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, as you know, yesterday the President of the United States put forth a formidable package to help the Ukrainians fight for democracy – their democracy, our democracy. It is strong in terms of what it will do, in terms of assisting with security there. It is strong in terms of what it'd do to help the economy, as well as the humanitarian assistance. I'm very proud of the President. This is such a moment for him, where he has brought people together, mobilized NATO in a strong way, working at a pace that we're all moving together on so many initiatives, recognizing the courage of the Ukrainian people.

They have said to me when they're here, ‘They may have more troops. We have more motivation. Our troops have more motivation.' This is historic. And I thank the President for the careful consideration he gave to what would be in the package. Our country and democracy is well served by this President, who for so many years was on the Foreign Affairs Committee. So he knows the territory. He knows the personalities. He knows the possibilities. And again, on top of that, as Vice President of the United States and now as President, he brings his knowledge of, again, the issues, the intelligence, the personalities, the possibilities. This is really something very, very important that he has done for democracy, recognizing that part of Russia's goal is to diminish democracy. It's the debate between autocracy and democracy – or, more specifically, dictatorship and freedom.

So again, we – what we hope to do, we were ready with our Appropriations Committee to start writing as soon as we got the numbers from the Office of Management and Budget and the President's announcement made it public. And we hope to, as soon as possible, pass that legislation.

Some of you were here yesterday when we talked about lower costs at the pump, and so we are proceeding with our legislation in terms of stopping the exploitation of the consumer, price gouging and the rest. And Congress – Madam Chair, Maria Cantwell, to have her legislation to do stabilization in terms of prices and the rest. The food prices are affected by the cost of fertilizer, the cost of fuel and the rest. So all of this is about lowering prices – lowering prices at the pump, lowering prices at the grocery store. And putting a very strong, watchful eye on the corporate America, who has a business plan, in some instances, that is about profits at the expense of America's working families and also about lowering costs – prices – lowering wages as they raise prices, increase their profits.

The – so much of what is challenging us now in our economy relates to supply chain. When you have lower supply, you have higher cost. And we are so excited about the COMPETES Act and how we are moving on that. Yesterday, I met with some of the Chairs of the Committee to be ready, because next week, the distinguished Leader in the Senate has said that they will be hopefully finishing the motions to instruct next week in the Senate, which will enable us to go to conference. And we hope to do that as soon as possible.

This COMPETES Act is so important because of chips, chips, chips, chips and semiconductors. You all know that. It takes a thousand chips to make a car, two thousand to make an electric car, for example. Many other products are dependent on the use of chips, and we have to be making them at home. Supply chain – that's $52 billion. In our bill, over $40 billion for supply chain issues and how we support – manufacture here at home, bring it home, ‘Make It In America.' And do so in a way that gives us independence, self‑sufficiency for our country so that we have our pre-eminence in the world in terms of manufacturing and, therefore, lowering cost.

And the third part of that is education and research and apprenticeships, that many more people can participate in how we go forward in this new independent, self‑sufficient way for America where we're not depending on the factors of production from other countries which can be held up. Whether we're talking COVID holding it up or you're talking Ukraine holding it up, for whatever reason, we cannot be dependent in that.

So this legislation is really transformative. Our goal is always to make sure people can survive. But we have to do better than that. We want them to succeed. In order for that to happen, we have to be transformative in how we have our public policy in order to work with the private sector, with the nonprofit sector, with the academic world and the rest to involve many more people in our industrial base and, again, in our education to get us to the place where we were preeminent decades ago. Other countries copied our model of research and academic excellence. And then our jobs went offshore because it was cheaper. And now we're knowing that that was very costly, to go offshore. We need to come home.

So with that, we have quite a full plate: Ukraine, price at the pump, all a part of lowering cost, and, again, COMPETES to take us to a different place.

Any questions?

Q. What do you make of the recent recordings that showed that Mr. McCarthy, Minority Leader McCarthy, knew that his Members were a danger, they posed a danger? And – because since then, he has not wanted to punish anybody, from Paul Gosar to Marjorie Taylor Greene, though those recordings clearly show that he knew that those people posed a threat?

Speaker Pelosi. You know, we're here largely as legislators. That's what I love about this place, because we legislate: to make law, listen to the people, make laws that meet their needs, to improve their lives.

