Transcript of Speaker Pelosi’s Remarks at Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Press Event

South Sound, WA – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland and Congressman Derek Kilmer for a press event highlighting the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Strickland, for your invitation to be here, for your leadership in the Congress on so many subjects and for your kind introduction. It's an honor to be here with you with Chairman Sterud.

I thought you were going to do a prayer, so I'm taking the words that you said earlier as a prayer. It was beautiful because he called us to action, and established values and priorities in his comments.

Willie Frank III: I mean, thank you so much for this. And can you imagine how exciting it's going to be to have a statue to his father in the Capitol of the United States? It's going to be so great. Thank you to the State of Washington for making that possible because they – you decide who represents you in the Congress but also in the Statuary Hall.

Don Anderson, thank you so much for making this bipartisan – the bill is bipartisan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill – thank you for the implementation of it and the acknowledgment of it as bipartisan as well today.

Representative Kilmer – well, I'll talk more about all about them. But thank you for your relentless, persistent, dissatisfied and constant advocacy for Puget Sound. And I know that you and Congresswoman Strickland are the co-chairs of the [Puget Sound Recovery Caucus] — we'll talk more as we go forward on that.

Here's the thing though that I wanted – I was keeping it with it, with me.

[Laughter]

I want you to know I have my fish, too, that the – that I received last night. Right? From the Tulalip Tribe last night. Yes.

So here's the thing. When – we have long overdue needed, for a long time needed an infrastructure bill. The fact that it's bipartisan is so positive for us, because it's always been bipartisan. Over time for – forever when we did an infrastructure bill, it was always bipartisan. So when the – President Biden's leadership to say we're going big with this bill. Now, he had in his value system of all of this, that it would be – have environmental justice and respect for indigenous rights and all the rest as part of the bill. He has a 40 percent justice piece in the bill. So that people who were concerned about all the infrastructure they built before – ‘divided my neighborhood, we're still living with a consequences' – we said, ‘no, that's not what this is.' This is not about dividing. This is about uniting. This is about uniting. And I might just want to say that, in terms of the State of Washington, the bill is very appropriately generous: $5.3 billion to fix roads and bridges, some of which will be part of this, $1.9 billion to upgrade public transit, $71 million for electric vehicle charging stations. Again, the bigger bill has $13 billion to help Tribal communities.

Now, let me just say: when we just – when we said we were going to do an infrastructure bill, we said to Indian country: ‘We want you at this table on the very first day.' We don't want to present you with something and say: ‘What do you think of this, and oh, it's too late to make any changes.' We needed them to be there the very first day, because they have been keepers of the land, whether it's water rights or whatever, or sacred grounds, or all the rest. We wanted to be in front of all that when we wrote the bill. So it's no coincidence that you're here, both of you, both of your Tribes, here today, telling us the story of the history of it all, and how it will be enhanced as we go forward. But I do have to salute President Biden for insisting from the start that that would be the way we would go down this path.

[Applause]

So again, we talk about the natural beauty of the South Sound, we're talking about Chambers Creek – I know it has a more official name – but Chambers Creek. And it's really very exciting to be here. I mean, I'm eleven hours ahead of you all.

[Laughter]

Or behind, I'm not sure which. But it's eleven hours difference. But I couldn't be more honored than to see us right here in this beautiful, beautiful place of nature with the family. Thank you to the family for, for what you have – the Bellar family for gifting the dam to the local environmental group. Forterra? Forterra here? Let's see Forterra. And thank you so much.

So it takes – it's public, it's private, it's nonpartisan, it's bipartisan and the rest. It's very, very important. And you know, you're a model to the country, a model to the country.

[Applause]

So let me praise Derek Kilmer. He's Chair of the Modernization Committee. He had this idea that Congress should be modernized, and he's the Chair of the Committee that we established to do just that – gives him a seat at the Chairs' table. Very, very respected in the Congress. And as I said, as we know – alongside Rep. Strickland – the Puget Sound Recovery, Recovery Caucus. And again, he's on the Appropriations Committee – we call it the ‘almighty powerful Appropriations Committee' – on the Environmental Subcommittee that has so much to do with all of this.

And again to Chairman Sterud. You – I thank you for reminding us of history – the heritage and the sanctity of this land.

Chairman Willie Frank, thank you for highlighting the human and cultural aspects at stake in this fight. And again, we look forward to welcoming your father to the Capitol and his many friends. Councilmember Don Anderson, thank you for bringing the spirit of bipartisanship to this important occasion.

