Pelosi Floor Speech in Support of the Appropriations Minibus Bills

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the Floor of the House of Representatives in support of two bipartisan appropriations bills, H.R. 1158 and H.R. 1865. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I want to thank the gentlelady for yielding in a gracious and generous way.

I, more importantly, I want to thank her for her tremendous leadership as Chair of the Appropriations Committee, to bring a bill to the Floor that has shared values, meeting the needs of the American people, and to commend Congresswoman, the Ranking Member, Kay Granger, for her leadership as well, so we can have strong bipartisan support in meeting the needs of the American people.

I congratulate you, Madam Chair, for bringing – for getting all our bills done this summer. You have worked around the clock and across the aisle to overcome any opposition and to craft strong appropriations packages that we're bringing to the Floor.

As you said, I am an appropriator. When I served on Committee, and I've always said to the Administration and to others, ‘Left to their own devices, our appropriators can get the job done.' They have experienced working in a bipartisan way. They understand everyone's concerns and regional needs and the rest, and that we must, by the clock, get the job done. Thank you for doing that and making today possible.

Madam Speaker, this weekend, I was pleased to join a bipartisan delegation to observe the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. We spent time in Luxembourg and in Belgium, where so much of that conflict took place, our purpose – we met with the leaders of the community, the King, the Queen, the Archduke, this, that – was all wonderful.

But, what was really important and the purpose of our visit was to meet with our own veterans, now 75 years later, who are revisiting the site, and to thank them and to hear their ongoing stories and to hear their purpose in fighting.

Some of them were as young as eighteen years old at the Battle of the Bulge. You do your math. They are in their nineties. One of them told me he was twenty, one was twenty-one – the oldest one was ninety-eight years old now. But, all of them full of vitality and concern about our country as we go forward. And we promised them, that in tribute to their courage, their determination, their patriotism, that we know that our responsibility is to build a future worthy of their sacrifice. And, that we also want to always be ready to meet the needs of our men and women in uniform today as they protect and defend democracy and freedom, as our valiant veterans did 75 years ago.

Mr. Conaway was with us on that trip; a very valued leader on that trip. I think you'll agree that America was truly blessed by the courage of our veterans, then and now. And so – and I am glad that, in this legislation, we meet the needs of those who are providing for our – the defense and security of our country to make us the home of the brave and land of the free.

I do believe that our success on this legislation began when working together, we were able to come to an agreement on the caps – the caps and funding – to make sure that, although we obviously all support our national security, we want to be sure that people understood that we measure the strength of America not just in our military might but in the health, education and well-being of the American people. And this part of the legislation does just that. We will vote on the earlier part, and now on the part that deals with, shall we say, the health and well-being of the American people.

With this agreement, we are investing in the good health of the American people. We are protecting the quality, affordable health care of millions as we permanently repeal health care taxes and block the President's ACA sabotage nuclear options by preventing him from ending silver-loading and auto re-enrollment.

At the same time, we are investing in innovation and the future of health care with robust funding for the National Institutes of Health that our distinguished colleague, Mr. Smith of New Jersey mentioned; continue our leadership to combat the opioid epidemic; and honoring the responsibility of our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico and the other territories.

Of course, we wanted more. Of course, we need to get more at some point, but for now, we are very pleased of the fact that we have two years adequate funding to go forward. And, again, look forward to preparing further into the future.

While this legislation does not contain permanent fixes for everything, we are proud that it lays the groundwork for further progress to end the financial catastrophe of surprise billing, to lower prescription drug costs and to extend robust funding for key health initiatives.

This appropriations package also achieves critical victories for the national – as I mentioned, our national security and the economic security of the American people. Our appropriation legislation makes America safer at home by funding gun violence research at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health for the first time in more than 20 years.

Thank you.

Funding election security grants to protect against foreign attacks, which the minority refused – the Republicans, then the majority, refused to do last year. And these bills make workers and families stronger. Re-authorizing – protecting the pensions of 100,000 coal miners; re-authorizing job creating Export-Import Bank; extending the National Flood Insurance Program; protecting schools, small businesses, and other pillars of communities, as well as commercial interests by re-authorizing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program and doing so in a timely fashion.

Extending key tax provisions through 2020 that encourage investments in clean energy; provide relief for millions – families recovering from disasters; support investments in low-income communities with the Low-Income Housing Tax credit; and protects families facing high medical costs with the loss of a home to foreclosure.

Again, this is very personal. People always talk about coming to Washington, having a seat at the table. The most important seat at the table for us is the seat at America's kitchen table, where people talk about their plans for the future, how they intend to meet their financial obligations, whether it's the education of their children, the mortgage on their home, their medical expenses, providing for their own pension, future.

Personally and officially, I am proud that this legislation takes strong action to advance the health and well-being of America's children. The three most important issues, in my view, facing the Congress are the well-being of our children, our children, our children. Strengthening Families First Prevention Services; securing record funding levels for Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grants, and Title I schools; and extending funding for thousands of schools in rural communities across 41 states, because there is no better investment that Congress can make than the investment in the education of our children.

And by the way, by the way, there is almost – there is nothing that we can do that brings more resources to the Federal Treasury than investing in education, early childhood, K-12, higher education, lifetime learning for – training for our workers. I also want to acknowledge the important investment that this legislation does in IDEA, meeting the needs of our children with additional challenges.

In the House, our title and job description are one and the same: Representative.

Today, we must pass this legislation so we can meet the needs of the people whom we are privileged to represent. I know that this is going to be a strong bipartisan vote, and I think that's a very good thing for the health, the economic security and the well-being of the American people.

Thank you very much, Ranking Member Granger.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and to all of our leadership of our subcommittees who made this successful day possible for us.

I urge a strong bipartisan vote on package one, minibus one and minibus two and, again, a great investment for our children, our children, our children.

I yield back the balance of my time.