thank you, everybody.