Pelosi, Clyburn, Barbara Lee, Marc Morial Remarks Before Black Leadership Forum Meeting
Washington, D.C.-- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and Marc Morial, Chairman of the Black Leadership Forum, held a brief press availability at the top of the Speaker's meeting with the Black Leadership Forum in the Capitol this afternoon. Below are their remarks:
Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon, thank you all for coming. I'm pleased to welcome the members of the Black Leadership Forum to the Speaker's office. We're heading into a period of intense legislative activity as it relates to education, health care, and energy. And we're here to hear the views of the Black Leadership Forum as this legislation moves forward.
It is an honor for me to welcome so many distinguished guests, and I'm going to yield to Marc Morial, former mayor of New Orleans and the head of the National Urban League.
Marc Morial. Thank you Speaker Pelosi. First of all, we want to thank you for seeing us today, for giving us an opportunity to have great dialogue and we especially want to thank you for the leadership of James Clyburn and Barbara Lee and with whom we've all been very engaged. We want to give them a big hand. And we want to also give you a big hand because we like you because you're tough. [Laughter.]
Today, around the table are representatives of the Black Leadership Forum. We represent collectively about 50 organizations who focus on important issues in this nation. Today, we want to talk to you about jobs and the economy. We want to talk to you about education and children. We want to talk to you about health care and we want to talk to you about the recovery and the stimulus. And specifically, we want to offer both perspectives as well as a willingness and an eagerness to work closely with you and the leadership here in the House of achieving important issues and important milestones for the nation.
The other thing I would say is our communities are hurting. The unemployment rate that the Department of Labor will report tomorrow will be at 9 percent or higher. In communities of color, that number is probably close to 15 or 16 percent. It's affecting our families, it's affecting our children, it's affecting our old and our young. And we know that this is a time of great challenge and we simply want to pledge to work with you -- offer our input and support to you and your leadership team in your efforts.
So, thank you so very much for having us today.
Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Marc Morial. And I now want to yield to a gentleman who has already been referred to -- the distinguished Democratic Whip of the House of Representatives, a champion for the creation of jobs and the expansion of educational opportunity and ending disparities in health care, Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina.
Majority Whip Clyburn. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Let me thank all of the members of the Black Leadership Forum for being here today, and my colleagues.
I just want to say a couple of things - we are going to be moving, starting this week really, into the next -- trying to secure for our great nation an energy policy that will in fact be of benefit to all of our citizens. We are going to try to do the same thing for health care.
But one of the things that we want to make sure that we keep in mind and that is no matter what our policy is, our country has some regional differences that must be honored, and that's why your being here is so important. The country may have a 9-percent unemployment rate, but I represent a couple of counties where the unemployment rate is 24 percent in Allendale and 22 percent in Marion, I represent historic black colleges and universities where they're seeing a dramatic drop in their financial support and what that is going to mean to families.
We look along throughout these counties and we see what kind of impact all of this is having on people's health, and so we must come up with a policy, a new health care plan, that will in fact be of benefit to all of these people. So the best way for us to do that is to get all of the minds at work and see can we find consensus, so that when we do in fact impose this policy on the American people it will have your support and be of great benefit. And with that, Madam Speaker, if I may.
Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much to our distinguished Whip. He's the man that has to deliver the votes, so he wants to make sure that every point of view has been heard and the best possible decisions are made so we can promote that with the Members.
And a very important member of the Congress of United States House of Representatives, the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, a member of the Appropriations Committee, a Californian, some call her the conscience of the Congress, we're delighted she's such a leader on jobs, environmental justice, social justice, economic justice -- Congresswoman, Chairwoman, Barbara Lee.
Congresswoman Lee. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
And first let me just thank you for your leadership, and also on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus thank you for ensuring that each and every legislative effort or policy that we're debating includes members of the Congressional Black Caucus, our views. Whether it's health care, whether it's energy, we have a clear position on these issues and the Speaker has been so instrumental in making sure that those issues were front and center in our debate.
Also to our Whip Mr. Clyburn, I just have to thank him for all of the help as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and also as our Whip for making sure that again our agenda, which is our course your agenda, it's an agenda for the country, receives the type of support it receives.
And for the members of the Black Leadership Forum, I just have to thank you so much for your work on the economic recovery package. Marc, you were so instrumental with our Speaker. And Mr. Clyburn, Congressman Bobby Scott, all of you -- in helping to ensure that no community was left behind in that recovery package and so I have to thank you for the hard work and the tenacity and perseverance that you waged to make sure that this package was as good as it was, and it was an excellent package. So thank you again, thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity.
Speaker Pelosi. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chairwoman Lee acknowledged that we are also joined by Congressman Bobby Scott, a great civil rights leader in the Congress. I want to acknowledge Reverend Jesse Jackson, who's here with us as well. It's important work to do because this legislation on health care has to be about, again, removing disparities and making sure that it is relevant to the lives of every American and addressing the concerns of the Congressional Black Caucus and the people that we all represent. And then, the environmental justice as we go forward with the energy bill.
These issues are connected -- they are health issues, when we talk about environmental justice. So it's about jobs, it's about health care, it's about education, it's about your agenda, it's about its relevance to the day to day lives of the American people. And, as Mr. Morial said, our people are hurting.
We really must go forward in a way that lifts them up and this meeting will be in furtherance of reaching that goal. So I thank all the members of the Black Leadership Forum for being with us today, and thank the press for coming by to say hello.
Thank you.