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 afternoon, everyone.

This has been quite a day. But I have to tell you that we began the day – this being Women's History Month — honoring women in history. And one of them is in the present: Billie Jean King came. We all basked in the glow of Billie Jean King as we honored Patsy Mink.

This – in the next couple of months, we'll observe the 50th anniversary of Title IX. And Title IX, you know what that meant for women in education as well as sports activities. That word was very important in the law. Patsy Mink made it happen. Pretty soon, we'll have a statue – excuse me, a painting, a picture of Patsy Mink and – a more obvious display in the Capitol. She was the first woman of color to serve in the Congress of the United States.

But today we had the Sidwell Friends basketball team — which are the all‑out champions — their coach. We had Wendy Mink, the daughter of Patsy Mink. So again, I start with something that we had been looking forward to, that we savored at the time and take great pride in. In fact, when I spoke to President Zelensky, I said, ‘Billie Jean King sends you her regards and wants to know how she can help.'

In any event – so here we are, with very serious legislation on the Floor today. And the legislative process, sausage‑making that it is, it's working its way. We'll be back on the Floor shortly. We'll have a bipartisan omnibus bill, a funding bill that includes $13.6 billion in funding for Ukraine, humanitarian, economic and military – defense spending. A separate funding package to continue the battle about coronavirus that we are taking out of the omnibus. And of course, that I mentioned, the omnibus bill. And then we have a bill, a sanctions bill banning import of Russian oil and energy products, not just oil, into the U.S. and taking other steps to isolate Russia in the world, including a review of their participation in the WTO, the World Trade Organization.

The omnibus bill – I want to commend Rosa DeLauro. She was absolutely masterful in the role that she played representing the House Democrats in all of this. It has defending democracy in Ukraine, and as I mentioned, $13.6 billion, making a difference in American families, including lowering the costs for education with bigger Pell Grants and establishing the President's ARPA – ARPA‑H initiative to defeat cancer. I'm very proud of that. You know DARPA, which was the defense piece of that. Then, when we had the majority before, we created something called ARPA‑E. It was an energy initiative. This is a health initiative.

Then, unlocking billions more for federal dollars. In the bipartisan bill – the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, there was money allocated, but it could not be spent until we unlocked it in this appropriations bill. And then the bipartisan legislation, this is especially – I'm glad about this, especially in Women's History Month, that we will have – reauthorizes the Violence Against Women Act and establishes new cyber — in addition to other bills — establishing new cyber protections against Russia. Those are two different bills. But the Violence Against Women Act has not been in effect for a while. So we're very pleased that we had a bipartisan agreement. We had to make some compromises, but that's, again, what legislation is about.

On the COVID relief bill, unfortunately, you had to have 60 votes in the Senate, and we couldn't get 60 votes without taking money out of the state allocations that were in the Rescue package. And that Republican obstruction required that we pass – now taking off this bill, to separate legislation containing funding to continue the fight against COVID. The Administration's request is essential for continuing the fight against the epidemic. It's really important because it's about our global responsibilities, yes, but in addition to that, it's about therapies that are early interventions into COVID. With that, stopping transmissions. Transmissions, as I've said to you before, as you well know, are the place where new variants are created. Again, sadly, the Republicans insisted that every penny for COVID be offset. And again, we fought to make sure that they didn't take any money out of the pockets of localities, but they did insist that it come out of the states.

So in any event, we will have our bill on the Floor today as well – well, depending on how long this all takes. But that is the plan. Rules is about to meet. I don't know if they've gone in. They're about to go in, the Rules Committee. They gave notice that they were going in in an hour, a while ago. We plan to move as quickly as possible. Okay.

I had an over 45‑minute conversation with President Zelensky earlier today. It is really an honor to just be on the call with somebody so courageous, so determined and so strategic in his thinking about how to protect his country. The assault that Putin has made on Ukraine is an assault on democracy. So the Ukrainians are not only defending their country; they're defending democracy. We talked about a range of issues, including what the – the crimes against humanity that Putin is committing. Today, the news was that they bombed a maternity hospital, killing babies, children, moms. This is the beast that Putin is. What we would like to do is for the people of Russia to understand that, and, of course, he is blanking out a lot of that.

