Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at Roundtable Discussion on Energy Provisions in Inflation Reduction Act

Portland, Oregon – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici for a roundtable discussion on the Inflation Reduction Act's historic investments in clean energy. Below are the Speaker's opening remarks, followed by Q&A:

Speaker Pelosi. It's my honor to be here with each and every one of you – to listen, to learn, to see in your experience how this can really work. The outreach that you do – thank you, Tracy, and to Energy Trust, for the connection that you have to individuals and families, to business, community and the rest.

I want to thank all of you for sending Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer to the Congress. They are two leaders – over the decades for Earl Blumenauer – in terms of the climate crisis and the work that he has done over time, bringing your thinking to the table in Washington, D.C. And Suzanne Bonamici, who is on the Committee now – Earl was on the first version when I was Speaker first time, and now Suzanne's on this version — of the Select Committee on Climate Crisis. And they listened.

They wrote a report that listened to people, families, to people of faith and scientists, to labor and corporate America, to labor and environmentalists, environmentalists and corporate America. Farmers, business community in terms of how business would invest in all of this. And so when Suzanne's report, the Committee – the report of her Committee was put forth, very much of it is what is in this legislation. Very much of it is what Earl Blumenauer started over time and continued to work on. So I thank them. And I thank you, because they bring your thinking to all of this. And that's why we're here. We jumped with joy when this bill was passed, because we've been working a long time and trying to get this. What did you say, 380? $385 billion.

That's where the big dollars – nobody's ever seen anything of that size, not only in our country but in any country. And the technologies that emerge from this will help other countries as well.

So this is important. The Inflation Reduction Act is about more than the planet. That's a lot. But it's also about reducing the cost of prescription drugs, reducing the cost of health care – and we view saving the planet as a health care issue. The air our children breathe, the water they drink, the planet they will live on.

So without further ado, I thank you for sending Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer to the Congress. I thank you for having us here today, Tracy, and I thank you for what you've been telling us about the outreach that you will do to make sure that communities know how families, businesses and the rest can benefit from it all.

Now, we will hear from our special guests today.

***

Q. Madam Speaker, a question for you as far as elections upcoming. Oregon's got a new Congressional District – they will have a new Representative from another District. A majority of the people here are unaffiliated voters. What would you say to those voters if they vote Democrat, in this upcoming election in terms of what they will get if the Democrats keep control of the House?

Speaker Pelosi. I'm very happy to answer your questions about that. We just came from a celebration of those three candidates. But why don't we just stick for a moment with what we're – the subject at hand, which is the – this bill and then I promise you –

Q. Can you answer that just quickly, really quick?

Speaker Pelosi. We'll come back to it quickly. Anybody on this subject?

Q. With the Inflation Reduction Act passing, do you see it maybe making it a little easier for people to buy, you know, electric vehicles that are outrageous right now? Talk about – they're on the market, brand new, over six figures. Do you see this Inflation Reduction Act maybe helping people who are hoping to change their carbon footprints?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the consumer tax credits to buy used or new clean vehicles provides $4,000 in consumer tax credits for low- and middle-income individuals to buy used clean energy vehicles and up to $7,000 tax credit to buy a new – a new car. Did you want to say anything?

Congressman Blumenauer. It also helps invest in the charging infrastructure. So helping moderate- and middle-income people be able to make these purchases — and then making sure that we have the electric infrastructure established. We're making some progress, but we have a lot more to go. This is a really exciting boost to build that momentum. And we're going to find as it goes forward, it's going to be easier.

Congresswoman Bonamici. I just want to add, too, that there's a lot of incentives for domestic manufacturing. And a lot of this – and the costs are really being driven down for electric vehicles – is being led by the, by the industry. And you'll start seeing prices come way down once the infrastructure there and once the incentives in the U.S. manufacturing has ramped up.

Speaker Pelosi. And this relates to the CHIPS and Science Act, too, because manufacturing was held up in cars because of the lack of chips and the supply chain issues, because of COVID and the rest. It takes at least 1,000 chips to make car; at least 2,000 chips to make an electric car. And in some more sophisticated models, if you don't have the chips, you don't have the manufacturing. The costs are not going to come down. And now we do, so it relates – the car issue is – and it relates to the infrastructure bill, because that has the distribution of charging stations in the bill. We want more. But nonetheless, a running start on that.

