Transcript of Pelosi 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 afternoon. Yeah, it's afternoon. Right. We are right now having the National Defense Authorization Act on the Floor. So we're very excited about the patch they are bringing up under suspension. Hope to have a very strong, bipartisan bill, but I'll get to that further.

But first, I mean, the joy, the pride, the euphoria that we feel today having passed the Respect for Marriage Act, a landmark decision, landmark law, changing the law for full equality. So it is a glorious day here in the House. Now the federal government will never stand in the way of anyone marrying the person you love.

This morning was also a moment of personal pride. Signing this legislation is one of the last bills that I signed in the enrollment ceremony as Speaker of the House. It was my first speech on the Floor, when I was sworn in and had just a moment to speak, was about ‘I've come here to fight against HIV and AIDS.' That was my very first words on the Floor of the House. And one of the final bills as Speaker the first time around that I signed, December 2010, was the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. So now, here we are now, and we have the repeal, we have the Respect for Marriage Act. And what it does, it repeals certain things.

How wonderful is it that, on the same day that Brittney Griner is going to be free – thank you, President Biden, thank you to the Secretary of State and other national security people and to our colleague Greg Stanton, who represents Arizona – Phoenix, Arizona – in the Congress. He has brought her here. We had met her when she was here playing basketball, and now today, she is free, free to go home to her wife on the same day that we passed the Marriage Protection Act. So we are – Respect for Marriage, the Respect for Marriage Act. So it just – her freedom is a gift to the world, to all of us. Our gift to her is this legislation that her marriage is protected wherever she may live, her wife Cherelle and she – and their family will have a holiday season without worrying about whether their marriage is protected.

Again, we commend President Biden, our colleague Greg Stanton, as well as the Secretary of State and the others. And I saw on my way over to vote, to speak on the Floor on the defense bill, that Paul Whelan has said that the President made the right decision in getting her to be free, as we are all committed to his freedom as soon as possible.

So we have the National Defense Authorization Act on the Floor. As I said to you, it's going to be very strongly bipartisan. There's so many initiatives in there that support our workforce, our men and women in uniform and their families. And so we're urging a strong Democratic vote in that regard. The number is higher, and so – there is some reluctance about a higher defense bill, but our needs are greater and many of the needs of our men and women in uniform where we have increased funding in the bill.

I salute the Chairman, Adam Smith, and the Ranking Member, Mike Rogers. I just commended both of them, but spoke personally with both of them to thank them for bringing this legislation to the Floor. As with all legislation, we did not get everything we wanted, but we did advance honoring our oath of office to protect and defend.

This year, Democrats fought for key provisions in it, and I want to point those out: 4.6 percent pay raise for servicemembers. Strengthening the fight against sexual harassment in the military, a step forward from where we were last year, which was good. This is better. Making it easier for federal firefighters who contract certain diseases to qualify for federal workers' compensation. Historic investments in defense research at HBCUs and other minority‑serving institutions. Requiring the government contracts to use American‑made semiconductors, per our CHIPS and Science legislation, but it's in this bill too. Promoting American global leadership by investing in our alliances, almost $20 billion between Europe and Asia. And landmark Ocean conservation package, very important, especially 40 percent of the population lives on the coast, including on the Great Lakes. And so this legislation is very important.

We did defeat the Republicans' extreme attack on health freedom, ensuring our troops can travel to access full services, reproductive services, including abortion, if stationed in an anti‑choice State. So that was sustained in this legislation.

Meanwhile, the Congress remains hard at work on an omnibus – you're interested in that, are you, the omnibus bill, maybe? Me too. Under the tireless leadership of the Chair, Rosa DeLauro, and she's not 24/7, she's more like more hours and more days, intensely on this, making bipartisan progress to assembling an omnibus. It must be bipartisan.

Our strong preference is to have a bipartisan omnibus bill. We still see a pathway to achieving that. However, if we don't have it, we may be forced to put forth a year-long CR. I don't like that, but it's much better than the poison that might befall us in another kind of bill. This is a last resort, and doing so would leave many critical government services, including the Defense Department, inadequately funded in the year ahead. Secretary Austin has been relentless, relentless, relentless: CR is not an answer for us. We need the additional funding that would be in the bill, some of which was in the authorization that I discussed earlier.

Last week, Secretary Austin, in writing, warned that failure to pass the omnibus will result in serious harm, significant harm to our people and our programs and would cause harm to our national security and our competitiveness, he wrote to all of us, all the leaders.