So in any event, it takes us to our other bill today, which is the Russian energy ban. Ban the import of Russian oil and energy products in the U.S. — I mentioned that — cutting off a major source of revenue for Putin. This is about jobs and money there. Take steps to review Russia's access to WTO and explore how to further diminish Russia in the global economy. Reauthorize and strengthen the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability [Act]. You know that bill. That was started as a – against Russia, particularly for Russia legislation, but then it was globalized, so that massive human rights violators any place, including Ukraine, can have further sanctions imposed upon them.

Again, the call with Zelensky was, for me, a great honor, as I said. My colleagues who had spoken with him by phone over the weekend shared that view.

He – we talked about that maternity hospital. We talked about weapons — that Putin is using weapons to, prohibited in the Geneva Conventions, including cluster bombs and vacuum bombs which cause severe suffering. The subject that we talked about also was the nuclear power plants that the Russians are – have as a target, and that two million, two million Ukrainians — and the number will continue to grow — are fleeing their country. We want to be as helpful as possible. He – one of the things he called upon, of course – he wants planes, he wants anti‑missile weaponry, he wants armored cars, he wants a number – tanks. But he also – he wants the planes, the planes, the planes. You know that. But he also said that we're going to need everybody's help in rebuilding Ukraine as soon as we end this war. He was very positive about that.

Back home, just on another front, one of our – we talked about, we talked about lowering cost, increasing paychecks, cleaner government in what we do. But not all of us – not everybody here shares that priority of lowering costs for families. This week, a GOP Senator revived their party's plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, repeal and end protections for 150 million people, cut off access to 20 – more than 20 million, but end pre-existing condition protections, et cetera, for over 150 million [Americans]. A record number of Americans have gained access through the Affordable Care Act, more now. Under the Rescue Plan, Democrats further lowered premiums, saving some of these families an average of $2,400.

But Republicans want to take those savings away, raise costs, including another plan announced by a GOP Senator, which would, in his words, raise taxes on over half of Americans. The GOP plan would increase taxes for more than 1,000 – of more than $1,000 on average for the poorest 40 percent of Americans. Democrats are For the People and will keep fighting for them.

So it's a busy, busy day. We started celebrating that ‘when women succeed, America succeeds,' because – month is Women's History Month, that March is Women's History Month.

Then into the legislation that's on the Floor, historic call for me with President Zelensky, but at the same time staving off some of the assaults on America's working families that the Republicans continue to be engaged in.

Any questions?

Yes, sir?

Q.On the omnibus.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Q. A number of your Members said that they felt blindsided about the COVID relief offsets that were in there. Why were they not looped in earlier in this process when this has been months and months in the making?

Speaker Pelosi. No, no, it hasn't been months and months in the making. This is when you're in a negotiation. And when you're in a negotiation, you do not weaken at the end. We had to be very strong to insist upon having the COVID funding. This COVID funding, as I said before, is about early intervention so that we stop transmissions and therefore new variants. It's about honoring our responsibility we have to the rest of the world. It's been very obvious for a long time now that the Republicans in the Senate did not want to do COVID funding. And then if we did it, that it would have to be paid for by state and local government.

We cut the amount in half. We cut in half what the – would have to be covered by state and local and just had part of it offset one way – some by state, but not local.

States have more assets – opportunity to help cover this than local. Local governments do not – have not had the benefit of unemployment going down and so many other things that have given states a little more flexibility in all of this. And that's what the Senators, Republican Senators, insisted upon, and that's the way it was.

Any other questions?

Yes, ma'am? Yes?

Q. On the Russian energy bill.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. Is the White House supportive of the ways in which it goes further than the actions that they've taken?

