Transcript of Speaker Pelosi’s Remarks at Weekly Press Conference

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference today in the Capitol Visitor Center. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good morning.

Well, last evening, we had two very sad moments of silence yesterday. For 800,000 people who have died from COVID, we had a moment of silence on the Floor of the House – but also on the steps of the Capitol in bipartisan, House and Senate, remembrance of those who lost their lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and those who have lost their livelihoods as well. But the deaths are so very, very sad. It's so hard to comprehend 800,000 people, and the number continues to grow. But, we continue to be optimistic about the effectiveness of the vaccines, the awareness that some people are coming to that they need to be vaccinated. They need to be vaccinated.

And, then we also had the moment of silence for those who were affected by the storms. I was very moved by Representative Comer, who represents western Kentucky, as he spoke calling for a moment of silence about those who lost their lives. I talked to him after, and he was going to be traveling with the President today. So far they're pleased – pleased, who can be pleased? But, have received the federal response that is necessary.

And I talked to my former Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Rogers. He knows what we can do, and I'm sure that if there's more that Congress needs to do, he will inform us of that. He told me that the storm – it was a mile wide. The phenomenon was a mile wide and with such force. So very sad.

Yesterday was a busy day for us, legislatively. As you know, we passed a resolution against racism in our society and establishing a special counsel [envoy] at the Department of State to fight Islamophobia – talking about the numbers of incidents against Muslims in our country, in terms of anti‑Muslim sentiments.

We also passed the Uyghur bill, which was about China, to end what they are doing there. I mean, that's genocide. It's genocide in China. The interest, though, in it across our country is about the human rights aspect of it, but also the forced labor piece of it. When President Xi brings these people into these forced labor camps, and they are separating them from their families and taking other drastic actions, he is also engaging them in forced labor, and that is something that we cannot have our businesses compete with. So, from a moral standpoint, a value standpoint, the legislation was very important – and from a trade standpoint, essential as well.

The big event for us yesterday, of course, was the debt limit – to lift the debt limit. It's just always so interesting to me that the Republicans vote against lifting the debt limit – the ceiling on the debt limit. It is something that threatens the financial security of our country, it gambles with the personal financial security of families and, again, the health of our economy, as well as its impact globally.

It's one thing to say, ‘Well, we'll have a few votes against it to make a statement.' It's another thing to say we shouldn't be doing it. And that's what they did yesterday, just so people know how it affects them. Of course, it has a big impact: millions of jobs lost, trillions of dollars of household wealth down the drain. And, again, the cost to you: if you have a car loan, a credit card bill, a school loan, any interest that you're paying on a loan will be increased if, in fact, we do not lift the debt ceiling. As the Constitution says, ‘The full faith and credit of the United States should not be questioned.'

But in addition to that, even the discussion of it a few years ago lowered the interest rate, the interest – our credit rating, the United States' credit rating, and that was not a good thing for our economy. We should not be flirting with danger when it comes to our economy, whether it's our national economy or global economy or the personal well – financial well‑being of America's working families.

I want to commend – going back to the Uyghurs for a moment – Chairman George, excuse me, not George McGovern. He gets confused with George McGovern on the, on the food security issues. But Jim McGovern really – is really a patron saint to us in terms of fighting for human rights throughout the world in this Uyghur bill on forced labor – was his legislation yesterday. I neglected to mention that when I talked about that.

And so, now we are just trying to see how soon we can pass the Build Back Better legislation. So important. It's fraught with meaning at this time, because today, the 15th of December, would be the last Biden Child Tax Credit check that would go out. We're hoping that we can have this settled before Christmas, because on December 31st, this expires. And so, it's essential.

What we see in terms of the Child Tax Credit, it has been used more recently for preparing children for school. It's been used for food, for rent. It's essential – essentials that the Child Tax Credit has been used. Sixty million children benefit, a large number of them off of poverty – coming out of poverty because of the Child Tax Credit.

So for this and other reasons, everything to do with children, child care, universal pre‑K, affordable – making child care affordable. I guess the best two words to use – Build Back Better, I mean, I've said it's transformative and all that – but the best two words to use are it ‘lowers cost.' It lowers cost of child care; it lowers cost of health care; it lowers cost of food; it lowers cost in so many ways that are essential to America's working families.

The very issues that people struggle over the kitchen table to figure out how we're going to pay the bills. The very issues, very frightening things that people have – trying to go to sleep at night, ‘How are we going to pay the bills?' Well, Build Back Better helps you to do that. We love the fact that it's Build Back Better With Women, Build Back Better For The Children, Build Back Better for the planet, lowering energy costs. Again, it lowers cost.

So hopefully, the Senate will deal with that and send that to us. And, of course, we're also hopeful that they will send us bills to protect our democracy, that respects the sanctity of the vote that keeps us a democracy. So we're prepared to come back as soon as the Senate is ready to send us these bills.