I will close with this: this week, we awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to our heroes of January 6, 2021. In one of our nation's darkest hours, these law enforcement officers bravely stood in the breach, stared down deadly violence and ensured our Republic survived that day. We remain grateful for their service and sacrifice, defending not only our Capitol, our Congress, but our Constitution. All of us take the oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, which is the bedrock of our Democracy. That's what they did that day. Clearly, honoring the sacred oath is not a priority shared by our former President.

Any questions?

You had first last time. Do you think you want to be first this time? Yes sir?

Q. Madam Speaker, a number of Republicans have issued statements today, grateful Brittney Griner is returning, but being pretty unequivocal there is concern Paul Whelan wasn't part of the exchange.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, well –

Q. That he should have been part of the exchange. Do you have any concern about that?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, he himself has said the President did the right thing. Paul Whelan, he himself said the President did the right thing. I saw that as I was going to the Floor. We are fully – everyone is fully committed. Brittney being a basketball star, and her name was more famous to everyday Americans. But Paul Whelan is of at least equal concern to us to have his freedom. So nobody is saying, ‘Oh well, we just settled for this.' No, he becomes an even larger priority.

Q. Madam Speaker –

Speaker Pelosi. Okay. Go ahead.

Q. A follow-up on that: Republicans are also criticizing the prisoner swap that was involved, a convicted arms dealer with American blood on his hands. They say that that swap only will embolden Vladimir Putin. How do you respond to that?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, he has served most of his term, is my understanding, the majority of his term. I agree with their characterization of who he is; he's a bad guy. But the fact is, we wanted Brittney Griner freed, and that's what it – that's the leverage that we had to do just that.

Q. Madam Speaker, on same‑sex marriage: Americans overwhelmingly support same‑sex marriage. What do you say to Republicans who voted against it, that called this bill unnecessary or even misguided?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, what's really even more curious is that there were eight people who voted for it in its first form that we sent over to the Senate. What came back was more in their direction; it was not as strong as our original bill, although it's strong, but it wasn't as strong as what we had. And you wonder why, before the election, they voted for it. Did they see that to be to their advantage? And, after the election, they voted against it.

But we're so proud of this, this is – America has always been about expanding freedom, always in our country, until the Dobbs decision. And that was most unfortunate, because it took us in the opposite direction of expanding freedom. Also, the Secretary – the Justice was very clear in saying what he said would be at risk, and one of them was marriage equality.

And so we had to make it a statute, the law of the land, not at the discretion of the [Supreme Court]. Because the [Supreme Court] already upheld its – the constitutionality of marriage equality. So now, he was going to say we're going to revisit that. Despite everything they have ever said about privacy in the Constitution and precedent in the Court, he was putting on the table that that might be a victim of his misguided attitude. So this was important.

Yes, sir.

Q. Can you comment on the Oversight Committee's report on the Washington Commanders football team? And how do you think the NFL should respond to what the investigation uncovered? And would it include, in your mind, Dan Snyder selling the team?

Speaker Pelosi. Let me just say that I'm a sports fan, and what I love about sports is I don't have to get involved in policy. It's all about the numbers. It's all about the numbers. It's interesting that they've changed their name to the Commanders. I, quite frankly, have not read that report. So I cannot speak with any authority on it. But I would not be an expert in that regard.

I do – I'm excited about the progress our San Francisco 49ers are making. I'm a big supporter of the Ravens. In fact, I think I told you this, but when my husband was assaulted in that horrible situation, when he came out of surgery, my son was the first one to talk to him when he could talk. And he said, ‘Mommy's on her way home on the plane from D.C.'

And the first thing he said coming out of surgery is, ‘Oh, she's going to be so happy because the Ravens won last night.' That was Thursday night football.

Yes, Jake.

Q. Jimmy Garoppolo is up, but we won't go there. But on the omnibus –

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. I mean you have been a party to a number of agreements –

Speaker Pelosi. Yep.

Q. – to say the least. It's December 8th.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. And Shelby keeps saying you're $25 billion, $26 billion apart. They, you know, want to count the money that you spent in reconciliation. I mean, give us a sense of where you think this is going. I know you think that appropriators can generally work these things out.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, I do. You remember that.

Q. But they are not working these things out at this point.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, as an appropriator myself, I know that, left to their own devices, they can come to a conclusion and a fair one. What influence their leaders have on that decision to say they want to cut the DOD – here's what it always is: we have a big defense number. As I said on the Floor, we need a bigger defense number because, not only to keep us qualitatively and technologically ahead of the game, and that takes some money, also we have, first and foremost, a concern for our men and women in uniform: a pay raise, housing allowance, help to the commissaries so that their food costs are lower. The list goes on in terms of what it means to the quality of life of our men and women in uniform. So we support that. And really a very large amount of money would be in the Appropriations bill, which we would have been willing to recognize and to do.