Speaker Pelosi. I don't think they're – we have strong bipartisan support for the legislation. We want to even do more. We want to do Most Favored Nation – well, now called – what is it called? Normal Trade Relations – and stuff.

And so it is – no, I think we're all pretty good. We're all pretty good.

It is, you know, again, people see things. We want planes for Ukraine. You know, in other words, it's all about time. It's all about time. And we've been talking about doing the Russian ban for a while, and we're so pleased that the President has done that. These bills are not that incompatible. But, you know, you're here to legislate. This is a democratic process where people have weighed the equities, expressed their views, and the timing is what the timing is – and the timing on this is March 11th. And so we had to move when we had an agreement.

Any other questions?

Yes, sir.

Q. What's the plan on COVID relief? Now that it's out of the bill –

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. – are you going to try to put it into reconciliation? How do you –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, we have a bill that's going to be on the Floor, hopefully today, just depends. We have a bill that I mentioned that will be on the Floor today, and it will be – really contain what the Administration says that we need. It's a separate funding package to continue the battle against coronavirus, largely focusing on the new therapies that are there. You know, now it's a – when we started this conversation about vaccines, it was very subzero temperatures with a shelf life that was very short. Now we have pills that have a long shelf life and an early intervention that can intervene and stop the people from having to go to the hospital, get further – get sick further, and most importantly, keep them from transmitting, which is a path to a new variant.

So we'll have that. We're working on it in the Rules Committee, as soon as they go in. Are they in yet?

Momentarily, they will be going in. And that will be under the Rule to be brought to the Floor. We hope that in the course of the debate that it will be today.

Yes, ma'am?

Q. Just to follow up on the omnibus. You're blaming Republicans for the delay in the situation with the COVID relief, but you didn't have votes within your own party. Do you regret pushing this text out in the middle of the night and now –

Speaker Pelosi. No, no. No, no. That's the way it is. Let's get — let's grow up about this, okay? We're in a legislative process. We have a deadline for keeping government open. We have a lively negotiation. It has to be bipartisan. We want it to be bipartisan. But in the Senate, you need 60 votes. So when I say blame – you say ‘blame;' I'm saying because you need 60 votes. They consider that a plus. I don't. If you need 60 votes in the Senate, they have to come to terms. And as I said, it was greatly reduced. We didn't do localities, we did much less attributed to the states, and we had, unfortunately, less money.

Q. In terms of Members of your own party, though?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the – is it a secret that the Republicans have wanted to, did you not know that Romney had sent around a letter with all of the Senators signing it that said we have to take the money out of state and local government? This is not – but it may come as news to someone – is that, yeah, when you subtract money, money is subtracted. So I won't even go there, because we are in a negotiation. Great things were accomplished. Rosa DeLauro was masterful. Senator Leahy as well. Even working with the Republican leadership, we came up with a bill. It's a billion and a half – a trillion and a half dollars that will be spent this year.

And there has never been a bill – let me just be very clear. There has never been a bill that, when it comes forward – and usually, well, it wasn't the dark of night, it was sometime last night – but it comes forward that somebody: ‘I didn't get what I wanted in a bill.' You're telling Noah about the flood. ‘I didn't get what I wanted in a bill.'

[Laughter]

So I tell my Members, yeah, that's a negotiation, and that's the way it is, and look at what is in the bill and what it does for America's working families, what it does for Ukraine, what it does that – so much needs to be done, as opposed to what you don't like about the bill. So we will pass a bill that gets it all done, and we will continue to work on that. But as long as we have – need 60 votes in the Senate, Members are going to have to know there have to be compromises.

Jake?

Q. Did you agree with their qualms? I mean, they were – they, people –

Speaker Pelosi. You know what? You know what? I answered that question. You got something else on substance or something because –

Q. I think that's pretty substantive.

Speaker Pelosi. Well, it isn't substantive. It's process. And what we're talking about is policy here. We're talking about policy here. And maybe if you're just waiting around hearing what's happening, you'll understand that every line in the bill is a negotiation. That we're talking about the defense of our country. And some people don't like that we're spending so much and, ‘how is it spent?' We're talking about measuring the strength of our country by health, education, the well‑being of our children and our families, the protection of our planet and the rest in terms of the environment.