And it is – it's pretty exciting. The enthusiasm that is out there for the President's package. His vision for our country, building the infrastructure in a bipartisan bill to do that. All of us have – many of us are having our town meetings, our public events in our own regions, and the response has just been so optimistic about how these resources to build the infrastructure in a way that brings equity, fairness, justice to it all, in a green way that protects the environment. And, that, again, creates good‑paying union jobs. Jobs that, again, protect the planet as we promote jobs, as we move commerce, as we get people safely to and from school and work without staying in the cars a long time. So, it improves the quality of life.

So that's for the infrastructure bill. The Build Back Better enhances all of that, so we're very eager. Very proud of that work. I think that there's an agreement that can be made, and I look forward to working to pass that on the House side. So, that's kind of what we have going here.

Oh, did I talk about Steph Curry? Did I talk about Steph Curry?

Q: You're wearing Warriors colors.

Speaker Pelosi. Just in the first – yeah, the Warriors colors. First – just coincidentally. The first few minutes, I was not by myself; one other Member, Mr. Payne, and I were in the cloakroom with Ella and – well, the women who – whom I bought a hot dog to watch the game, just the two of us there. The first few minutes: boom, settled, tied. A few minutes later, break the record, with such dignity, with such poise, with such discipline, with such excellence.

And then I had to go to work – and then came back to see the ending and to see Miller and Jones – I mean, to see their two leaders in that field be there with their shirts. Oh, I don't have my phone, but I have the picture on my phone of them and then them giving him, Steph, the shirt with his number on it. I think we'll get to 3,000 pretty soon, but no pressure. Let's just win the games. But it was pretty exciting, I have to say. And to see the enthusiasm of the crowd for that achievement. Whether the Knicks fans were excited about the game, I don't know, but there was great enthusiasm for Steph Curry. And so we're very, very, very proud of him.

Any questions?

***

Q: Madam Speaker?

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, what do you got? Yeah.

Q: Madam Speaker, Insider just completed a five‑month investigation finding that 49 Members of Congress and 182 senior Congressional staffers have violated the STOCK Act, the insider trading law. I'm wondering if you have any reaction to that. And secondly, should Members of Congress and their spouses be banned from trading individual stocks while serving in Congress?

Speaker Pelosi. No, I don't – no, to the second one. Any – we have a responsibility to report in the stock – on the stock. But I don't – I'm not familiar with that five month review, but if the people aren't reporting, they should be.

Q: Why shouldn't they be banned?

Speaker Pelosi. Because this is a free market and people – we are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that.

Yes, ma'am.

Q: Madam Speaker, you talked about voting rights. We know Senator Warnock yesterday expressed that he would like to see the Senate stay in a –

Speaker Pelosi. I'm sorry, who did?

Q: Senator Warnock on the Senate side.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Q: Talked about voting rights yesterday, staying here through the holidays to get it done, and really pressuring the White House and Senator Manchin to push for maybe a similar carveout as we saw for the debt ceiling. Do you share that sentiment, and do you think that there needs to be a more sense of urgency?

Speaker Pelosi. Senator Warnock's statement yesterday was – I just didn't hear what you said – was a beautiful, patriotic statement about our country. He has been an inspiration all his life, and now as a Member of the Senate. So, I completely am inspired by and agree with what he said.

I don't know – I've said, I don't get too, I don't participate that much in the Senate rules discussions. But, I do know that there are three members of the Supreme Court whom Senator Mitch McConnell got there with the simple majority by taking exception to the filibuster. So, if those three people can have a job for life – affecting the lives of the American people – I don't see why we couldn't have legislation that stops the voter suppression making it harder for people to vote and also, now, to end the election nullification.

Probably, I mean, with stiff competition within their initiatives across the country for the worst, stiff competition for the worst, the election nullification is one that has attracted a good deal of attention – because if you're just going to say, ‘We'll have elections, and three people that we decide who they are – are going to decide what those numbers are,' then you have destroyed our democracy.

So, I would hope that we can make progress in a bipartisan way. I don't know why the sanctity of the vote, the fundamental principle of our democracy, is not as important to Republicans as it is to Democrats. And I support what Senator Warnock was suggesting.

Q: Madam Speaker?

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Q: Democrats, of course, had hoped that the Build Back Better bill would've passed months ago, and here we are ten days before Christmas. It's possible, very likely, that it could get punted into 2022. Did you miscalculate the resistance from Joe Manchin, even though he detailed where he was months ago in that paper that he gave to Schumer?

Speaker Pelosi. No, I think that. This is called the legislative process – and we have our rules, and they have their rules. And, I'm still hopeful that it will pass. I'm not going to have a postmortem on something that hasn't died. I think that – I think we will have the legislation, and it will pass. I hope the sooner the better, especially since we had certain deadlines. And I respect the process, and I respect Senator Manchin.

Q: Madam Speaker?

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Q: Good morning. Thank you. The Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, expressed concern about the crimes, that it's time for the reign of criminals to end. What do you think about some of those crimes, specifically in San Francisco, smash and grabs? And also generally, is there some sort of a federal response? You know, we've passed crime bills here before. Is there something looking at some of these problems?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, specifically to what is happening not just in San Francisco but in other parts of the country – in fact, retail association of the whole country, and leaders in business across the country, have asked for remedy. And we do have one, as we are preparing the CHIPS bill, for lack of another – you know what I mean when I say the CHIPS bill. The CHIPS bill is about chips, it's about supply chain, and it's about research. And we're very close to our own agreement in the House on that.