This remarkable backdrop reminds us of America's collective obligation to care for nature's life-giving wonders. The health and livelihood of working families depend on good stewardship. That is why we're so pleased that, in the infrastructure bill, we have Davis-Bacon so that we have good-paying jobs. To our friends in labor, thank you for that.

[Applause]

Again, there is a billion dollars that was referenced by Derek Kilmer, but a billion dollars to cure culvert blockages and restore fish passage. That came from you all. You saw that need, and that we had to commit that – those resources. And again, $172 [million] to conserve Pacific salmon and $89 million to protect Puget Sound. That may not sound like a – $89 million. We are scrambling for money for San Francisco Bay, Chesapeake Bay. How did this all happen? Puget Sound is leading the way in how to use federal dollars to preserve the critical habitats – build a stronger, cleaner infrastructure and the rest.

And it is – infrastructure is about health. It's about clean air and clean water, what did I say? Transit systems, $1.9 billion to transit – cleaner air for our children to breathe. Cleaner water – getting the lead out across the country – cleaner water for our children to drink. So it's a health issue. It's an environmental issue, of course, as we do so in an environmentally sound way. It's a commercial issue, how we get products to market – to and from market in a way that promotes commerce. It promotes commerce. And for us, it's a values issue as well, because all of this is to help us preserve the planet as we fight the climate crisis. And Washington State has been so in the lead in all of that. It's a quality of life — that parents taking their children to school or people going to work and the rest are in the car less or maybe taking public transit more. But whatever it is, it's saving time for families. So it's a quality of life issue. It's very, very important.

The first infrastructure bill was introduced by President Thomas Jefferson over 200 years ago. It was to build the infrastructure: the Erie Canal, Cumberland Road, to build into the new country. The Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition. One hundred years later, in honor of the 100th year anniversary, Teddy Roosevelt did his infrastructure bill. It was called the National Park Service. Establishing that in a way and recognizing it. This infrastructure bill combines all of that, and takes us beautifully into the future, again, with environmental justice, with commercial success, with respect for the cultural heritage of it all.

So I think you've captured it all right here today. It's exciting to be here with it – with all of you as we do this. And it's now my privilege, again, to yield back to a respected voice in that. The former mayor who – are there mayors here today? Are there? Mayors, thank you for being here. Okay. My father was Mayor, and my brother was Mayor, of Baltimore, so I'm partial to mayors because I know that's how you get work done.

[Applause]

And she's been a tireless advocate right from the start, effective from the start in this regard. And here we are to celebrate this magnificent achievement, but also the great leadership of Congresswoman Strickland and Congressman Kilmer, as well as Maria Cantwell and all of your Congressional delegation. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be with you. Thank you.

[Applause]

***

Q. Speaker – Madam Speaker, with all due respect to the issue at hand – and I'm sorry Congresswoman –

[Laughter]

Speaker Pelosi. With all due respect to the issue at hand, why don't we save your question until we deal with some of the questions at hand.

Q. Right, but with all due respect Speaker, you just got off, apparently, a long flight from Ukraine. You were the highest ranking person in the Administration — in the United States government that has been there in the war zone. Does your perspective change in any way after you've been on the ground?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, what we usually do is take the questions that were gathered to – and then go on to other subjects.

Congresswoman Strickland. So what we'll do is we'll do infrastructure questions first, and then Chris, we're going to parking lot that and come back.

Speaker Pelosi. I'm very honored to talk about it. It's so important. I thank you for your question. But we just wanted to focus on this for the moment. Any questions on the subject at hand?

Q. Can you give a little more specifics about what projects you're funding and why those are being funded? I know you mentioned specific areas but can you talk about more specifics of those areas?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, some of them are about the resources that are allocated, but then there will be applications for grants and all the rest. And so important to it all is the local support for an entity. So that will count a lot. How can I say this nicely? We want dirt to fly.

[Laughter]

So if there is a project that is making an appeal for grant, we want to have the locality – the locals and the regional support for it across the board so that we don't spend the next five years in court instead of celebrating in another year, that. So again, it's $5.3 billion to fix roads and bridges, $1.9 to upgrade public transit, $71 [million] to install electric vehicle charging stations. And then – Derek Kilmer referenced broadband and other aspects of this. So it's, it's almost every aspect of infrastructure that is there. But again, not telling people where they should spend it, but listening to the community and where there's a commonality of interest. And on that score, I'll yield to the locals to say what some of their priorities might be.