And with this President, this Joe Biden – this President, with justice, environmental justice, economic justice, so much has been accomplished, that some of the governors are complaining that they're getting some of their money while many of them are enjoying slush funds in all of this.

Now, I – let me just say this. You want to talk process? Who had all of the grief that you all had to hand out – from your station especially, or whatever you call it, cable – that I was holding up the checks going to people in September and October? And, ‘Isn't that a shame, because something is better than nothing.' Well, I don't go there. I said to President Trump, ‘You do state and local, you do the other things we have to do for America's working families. You have your checks, but I'm not giving you your check for nothing.' Because they fought state and local every step of the way in this new budgeting. It wasn't until Joe Biden became President that we were able to get the state and local.

And that was something that was my fight. As the daughter of a mayor, as the sister of a mayor, I insisted that we have that state and local. A lot of Senators are governors, and they were governors, and they like the state. That's good. But we cannot depend on the states to distribute the money, especially in some of the states.

So I hold no – I can compare myself to anybody. I'm stating for all, every dollar that those governors and those mayors got – and the mayors we did not subtract from. So where did this money come from? I know one person said he was going to vote against the bill. He didn't even vote for the bill that gave the money.

So you know, you want to talk this stuff? Okay, you can talk this stuff. We got a war going on in Ukraine, we have important legislation to bring to the Floor for humanitarian [assistance]. And by the way, did I tell you, one – the, President Zelensky, one of the things that he asked for that was relatively new in the discussions was that – and of course he wanted planes and anti‑aircraft and missiles and tanks and all of that. He wanted the sanctions to be very tough in there. But what he did ask for was help in rebuilding of Ukraine. And all of us are going to get – help in the rebuilding because the beast that is Putin is just destroying civilian areas, hospitals, striving to put out, what do you call it, nuclear, nuclear facilities that are the source of electricity in the country.

So we've got important work that we're doing here. Some of our Members are disappointed. I'm disappointed. As Dave Obey would say – Dave Obey used to be the Chairman of our Committee, and he would come into the room and he'd say, ‘I know some of you don't like the way this went, and you don't like me. Well, I don't like me either.'

[Laughter]

You don't like what you didn't get in the bill? I'm very unhappy with what I didn't get in the bill. You think I could have gotten something into the bill as Speaker of the House? No. Because it takes six – 60 votes in the Senate. That's it. That's all I'm going to say about that. If you want to talk about policy, I'm happy to take those questions, but I'm not – I feel like you are busier people than to have one, two, three, four questions about the fact that we are moving with our bill, and we're not getting – wallowing in what some governors are complaining about not getting.

Yes, Ma'am?

Q. On Ukraine, did the discussion come up with President Zelensky about a no‑fly zone

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. What did he have to say about that? And where did you stand on that?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I had last week and this week conversations with the Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine and that would end in correspondence that he sent us and the rest. That has always been one of the things they asked for. But they know that we can't go there. Putin is trying to bait the trap so that we go in, and that's the beginning – could be the beginning of World War III. Putin, totally irresponsible, using weapons that are not allowed under the Geneva Convention. Putin who threatens use of chemical weapons, nuclear, and the rest. So they know that we can't, but it's the ask.

Now he was, this morning, more, ‘Let's, if we can't have a – if we can't have a no‑fly zone, let us have our own, and we need the airplanes to come in.' And that is – what that is is that there are planes that, that the Ukraine pilots are trained on, and those are some of the planes that are in Poland. Poland said that they would do it if America said yes. America said yes. And now they want backfill. That's, you know, in other words, if we give these to Ukraine then we want to – but his – this morning he was less on the ask for the, that policy, more on, ‘Let us do it, help us get the planes.'