The issue at hand is, did you know – did you all know that veterans are not security? They don't come under security. They come under – they don't come under defense; they come under judiciary – excuse me, domestic. They don't come under defense. They come under NDD, nondefense discretionary spending. More on the subject than you want to know? So the more we do for our veterans, which we should do, they want to take it out of other needs that we have for our judiciary, for our housing, for education, for food, for transportation, for energy, for all – look at the Cabinet and see the different categories that we have a responsibility for. So, if we're increasing veterans at the expense of our domestic agenda, then you see how challenging that is. So we have suggested for years now that we have veterans in their own category so that we could – it's not at anybody's expense that we are – because our veterans, they tell me we need our veterans' benefits, we need the VA, we need all of that, but we also need food stamps and we need Medicaid and we need other things that – in the domestic side of the budget.

So that's the – how do we – and as you said, they said, ‘Well, you have your domestic' – no, we were fighting a pandemic. That's what those first bills were about, because they don't just name reconciliation; they name other bills as well. So that's what we call legislating, and we'll just have to get it done. But if not, we may just have to go to a CR, which would be most unfortunate, but we have to weigh it against how unfortunate it would be if they cannibalized the domestic budget at the expense of the defense budget. We need them both.

Q. Madam Speaker.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes, ma'am.

Q. The House is juggling a long list of priorities right now, but will you commit to bringing a bill to the Floor to tackle the stock trading among Members?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I said all along I support whatever the Committee recommends, whatever the Committee recommends. But in order for that to happen, they have to have the votes, and that is what we are waiting to hear. It could be that they could get something that could be ready next week, but I have – I've said, whatever the Committee recommends, I support. Among the people who have been advocating, they have some disagreements: who wants this more than that? Who wants this more?

And they'll just have to, as we do when we legislate, come to a conclusion so that we could have the legislation, which I hope that we will have.

Q. Madam Speaker –

Speaker Pelosi. Okay, Chad.

Q. Thank you very much. The first is last. What is it they said? The first shall be first, and the last – whatever. Anyway. My question on the –

Speaker Pelosi. What is he talking about?

[Laughter]

Is this Biblical? Is he speaking in Biblical terms now? FOX News goes Biblical.

[Laughter]

What have you got?

Q. Wait until I ask you about Baker Mayfield in the ninth. In any event, with the defense bill, you heard Republicans criticizing, ‘Oh, we need the defense bill passed soon.' So, the defense bill is now passed.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, it passed.

Q. But they say out of the other side of their mouth, they say, ‘Why don't we talk over the spending until next year?' How do you respond to that when it seems like there's an inconsistency there, where they are talking about, we have to get the defense bill passed now, but then, as you lay out this case about the problem for the military if you have to go to a CR and punt it to next year?

Speaker Pelosi. I think that's a question for the Republicans. You're saying they're saying we should have the defense bill passed now, but we're not going to do this funding until next year. It is totally inconsistent, unsafe and the rest. So you'll just have to ask them that. But it is, it just shows you how determined they are not to invest in the American people, the education. The strength of our nation is, of course, related to our military might, and we recognize that. Whether it's in terms of technology and the rest, we take ourselves to a new place and not just old ways of thinking about defense, and that's what this authorization bill takes a giant step to do.

But our strength of our nation is also measured in the health, education and well‑being of the American people, certainly our men and women in uniform and their families, but beyond that. And what I love about this – one of the things that I like about this bill, scratch that ‘love' about the bill – one of things I like about this bill is that it has a major investment in our HBCUs, historically Black colleges and universities, and other minority‑serving institutions to make sure that our defense has the benefit of the thinking of everyone in our community, wherever they are in our economy, our society and in our ethnicity.

So it's about how you measure our strength. And we think our strength cannot ignore the health, education and well‑being of the American people, which is what the NDD is about, the nondefense discretionary spending.

Thank you all very much.

Q. What about Baker Mayfield coming to the 49ers?

Q. Rams.

Q. You guys missed out. My point is you guys missed out.

Speaker Pelosi. First shall be last, last shall be first. You're asking me about the Rams?

Q. Well, no. The thought that he would go to the 49ers.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. And he went to the Rams, so you guys miss out.

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, we've done all right this year. We're very proud of our acquisitions.