Pelosi Remarks at Press Event Highlighting First Year of For The People Accomplishments

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Pelosi joined House Democrats for a press event celebrating the legislative progress that the House Democratic Majority has made For The People in the first year of the 116th Congress. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here, my colleagues, especially our Freshman Members who have brought so much intellectually, in values-based ideas in the first year of a Democratic Majority. They have made a complete difference.

I'm proud to say that when the Freshman – a similar Freshman class after Watergate – the Watergate babies, big, transformative class, in the first year, not one of them had a gavel. And in this Freshman Class, eighteen Freshmen chairs, subcommittees – of their committees. Ten women Members, eight men.

[Applause]

And I've just, saying that every time I'm signing bills to send over to the White House, every time – most of the bill have been introduced and passed by the Freshmen, so they have made a difference, even getting laws passed during their first year in the Congress.

Last year, during the election, we promised the American people For The People. We would lower the cost of health care by lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Bigger paychecks by building a green, resilient infrastructure for our country. And that we would clean up corruption in Washington – that was a flagship issue for this Freshman Class, lower the impact of big, dark special interest money, so that we could – and give the public confidence that we could pass legislation in the people's interest, not in the special interest.

For the first year, led by our Freshman, the Majority achieved extraordinary progress for the American people. We passed, sent over to the Senate over 400 bills, over 275 of them bipartisan. Bipartisan bills.

[Applause]

I'm not going to read them all.

[Laughter]

You can wait until we make it into a movie or something, then hear about it that way.

But, Senator McConnell has said that he won't take up these bills. Well, we believe that while he may be the ‘Grim Reaper,' in his own words, these bills are alive and well with the public and that, now, that they're there and we have more to come, that public sentiment, as Lincoln said, is everything, and public sentiment will weigh in on them.

But, this would not have been possible without the work and the leadership of out Freshman Class. And, as I said to them, I could talk about each of you all day, but I'd rather you take the time to show your brilliance and what you've done.

We have leaders from the Freshman Class, leaders on special – on issues of concern to the Caucus and I'm going to let you hear from them right now.

One of the Presidents of the Freshman Class, Collin Allred.

* * *

Speaker Pelosi. Let's hear it for Katie.

[Applause]

Thank you, Katie. Thank you, Congresswoman Allred – excuse me, Congressman Allred, Congresswoman Stevens, Congresswoman Davids, Congresswoman McBath, Congresswoman Mucarsel-Powell, Congresswoman Porter. Aren't we proud of our Freshmen?

[Applause]

Aren't we proud of our Freshmen?

And, I do want to add that we went to Spain in order to say that according to our legislation, Climate Action Now – when we went to Spain to the COP25, three members of our delegation were members of the Freshman Class – to deliver the message, ‘We're still in.'

So this class, in the ways that you've heard here, but in so many other ways, have been a very important part of taking us to a higher plane: a higher plane of unity, a higher plane of aspirations, a higher plane of hope for the American people. For that, we are grateful to them.

We salute them for running, because this is not for the faint of heart and now for running again, and I am sure that they will be back.

I, personally, today, want to thank them for their moral courage for supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States. Thank you all very much.