***

Speaker Pelosi. Before we went in to see the President of Ukraine, we had a prayerful moment among those of us who were privileged to be on that visit, each according to his own faith tradition. Because for us, it was a very solemn occasion. To be the highest ranking – but others on the trip very high ranking as well. To go see the president of a country that was under siege. Ukraine – the people of Ukraine are fighting for democracy, their democracy, and everyone else's, because Putin has invaded them because they were a democracy. And he didn't – couldn't handle a democracy at the doorstep of Russia, where people thrived, loved their democracy, were willing to fight for it in previous times and then now.

He thought, he thought that since we were having kind of a family conversation here, lest – called on – imagine, he had a band, when he went into – going into Kyiv, he had a band that was ready to lead the charge of the troops because he thought everybody was going to join in celebration. How sick is that? ‘We want dictatorship, not democracy, let's have a band to celebrate.' And so he was quite surprised. And that was a victory for a democracy and Ukrainian people that they pushed him away from Kyiv, but now the fight is elsewhere.

So anyway, the purpose of our trip was to thank the people of Ukraine for their strength and courage – for their courage to fight against totalitarianism – well, dictatorship. And for democracy. And again, their fight is a fight for the whole NATO, the United – well we are part of NATO.

So what are the four categories that we discussed as to how we could ‘tangibilitize' – is that a word – our admiration. That would be sanctions – strengthen the sanctions, see what was working better than others. And the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Gregory Meeks from New York, spoke with great authority on that. That very week in Congress, with the support of our colleagues here, we passed two bills already. The Lend-Lease Act, which I signed when I got off the plane two nights ago and is sent over to the President. He will be signing it right away. So that's that.

And then we passed something called – what I call ‘Seize and Freeze' – seize the Russian assets, freeze them and when they thaw, use the money to rebuild Afghanistan – excuse me, Ukraine. I have an Afghanistan ring. Ukraine, because the Russians destroyed – their money should pay for rebuilding – for the rebuilding of it.

So we have the sanctions. The next category, I will divide into three categories: weapons, weapons and weapons. That was – is really essential to strengthening their hand, increasing their leverage and preparing their people for a big – the big fight. We have been generous, we have done many things, and I salute again, President Biden, for his unifying leadership with NATO and within our own country.

This legislation is being written right now as we speak, in a very bipartisan way. I'll come back to that in a second. The next thing is humanitarian assistance. Half the population of Ukraine is either displaced, refugee or under fire. Under fire. They need food, they need water, they need so many things. And we have been generous, and so have the NATO countries. And after that we went to Poland, and I saw that everywhere.

Now on – under humanitarian – and this may be more than you thought you were getting.

[Laughter]

One very important subject: food, food. People are starving. Food. Now, Ukraine has been the breadbasket to the world. Their product this year, their crop is overwhelming. They have that food, but they have to get it to the places that they need. And they have to sell it to the world. And they have to – for example, Africa or places like that, will have starvation because they're not having the food from Ukraine.

So it's a humanitarian issue, it's a security issue, and it's an economic issue, because the people of Ukraine need to have the money – the government had the resources to pay the teachers, the function of the government. So food issue, led by Jim McGovern, who is the Chair of the Rules Committee, but ‘Mr. Food Security' in the Congress.

And then we talked about – we talked about weapons and – sanctions, weapons – as weapons. We had the Chair of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, there. We talked about intelligence and weapons and the rest. And Jason Crow, the other Member who was with us, he's a Member of the Intelligence Committee, the Armed Services Committee. And I say he is a veteran and he served in the 82nd Airborne, which is the division – the 82nd Airborne that are there right on the border that we visited with him. Imagine: to have a Member of Congress, who served in the 82nd, to speak their language and the rest. So he – his knowledge of weaponry was just so impressive to hear.

But in every case, whether we are talking weapons, we are talking humanitarian, we are talking sanctions, we're talking economic, the President of Ukraine was fully engaged, strong, knowledgeable, values based, caring for his people. Just so remarkable. And really not having much governmental experience before becoming President of [Ukraine] – excuse me, a hero to the world.

