Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at Las Vegas Press Availability Following Inflation Reduction Act Roundtable

Las Vegas – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Congressman Steven Horsford for a roundtable on the Inflation Reduction Act and breaking down barriers for working women. Below are the Speaker's remarks at a press availability following the event:

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Congressman Horsford, for the invitation to be here – and to be here for a very special reason. Thank you for your leadership in Congress for making so much of the important legislation you mentioned possible and, again, hearing about what more we need to do and at what pace.

We come on the heels of the President just recently signing the Inflation Reduction Act, very important legislation. The Congressman mentioned climate investment, and that's a health issue – clean air, clean water for our children. It's a jobs issue that America be preeminent in the world in green energy, clean energy and green technologies. It's a security issue so that we do not have – with mounting disasters and rising sea levels and encroachment of deserts and the rest – we don't have security issues that rise from the competition for habitat and for resources. And it's a moral issue that we pass on this planet to future generations – or the current generation, young people – in a responsible way.

So that's about the bill, but the timing of it could not be more perfect, because on this Friday, we will observe the anniversary of women – the amendment to give women the right to vote – not give women, women fought for it – but women having the right to vote. That'll be on Friday. So in this Women's Equality Week, how appropriate that we are here talking about how women can be more involved in – whether it's the Rescue package, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the Inflation Reduction Act or the CHIPS and Science Act – how women can be more involved. And that's about how women weigh family and workplace. It's about early childhood education, it's – and here we are – this beautiful site.

What a lovely place. It is so wonderful to just imagine the children enjoying all of this. Early childhood education, universal pre-K, child care, Child Tax Credit, family medical leave – there are some of the things we talked about here today. We talked about housing and hunger. And we talked about health care For The Children.

So again, I thank the Congressman for the invitation to be here. More importantly, I thank him for his tremendous leadership in the Congress, as a Member of the very powerful Ways and Means Committee that made so many things happen in the Inflation Reduction Act, in the Rescue package. And by the way, Inflation Reduction Act – every Democrat in the House and Senate voted for it. Not one Republican voted for lowering the cost of prescription drugs, lowering the cost of health care, saving the planet For The Children. For the future. Same thing with the Rescue package, so many things that it did. We did have some bipartisanship on the CHIPS Act, and we're proud of that. The CHIPS and Science Act.

But again, our President wants this to be about everyone participating in the fullest way. Women, people of color, people who have not had the opportunity to participate in growing our economy and participating in this prosperity. So that's why we're here. We learned, we listened, we learned, and we'll be better informed to go back for – our approach was just People Over Politics: lower costs, bigger paychecks, safer communities. Thank you.

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Q. Speaker Pelosi, why Las Vegas? And what stuck out to you from the stories you've heard today?

Speaker Pelosi. Las Vegas? Well, I love coming here, first of all. I've come here quite a bit. I've been here quite a bit. And I can't come here without thinking of my dear, close pal Harry Reid. So I mentioned him at the beginning. Harry and Steven and other Democratic Members of Congress have always been singing the praises of this area. And one thing I do know about it: that you felt a terrible impact of COVID. And now we have to come out of that. And that it's an area that is very pro-choice. And we have to come out of the Supreme Court decision in that regard.

But I was happy to receive the invitation to come, because I always learn so much here about how the private sector and non-profit sector and the public sector work together. And similarly, today, I learned from hearing from the people who are meeting the needs of the people as to how we have so much more to be done.

Q. You heard Chair – County Chair Kirkpatrick talking about the housing crisis here. It's a really hard question, no easy answer, but for people who are listening, who are out there going, ‘Yeah, that's me. I'm one of them suffering from that.' What can be, on the federal level, done to help or plans in the future if the election goes as you hope?

Congressman Horsford. Well first, the escalating cost of housing is unacceptable. Rents have increased nearly thirty percent here in Southern Nevada since the last year – since 2019. And we are working to help to bring down those costs. I have a bill called the HOME Act – which is the Housing Oversight and Mitigating Exploitation – that I'm working with Secretary Marcia Fudge from HUD.

One in three homes in parts of my District are now owned by these out-of-state corporate speculators, who are buying up properties in cash, pushing out local homebuyers. These are veterans, these are seniors, these are first-time homebuyers, young people who are trying to make their first investment. And we're being priced out of the American Dream. My legislation would empower HUD to: first, collect data on this; second, to monitor the targeting, particularly of communities of color and communities that are led by women households, to ensure that the market manipulation that may be occurring, can be addressed; and finally, any fines or fees that are collected from that market manipulation would be invested in the housing – National Housing Trust Fund to develop more affordable housing.

Now, this is what we're doing to address the issue here in Las Vegas, which is not only unique to Las Vegas. It's a problem happening in other communities as well. But this is on top of the investment from the American Rescue Plan, where more than $300 million of funding was provided to help people with rental assistance to avoid evictions. Just last week, I had a housing resource fair, where we connected constituents to those resources, and we will continue to do so. So if there's a constituent in need of help, call my office: (702) 963-9360. And we will connect you to the resources that we have helped to fund, so that we can keep you in your home.

Q. Student loan forgiveness was in the news media today. Is it something Congress would like to look at? Is it something we have the authority to look at? Or what do you think about President Biden possibly forgiving up to $10,000 of student loans?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, first, I just would like to address the housing issue, and then I'll come back to student loans. The housing issue is a universal problem throughout our country. Affordability is just beyond reach for many people. And in our Build Back Better, which we hope that we can get back on track in some of this, under leadership of Maxine Waters, but working with Congressman Horsford and our distinguished Secretary of Housing from – of HUD – former Member of Congress, whom we know, and she knows these issues.

There are certain things that we had in Build Back Better that would be helpful. And some of it is to increase housing stock. Some of it is to rehabilitate public housing. Some of it is to use the tax code for public-private partnerships for theLow-Income Housing Tax Credit that you've been a champion on in the Ways and Means Committee. To, again, have low-income housing, as well as affordable housing. Affordable housing is very important, but we have to have low-income housing too. And again, market rate. But in order to – so that we can afford the whole package, we have to have each level of it. We had funding in there for all – every aspect of it, whether it was from the appropriation side, whether it's from the tax side, or whether it was from the non-profit side, bringing things that – and one important part that meant a lot to Maxine is the Section 8 housing opportunities that are there.

So it is, it has – it can't go just aggravating. It's – it has to be addressed. It has to be addressed in a way that has an immediacy to it. We were very not pleased, because we didn't like having the problem – but it was important for us to stop the evictions during COVID, as the Congressman said, to stop the evictions. And we see this in our community in San Francisco, where the cost of housing is getting so high. And all you see are baby cribs and toys and everything out on the street – people being evicted. It's just obscene.

And so it must be addressed. Because it's not just a housing issue. It's a mental health issue. It's a community issue. And again, the bill that you have is a model for, not only here, but for the rest of the country. I thank you for that.

Well, we're excited about the President, because we didn't know what – what authority the President had to do this. And now clearly, it seems he has the authority to do this: $10,000 for those with the debt, those making under $125,000 a year. So we're optimistic about what might happen tomorrow. We don't have any heads up on it, though. But it's really important, because this is an obstacle to entrepreneurship for young people coming out of school. It's an obstacle for buying a home or moving out of their parents' home or getting married. This is a stumbling block for many young people, and we want to reduce that. And now, it appears that the President will have that authority.

Congressman Horsford. Thank you all very much. We're going to go visit some children.

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, we're going to see the kids. We're going to see the VIPs: the children.