But also, there's a school of thought that thinks the anti‑aircraft missiles and the rest are a very important way. Myself, when I see that, that those tanks — that 40 miles of tanks, I'd like to take out those tanks. I mean, I think that them having more planes might be useful, but that — I'm not a military strategist. We hope that we will be able to get to a place, I hope – you ask me how – I hope that we can get to a place where the MiGs, which are the kinds of planes they have been depending on, can go to Ukraine – the F‑16s, especially if you have an excess of them, can backfill for Poland.

I'll take one more. Yes, sir?

Q. Madam Speaker, regarding your conversation with President Zelensky.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Q. You mentioned he asked for a number of things. It sounded like that would go beyond the $14 billion that's currently under consideration.

Speaker Pelosi. Excuse me, go beyond what?

Q. The $14 billion that's under consideration.

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah.

Q. Are we are talking additional –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, if we – yeah. What we have right now is the 13‑point-whatever-it-is billion dollars. It's defense, humanitarian assistance and economic assistance. Could be loan guarantees, all that. The two million, now, refugees, we're going to have to see what all of us have to do, working together, the – the NATO and other countries. It's beyond NATO wanting to be helpful.

So we'll just see what it is. And of course, in the rebuilding of the country, the loan guarantees will be helpful. But all of us will have to do more. But we'll see what it is and how long this war takes, because when you're talking about rebuilding – bless his beautiful soul and courage — you're talking about winning war and moving on from there.

I'm just going to close and tell you this, because you reminded me of it. When I was in school, I attended the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Were any of you alive then?

You were alive, but you weren't there. You were too young to be there.

Q. I was in sixth grade.

Speaker Pelosi. You were in sixth grade? Well, I was in school too, but I won't get into the grade.

[Laughter]

And in this speech, all of you know — even in sixth grade, you probably learned that he said, to the citizens of America: ask not what America can do for you, but what – our country can do for you, but what you can do for our country. Remember that? You know that? Okay.

That very next line, being a – majoring in political science and all that, the very next line is what I took away. The very next line is, to the citizens of the world, ‘ask not what America can do for you, but what we can do working together for the freedom of mankind.'

And that's what President Biden has been doing: working together. Working together. And some of the initiatives that go forward, others take the lead, some, but we are all on the same page.

And when we were in Munich for the Munich Security Conference just a couple weeks ago, a week and a half or so, people were complimentary. We met with heads of state, heads of this, heads of that. So complimentary of our President and how collaboration, working together — not condescension or anything, collaboration.

So I'm very proud of where the President has gotten us on this. We're very sad about the brutality of the beast, Putin, and that he has committed war crimes.

And I'll just close this on this last thing, I think, because it's your business — what he's doing with messaging. I think I told you this before, the President of Moldova said they're communicating a message, a bad message about Ukraine into Moldova. The President of Kosovo saying the Serbians and the Orthodox, with the Russian propaganda. Other countries have told us that the Russians have been very active in trying to paint Ukraine as the villain in all of this. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that?

So again, we are at a very difficult time because democracy is under assault by a person who has no values. We have to use our – everything at our disposal, whether it's economic sanctions to cripple their economy, whether it is cutting them off in other ways in the economy, but supplying Ukraine with what they need. So forgive me for my impatience. We have all of this at hand, and you have four questions about, ‘Shouldn't somebody have told somebody about something sooner because they didn't know about it.'

Okay. Thank you all very much. I have the greatest respect for each and every one of my Members. They're Representatives. They represent their districts. That's their job title. That's their job description. But right here, we're in a battle. And what has come out of this legislation, this omnibus for America's working families, is something quite remarkable. And it will be bipartisan, and that means it needs 60 votes in the Senate.

Happy Women's History Month to all of you. I'm sorry you didn't see Billie Jean. It was live‑streamed. It was quite remarkable.

And I just – Bobby Scott, who was on the program because he's one of our champions of Title IX, he turned to me when the program was starting, he said, ‘I know we had Billie Jean King here because she was the top tennis player in the world, but she could be here as just being one of the top people in the world. She is so great; she cares so much.'

Thank you all.