What you're talking about, I'm not going to comment on — except to say this. It was interesting to me that the Leader talked about the concern that he had – if, in fact, those were his words, which that's up to you to decide – that he was concerned about his Members causing danger here, and at the same time complaining that we had magnetometers to keep guns off the Floor of the House. It just seemed inconsistent to me, especially now that one of his Members was seen taking a gun into an airport. I thought you were arrested for that, to try to take a gun on a plane. I guess he was – his Member was treated differently.

Q. Madam Speaker, I guess on that point, I mean, I know you're –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I'm not going to spend this meeting talking about Kevin McCarthy's inconsistencies with his Caucus, so just understand that.

You want to talk about competition in the world so America is number one? You want to talk about protecting democracy from dictatorship? You want to talk about lowering costs for the American people?

I said what I'm going to say. It's up to them. People have to make a judgment about how the Republicans in Congress make – hold their Members accountable. And they can't say in one breath, ‘I'm afraid that they're going to cause danger to other Members,' and at the same time complain about my having magnetometers on the Floor of the House.

That's all I'm going to say about it. So if you want to waste your question on that, that's up to you.

Q. Madam Speaker, just on H.R. 40, I was just curious, why hasn't the House –

Speaker Pelosi. On what, dear?

Q. On H.R. 40, why hasn't the House yet brought up its bill to set up a commission on reparations yet? And do you plan to bring it up –

Speaker Pelosi. H.R.?

Q. Oh, sorry. H.R. 40.

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, you're talking about that. And what's your question?

Q. No. I was just curious why hasn't the House yet brought up that bill? And do you plan to bring it up later this year?

Speaker Pelosi. No – I think they're having hearings. It's a bill just to have a study, and it's up to the Committees to have their hearing on that. I think people welcome that conversation. Congresswoman Jackson Lee has been a champion on that.

Yes, ma'am?

Q. Madam Speaker, just to follow up on your comment, because I know you were referencing the incident with Congressman Cawthorn –

Speaker Pelosi. Okay. I'm not talking about that anymore. Okay? I'm not taking – I am not making any comment.

Look, you have a concern about the behavior of the Republican Conference. I have a concern that they are not here for meeting the kitchen table needs of the American people. My concern about their ethics and their behavior is something the American people and their constituents have to make a judgment about.

But if you want to know what keeps me up about them? It is that they are just opposed to all of the initiatives that we have. To expand Medicaid so many more poor children, especially, can have access to it. That they oppose the initiatives about pensions to ensure that families of these children have security and to their grandparents and the rest, so they can have kitchen table – concerns about the cost of food.

My concern is that they're in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry and are in denial about the climate crisis. My concern is that they're in the pocket of the gun industry and so they will not vote for initiatives that prevent gun violence in our communities. My concern is that it is very hard to get something to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

You want to hear something about them? We had a bill that would contain the cost of insulin – $35 cap on the cost of deductible on the cost of insulin. The industry was charging ten times that. We're talking about $30 to $35. They're talking about $300 to $600. Do you know how many Republicans voted to reduce the cost of insulin, which affects many families in our country? Twelve. Twelve Republicans.

So what matters to me is what matters to the American people. We have a responsibility to have an ethical standard here. They have to take care of their own house. If not, there will be ethics complaints.

But I'm not spending my time on them in this meeting. We're fighting for America's working families. We're fighting for the kitchen table concerns. We're not here to talk about books that were written and – what would you say the word is – just total inconsistencies about what was, who was responsible for January 6th.

The President of the United States incited an insurrection against the Constitution, against the Congress, against this Capitol. They had their mixed reviews about it, and now they have to deal with their inconsistencies about it. But the fact is they are – many of them, as the Leader has indicated, could be a danger, as he said, and that's why we are protecting the Members of Congress.

Q. Madam Speaker, Democrats are siding with Republicans and calling for a vote on Title 42 while both Caucuses are largely united on arming Ukraine. So why not split the votes?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, we haven't made any decision about how we go forward.

But let me just say about Title 42: President Biden did the right thing, to substitute something that is more effective at the border, to protect our border, and to respect our responsibility to welcome refugees or asylum seekers to our country. That we need a better plan than the Bush – excuse me, the Trump Administration had in effect.