Within that bill, the Energy and Commerce Committee has something called INFORM, all caps, and that is the legislation that would require those who were selling online, especially, to establish their legitimacy as to where these products came from, because what people do is they steal things and then sell them online. They have to establish their legitimacy if they're going to be sold online.

And then, in addition to that – that's Energy and Commerce – the Judiciary Committee has a bill, ‘safe shopping,' which addresses the same problem in a little bit of a different way in terms of holding platforms accountable and those selling things accountable for the provenance of those goods.

And it is, you know, absolutely out of the question that people should be able to think that they can just steal things, profit from them and not have any accountability on it. So, those two things, some combination of those two things, both of them are going to be in the bill. How it – you know, how they come together, we've been working with the Senate to pass that legislation, and that's completely in the works.

Q: Do you have any problems specifically about what the Mayor said about some of the issues specific to San Francisco, some of the retailers leaving there as well?

Speaker Pelosi. What it is, it's absolutely outrageous. Obviously, it cannot continue. But the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don't know where, maybe you do, and we cannot have that lawlessness become the norm.

And these people have – they have – they coordinate with each other, and they plan traffic patterns and the rest so that they can reach their goal and depart very quickly. And some of it is, again, high‑level stores, as the retailers have told us, and some of it is your local Walgreens, but none of it is acceptable, and, again, it is – it has to be stopped, and, again, showing that people will not be able to profit from that.

This isn't like somebody stealing something to go home because they don't have the money to buy it. This is about stealing for profit. They have to prove where it came from. It's outrageous, and it must – I agree with the Mayor, it must be stopped. But it's not just San Francisco. It's in our entire country, and that's evidenced by the appeals that we are receiving from across the country for the legislation. So, I hope that that will be soon, and for many reasons, including the provenance of the goods.

Yes, ma'am. Yeah.

Q: Madam Speaker, looking ahead to January 6th, because we may not get an opportunity to talk to you again before then –

Speaker Pelosi. I'll probably be here tomorrow, next week. Are you not going to be around?

Q: We'll see.

Speaker Pelosi. Is this your goodbye?

[Laughter]

Q: But in the event it's not, I wanted to ask you: the inspector general for the Capitol Police last week said a lot of the recommendations are still open to better that department. Coming up on a year since January 6th, how do you feel about the level of change at that agency, the security here at the Capitol and the security of your Members as they hope to spend their holidays at home?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I thank you for the question. I don't – it is my hope that this is not our last meeting. We still have to deal with the sanctity of the vote and protecting our democracy. We still have to lower costs for the American people by passing BBB, and so hopefully, we'll see you next week.

But, in terms of that, I felt the Capitol is much safer than it was a year ago. We will have a report as we prepare for January 6th, in terms of the different categories of strength and morale of the police force, the physical structure, that coming from the Architect of the Capitol, and the – so much of what is happening here is not so much about security as it is about COVID, and so, we want to be able to open the Capitol.

Of course, we can't do that without the consent of the Capitol physician, and he knows of our interest and how he thinks we could do that soon. So, the fact that we don't have as many tours and all the rest is not necessarily a security issue; it's a COVID issue. But this is on the horizon. We are always working to do better with security, and we do have – those conversations are ongoing, and we'll have some accounting of it before the January 6th date.

Q: Madam Speaker?

Staff. Last question.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah. Yes, ma'am.

Q: If Democrats don't get Build Back Better finished soon, would you consider a standalone piece of legislation just for the Child Tax Credit? Because you have a deadline where the IRS won't be able to send out January's payment on time, this month.

Speaker Pelosi. Well, it's going to be going out today, this month.

Q: January's payment.

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, you said this month.

Q: They have said that they need it done by the 28th in order to make the changes.

Speaker Pelosi. Well, it's just a question of what – of course we could pass that in the House. Whether we could pass it in the Senate remains to be seen. But, I don't want to let anybody off the hook on the BBB to say, ‘Well, we covered that one thing, so now the pressure is off.' I think that that is really important leverage in the discussion on BBB – that the children and their families will suffer without that payment.

Not everybody gets it on a monthly basis, but those who need it the most do. And so, we're just still optimistic about BBB passing, and, perhaps, even if it were after the 1st of the year, which I hope it is not, that it could be retroactive if it's early enough in the first of the year.

Thank you, all, very much. As I said to my colleagues last night, I hope I see you next week. But, if I don't, merry everything – merry Christmas, happy belated Hanukkah, merry everything, happy New Year, happy holidays.

But, we really are hoping very much to be back here next week. And, by then, Steph will be close to 3,000 – 3,000. I have to say, when I announced it to my colleagues, some were very excited, and others were like, ‘The Knicks lost.' Lighten up, Knicks.

Thank you, all. Bye‑bye.