And he went out there, and he greeted us on the street. It was – we were, I was surprised because I was going right into the building and they said: ‘No, he's greeting you outside.' And I felt as if I were visiting Washington crossing the Delaware, because he was so brave, and this was so timely and so critical. And so when you say that you have a difference of opinion coming back? Well this is what we suspected, this is why we went, and this was the confirmation that we received. The courage is boundless, bravery – and the courage just to fight them, but the bravery was among the troops – the Ukrainian people, so courageous – but their troops so brave to go into the fight.

The success that they are having has made us all very proud that America was playing such a leading role in all of it. We saw that our confidence was well placed and we were just overwhelmed with the presentation of the President of Ukraine.

So, again, the President – our President has put forward the $33 billion dollars, we'll have at least that. We're writing the bill now, and hopefully we'll be able to vote on it next week. Legislation takes a little time. But time is lives saved if we can get the resources there.

Q. Madam Speaker, can the country afford another supplemental spending bill, $33 billion dollars?

Speaker Pelosi. Can the country could afford to protect our democracy?

Q. At a time when inflation is raging out of control?

Speaker Pelosi. No, I'm so pleased that you made that challenge there, because the fact is, democracy is at stake. Our national security is affected by this. And again, the leadership role that we play in the world is one that is essential to the essence of who we are, but important to the rest of the world. The question you asked, ‘Can we afford it?' We can't afford not to do it. We can't afford not to do it.

[Applause]

And the American people support that in large numbers – two to three to one – support that we should be helping them. And by the same numbers, that we should not go in. So they're fighting a fight for all of us.

In terms of inflation, well, the Putin tax at the pump has contributed – I'm not saying the whole increase in the price at the pump is Putin, but a large part of it is. When you have narrower supply, you have higher prices. That's just the way it is. But the President has released – in order to increase the supply – released oil from the SPR. And he has – we have, under the leadership of Maria Cantwell – she has been a real champion in writing the bill and in the lead on some of the manipulation that the oil companies are engaged in that keeps the price of oil up.

So we have to deal with some of these issues. They will be ongoing, not just for the moment. But at the moment, they are urgent. And some of our inflation stems from the fact that President Biden, under his leadership, and the Congress of the United States, and the private sector, cut unemployment in half. Eight million jobs, a record number of jobs – more than in generations. Just built it in one year.

So when inflation – when unemployment goes down – cut in half – inflation goes up. That doesn't mean we welcome it; it means that we have to deal with it. And when you're talking about oil prices, you're trying to get food prices and the impact on agriculture. The cost of fertilizer and fuel and all the rest raises the price at the kitchen table.

The kitchen table is what we are all about. What are the concerns of America's working families? Whether it's the cost of prescription drugs, insulin and other prescription drugs, whether it's the cost of their food on the table, the price at the pump and all of that. That's the fight that we make, but we don't say we can't afford, on our oath, to protect and defend the American people, because we have other priorities, like tax cuts at the high end or something. But anyway, not to get into that.

So anyway, no, we will have very strong bipartisan support for this legislation, and we're very proud of that. And the Democrats and the Republicans are working together to write the bill right now.

***

Speaker Pelosi. And we stopped the purchase of Russian oil, which, again, lowers the supply, raises – raises the price.

But it is – let me just share this one thing with you that, as I said, I have this ring from the women of Afghanistan. What – the plight of women in all of these situations is a barometer of the cruelty and the cowardice of somebody like a Putin who goes in and has his troops raping little girls, eleven years old, again and again and again, in front of their parents and grandparents. Raping their moms in front of the children. And then taking the children off to Russia, away from their – where they have lived. Just kidnapping the children. This is – what is happening to women and girls and – and civilians in Russia is such an act of cowardice on the part of, as I mentioned earlier, on the part of Putin.

If you want to fight a fight, fight a fight. But don't go after the civilians and think that you're some kind of a promoter of equality. He thought – he brought in a band to celebrate the takeover of Ukraine, thinking that people would cheer them on.

Instead, they're fighting for freedom, and we have a responsibility to join in that fight for freedom. And overwhelmingly, the American people have been so very positive about it and in a bipartisan way in Congress.

Q. Madam Speaker, I appreciate your insight on Ukraine. Thank you for that. Would you mind talking about – can you –

Woman. Can you speak up?

Speaker Pelosi. I can't hear you.

Q. I'm so sorry. Madam Speaker, would you please weigh in on Roe v. Wade?

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. I know that you gave a statement yesterday. I was hoping you could talk about two points. One, respects for women, and two, ramifications in the event that this is overturned.