I always like to quote two people. One is the person who represented the Evangelical community, the Association of Evangelicals, when he said, ‘The United States program of refugee resettlement is the crown jewel of American humanitarianism.'

That's what we have to get back to, a place like that. [Title] 42 is not in furtherance of that. But we have to have something else if the President is taking that away, and his Administration is putting forth a better way to go.

The other one that I like to quote – and you've heard me time and time again – is Ronald Reagan. Read his last speech to the country: ‘This is the last speech I will make as President of the United States, and I want to communicate a message to the country I love.' And he talked about immigration in such a beautiful way. I don't want to do it – I won't do it justice in quoting the great communicator, Ronald Reagan, but you should google it.

Q. Madam Speaker, on Ukraine, on the Ukraine bill here, obviously there's talk about maybe putting the COVID money in.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. You say there hasn't been a decision made about –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I'm all for that. I think it's very important. We have emergencies here. We need to have the COVID money. And we need – time is of the essence because we need the Ukraine money; we need the COVID money. So I would hope that we can do that. That's – this is called legislation and we'll – legislating – and we'll have to come to terms on how we do that.

Q. But if they have to drop the price tag, the President reiterated the call for $22.5 billion.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. But yet there was a deal between Senator Romney and Senator Schumer, a lower figure. Do you see that figure coming back up to $22.5 or –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I would hope it would come up to $22.5 [billion]. But as you've described, this is a Senate negotiation, and we'll see what they come up with because it'll be what can pass the Senate.

Q. And is Title 42 –

Speaker Pelosi. And it would be paid for.

Q. And is Title 42 – if it's put into that or there's a vote on that, is that a poison –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, that's a different story.

Q. Is that a poison pill though?

Speaker Pelosi. Let's see what the Senate – my understanding is that the Senate is working on – I don't know this for sure – but my understanding is that the Senate is working on other language that serves the purpose at the border but is not Title 42.

Q. Madam Speaker?

Staff. Last question.

Q. An issue that a lot of American people are dealing with is the economy. And we just got the latest numbers –

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. – showing that it dipped slightly. Is this going to have any effect on the 2022 election come November, the midterms?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the – I think this is an aberration. There are plenty other statistics and analyses that have said this is an aberration, and there are many other factors that show that we have growth in our near future. But what we're worried about is what it means to the kitchen table, again, not to the election, but to the kitchen table of America's working families.

This is a President that has, under his leadership, eight million jobs – eight million jobs in one year. Again, a large part of that comes from the private sector. We respect that. Public, private, nonprofit, public and private initiative, individual initiative. But public policy on the part of Democrats in the Congress, as well as the President of the United States: eight million jobs, cutting unemployment in half, raising wages. And again, when that happens – inflation goes up when you have unemployment going down. As we said, when you have supply chain issues, costs go up because supply goes down.

So we have to deal with it. But I do think that if you read some of the other analysis that has surrounded that – and we want to – this is deadly – objective. These are numbers.

We think that one of the reasons for that is that our exports are out of balance. There's so much more being imported than exported. And one of the reasons to how we go down a path to improve that situation is to pass the COMPETES Act, bring it all home, and have our balance of trade be much more favorable to our country.

That is another aspect of that figure, 1.5 percent or something was it this morning, and I saw that. But I also constantly read about this, and including this morning, as to those who have said don't read so much into that. That's for then, but we will do better. We will have growth.

And again, this COMPETES Act hopefully will be overwhelmingly bipartisan. It certainly was bipartisan in the Committees where it was written in the House and in the Senate, although the Republicans didn't want to give us a vote on it on the Floor. We got one Republican vote. But nonetheless, strong support in the Committees where the legislation was coming out of – Science, Space and Technology and the rest.

I think a disagreement about whether we need CHIPS perhaps in one of the Committees, but I think everybody knows that we need CHIPS.

So we have to – we can't ignore any of it. We can't ignore inflation. We have to pay attention to it. We watch those numbers and see what feeds into it. Is it the trade issue, or what, supply chain? How do we address that? CHIPS is an answer to a number of those. A number of those.

Thank you all very much. Have a good weekend. Thank you.