Q. These bills were a big lift for the current Congress. Representative Bonamici, you referred to there's much more work to be done. If Democrats keep control of both houses, what do you think could be the next steps in climate change?

Congresswoman Bonamici. Well, I'll tell you what should be the next step regardless, but we're planning on staying in the Majority. But the needs don't change regardless of who's in the Majority.

Well, first, I want to mention the workforce piece that is between the charging stations and the infrastructure bill. All of these pieces of legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act, there's a lot of jobs. So we need to have the workforce programs to skill people up to do those jobs. We know we need to do more in terms of reducing carbon emissions, and the policies that we can put in place to do that make a difference. We do have some really important methane monitoring provisions in here. But we know that that'll be important as well.

And as you know, Peter, I will continue to advocate for the health of our ocean. The ocean covers most of the planet. If the ocean's not healthy, the planet's not healthy. So making sure we're addressing ocean acidification and using some of those natural solutions like blue carbon, which will help us – so those will be priorities regardless of who's in the Majority, but we're planning on fixing it.

Speaker Pelosi. We fully intend to win. We fully intend to win, and when we do – the other piece of our Build Back Better legislation is the family piece, child care. It's a Child Tax Credit. It's universal pre-K. It's home health care for a sibling or a single parent or even a child who might have prolonged illness. So we think that more women have to be free to be in the workplace to do all of these things. Because we believe that when women succeed, America succeeds.

So that – that is a very important part for us to do that, that family expansion, also expansion of Medicaid to – all of it, to enable moms and dads to be able to go to work without worrying about that.

Congressman Blumenauer. We see this as breaking, sort of, the logjam. I think there's going to be more incentive for people to go along with the things that we're talking about. I think it's going to be easier in the future. And in the meantime, there's more than enough to keep everybody busy for the next two or three years to build on what we've got. So I think it's a case of building the momentum, breaking that logjam and then building on this and we passed it through the House repeatedly. This gives us a chance, I think, to ultimately get Congressional action.

Speaker Pelosi. And two things. In Energy – Education workforce – Labor – Education, Labor Committee, Suzanne Bonamici has been relentless on these issues. And in the Ways and Means Committee, Earl Blumenauer has been relentless on the Child Tax Credit, his Committee has taken the lead on that, although all of us are enthusiastic about it.

Congresswoman Bonamici. I know you just asked about climate but, I mean, they are all related. People that can't find access to child care, they're not going to go to work in this lab, and they may be discovering the next best battery storage. So they're all related.

Q. Thanks for coming to Portland. We appreciate having you here. We've talked with economists who note that a lot of the positives from this act likely won't be realized for many years in the future. Right now, 40 percent of Americans are struggling to pay for usual household goods. It's called the Inflation Reduction Act – what is being done to help struggling Americans right now?

Speaker Pelosi. The most important thing in this bill – and that kitchen table of American families struggling – is the cost of prescription drugs. When we did the Affordable Care Act, we were able to reduce the rate of growth of health care [costs] in our country – a very important kitchen table issue – except for one thing: the cost of prescription drugs. We've been trying for – ever since you've come to the Congress.

Congressman Blumenauer. Yes.

Speaker Pelosi. We've been trying to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. And this was historic, it was transformative, and it will make a difference. And you see ads on TV now – I just saw one about AARP, and people were saying, ‘Thank AARP for getting the cap on prescription drugs.' Well, it's our bill.

[Laughter]

But thank AARP because the advocacy was important. But it – but that – the kitchen table is the most important. No boardroom table, no conference table. The kitchen table is the decisive table in our country. And people want to know – I've seen grown men cry on the campaign trail because they cannot meet the prescription drug costs. This bill has a cap on what seniors pay. It has a cap on what pharmaceutical companies can charge. And it has negotiations to lower the cost of prescription drugs. It is very, very, very important.

Congressman Blumenauer. We also, we also extended the subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. I mean, there are rural hospitals across the country that are going bankrupt. You're losing the infrastructure of health care, which has a ripple effect. And we extended these subsidies that are going to make a difference for people's health care in some of the most difficult to serve areas. It hasn't gotten the attention that it deserves, and it's kind of ironic, because much of this is flowing to red states that wouldn't extend the Affordable Care Act. But we didn't leave them out, and it's going to make a difference for those families.