Speaker Pelosi. Yes. Thank you for asking. When I came back the night before last – we landed night before last in Washington, D.C. and I came here the next morning. But we landed there to the horror of the Supreme Court draft of a decision that was an assault on women – lack of respect for women and their judgment.

But it did violence not only to women, but to the Constitution of the United States. In case you haven't read the draft, it's a situation where they mock the former Chief Justice, when Roe v. Wade was decided – nearly 50 years ago, they mock it. They say privacy, they undermine it as a – as a value in the Constitution. Precedent? Forget about it. Even though this bill – this decision – nearly 50 years ago, has been very reaffirmed in one form or another fourteen times by precedent in the Court, which they all said they supported.

So what I'm saying to people is: keep your eye on this, the substance of it. The press, excuse me, likes to say: ‘Well, there are two things here – how the document got released, and the decision.' The document getting released – okay, let's talk about that. What is important is the substance of it and what it means in the lives –

Now, I had five children in six years and one week. I'm Catholic, went to church in Poland and all that. So I respect the views of other people, for themselves. I don't think they have any business telling women how they should deal with their own reproductive freedom.

[Applause]

And we already in the House – Congressman Kilmer and Congresswoman Strickland were part of our voting to codify Roe v. Wade. We've done that months ago. We did it when the Texans did their thing about – no, no – say freedom of choice. And at the same time, licensing vigilantes to go after people who might exercise their own decision making.

So with that – and then the Court practically giving it an imprimatur of the Supreme Court. So we passed the bill months ago. And now we have to pass it in the Senate. And in order to pass it in the Senate, we have to win the election in November, so that we have a couple more Senators who will be willing to set aside the 60 vote requirement – so that 51 votes can do it for us, unless we can get some Republicans to support it. The two Republican Senators who have spoken out, Senator Murkowski and Senator Collins, voted against this bill when it went over to the Senate. They may have their own bill – we will be able to see. You're welcome, we want it all to be bipartisan. But this is an assault on privacy.

Who knows what's next? Who knows what's next. Marriage equality. There's so many things that are rooted in privacy in the Constitution that they could go after now. It's really appalling. And so let's not – you know, people say, ‘Well, we should march on the Court, we should' – maybe.

But right now, we just have to keep our eye on the ball. This is what they're doing. This is what it means to you. And overwhelmingly, the American people – at least two to one – have said they want Roe v. Wade to be retained, and they oppose overturning it. So I thank you for the question. As a mother of five, in six years and one week, I had – I was like, what makes you think that you – it's any of your business, you nine people – or the five of you, or however many of you there is over there. Including the Congress of the United States.

So let's do what is right, what is in our Constitution – what is in our precedent honors privacy, which respects women – and just keep an eye on the ball on the substance of it, because I'm going to tell you something. This is going to hurt low-income and minority women so fiercely. And that's part of their agenda. They do that every day anyway.

But – forgive me. I'm going into another subject here.

I wish we could have all the bipartisanship in the world on this subject. Yes, ma'am, thank you.

Woman. We have one last question? We have one last question?

Q. Does this fundamentally change the dynamic in 2022?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I think women will remember in November.

[Applause]

But, I never – we're having a bipartisan moment. Just a matter of civics. I never had any intention of the Democrats not retaining the Majority in November.

[Applause]

And we – I just left an event for Kim Schrier. Her election is very important to the Congress. Not as a number, not about quantity, but about the quality of her leadership in the Congress, the quality of the leadership of their Washington State delegation – House and Senate.

And no, I had never. So when people say: ‘Oh, history says.' Oh forget about history. We're talking about the future. We're talking about the future. So we will mobilize on the ground, getting out our vote, inspired by our – what we're doing for the American people at their kitchen table needs, as well as having the resources necessary to do that. The most important part though, is the quality of the candidate – of the – of the Members of Congress and of the candidates. And we're very proud of our Members and also those who will add to it.

So, yeah – but in terms of a difference that this might make. I think it will make a difference. I wish it weren't – I wish it weren't partisan. This shouldn't be a political issue. Mexico, Ireland, Italy all opened the doors to women to have freedom of choice, and they're all Catholic countries. Why this should be a political issue is most unfortunate.

But in any event, getting back to where we are today, in a bipartisan way, to promote commerce, to clean up the air, to improve the quality of life, to respect the cultural heritage of the role, to do so in a way that creates good-paying jobs as we protect the environment, as we protect our planet For The Children.

Thank you.