Speaker Pelosi. And those attachments existed in the Rescue package and now add three years. Right here and now, immediately, not something down the road.

Congresswoman Bonamici. I just want to also refer you to Sammie's story about her electric – electricity bill. She's been famous because of this.

Speaker Pelosi. Okay, so now you want to talk politics.

[Laughter]

But let me remove all doubt in anyone's mind should you mistakenly have such a doubt: Democrats intend to hold the House. In fact, we intend to grow our numbers. And Oregon is very important in that regard. We're very, very proud of the fact that Oregon, with its six Members, will now have five Democrats: four women and one Earl Blumenauer.

[Laughter]

Congressman Blumenauer. That's more than enough.

[Laughter]

Speaker Pelosi. We just heard beautifully from Val Hoyle – from Andrea Salinas. Val – Andrea talked about the American Dream and how her family was involved and Val talking about fighting for working families, and woman's right to choose and all of that. And, and Jamie – Jamie just, well, she was very proud to be the first – will be the first LGBTQ person representing Oregon in the Congress. But her message was about American working families.

So we're very proud of those candidates. And let me tell you why — extra proud. You know, there were – some pundits in Washington were saying, ‘Well, I don't know – in the off-year of the President, the President's party doesn't win.' We never accepted that. From – for a year and a half, almost two years now, we have been working, building our grassroots mobilization, building our messaging operation, politics, People Over Politics, greater than – in politics and also amassing the resources needed to win.

And we could because we believed. We said that – so urgent for the country, we must win. These candidates, they got out there, when the general – they say conventional wisdom, it isn't conventional and isn't wisdom – but whatever that is, or saying, that we wouldn't win. And they got out there, because they knew their ‘why.' They knew why they were running. They knew they wanted to help America's working families, which really in their remarks today was the recurring theme about justice in our country.

So we're very proud of them. They are a priority to us. All three of them are what we call Red to Blue, meaning they will be red to blue, but we don't put everybody in that category, unless we believe that that's the process.

Q. Question: unaffiliated voters make up the most number of voters here in the state. Why should somebody vote Democrat in this election?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the – and that's becoming more and more the case, and many young people don't even identify with party at all. Or decline or anything. But they – we just want people to see the contrast. And the Republicans believe – they want to have a ban on abortion in the country. Democrats support freedom for America's women. The Republicans think that the climate crisis is a hoax. Democrats believe we owe it to our children to pass on a safe, healthy planet to them. The Republicans voted 100 percent against reducing the cost of prescription drugs. Democrats voted 100 percent [for it]. In each District, people will have – Republicans want to reduce the strength of Social Security and Medicare. Can you believe that? That they would go to that place in this day and age? But they do. And the Chairman of their Senate Finance Committee has that as part of their agenda: weakened Social Security, weakened Medicare.

So we're just saying, go to your kitchen table. What is it? Not to mention the fact that Democracy is on the ballot. But freedom to make your own personal decisions is a Democracy issue. So we think that we just say to them: hold whoever you're voting for accountable. If you can bring some Republicans around to this thinking, bravo. But if you care about these issues, then you must make that judgment.

Congressman Blumenauer. And the unaffiliated voters identify with us on these issues. Unaffiliated voters in Oregon care about the climate. They care about reproductive freedom. And look what happened in Alaska. Look what happened in New York. Look what happened in Kansas. So this is an undercurrent that plays very well for us with the people who may be not aligned with one party or the other. But their values align with what we're working for.

Congresswoman Bonamici. And I just want to add this: this is no longer Tom McCall and Mark Hatfield's Republican Party.

Speaker Pelosi. It is – it is, well, most important election of our time, but you've never heard anybody say that before.

[Laughter]

But it is – it's pretty challenging because, as I say, they're trying to nullify elections, reduce participation in every way. And that's part of our fight in this election. But people vote about their kitchen table and what it means to them. And so we would hope that in this discussion, it could be unifying for our country, not dividing, but unifying, by bringing people together who care about freedom, who care about the planet, who care about the kitchen table concerns of the American people.

So Oregon is the road to success. Right through Oregon. So here we are.

[Applause]