Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on House GOP's Reckless Recess, House Democrats’ National Security Delegation

Leader Pelosi's Opening Remarks

"You've been here the whole time working away, huh?  It's good to be with you.  We missed you very much.

"As you all know, our first responsibility as Members of Congress or any public official is to protect and defend – that's the oath that we take.  National security is our first responsibility, that includes national security, global security, neighborhood security, personal security, to protect the American people.  Under the leadership of Mr. Steve Israel, our Democratic Agenda as we go forward is about security – national security, economic security and the security of our democracy.  And all of those priorities are being neglected by the fact that Congress has not been in session for weeks and does not intend to be in session for weeks.

"We have some emergencies that had been there for months that were – that Congress left without addressing.  So, we are here to talk about Congress coming back to get the job done for the American people, to honor our responsibility, to protect them in the case of opioids, in the case of Zika, in the case of gun violence protection, the list goes on and on.

"I'm honored to be here with my colleagues – the distinguished Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Xavier Becerra, another Member of the Leadership, Congresswoman Donna Edwards will talk to us about opioids, another Leadership Member Rosa DeLauro will talk to us about Zika, two of the Members who were on the trip that we took to visit our troops in Afghanistan and to speak to European leaders about what's happening at the E.U. and our relationships and  NATO, Congressman Steve Israel, Member of the Intelligence Committee and Congressman Andre Carson will be expressing some views and addressing the challenges that we have.

"With that, I want to yield to our distinguished Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Mr. Becerra."

Leader Pelosi's Closing Remarks

Leader Pelosi.  Thank you very much, Mr. Carson.  In addition to these distinguished – Mr. Carson, Mr. Israel and Congresswoman DeLauro – on our trip we were joined by another Member of the Intelligence Committee, Congresswoman Terri Sewell, the Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel, a long-time Member of the Intelligence Committee, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and our former Ranking Member on Intelligence Dutch Ruppersberger.  This was a heavily national security delegation, everyone was either from the Intelligence [Committee], with Intelligence background, or in the case of Mr. Israel and Mr. Ruppersberger – some overlap there – the Defense Subcommittee of Appropriations and Congresswoman DeLauro, a senior Member of the Appropriations Committee.  So, everyone there was in a position to gain knowledge, to act upon it in the best possible way to protect the American people.

Now there are a couple of points that I want to make:  when Mr. Carson was talking about the President's decision about going from 9500 troops to 8400, whatever the number, 9800 to 8400 and also to expand the authorities, which he did earlier this year, it was received very positively by our troops in Afghanistan, by the leadership in Afghanistan.  We met with President Ashraf Ghani and met with Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah and also, when the President took that action it was before the Warsaw meeting and it had a very positive impact on our NATO allies and more so at that meeting and so they also have chimed in with more resources for our actions in Afghanistan.  So, our NATO relationship is not only important in Europe in the Transatlantic Partnership but in fighting ISIS and terrorism in Afghanistan.

I also want to make the point that Congresswoman DeLauro made when she talked about meeting with the Cardinal at the Vatican about the issues relating to migration, hunger, security, poverty and the rest.  And I quoted then and I will now – Pope Paul VI, I have this in many of my offices, he said, ‘If you want peace, work for justice.'  And that's exactly what we are trying to do – working together to address the underlying causes of poverty, the fury of despair that is fertile territory for the recruitment of those who feel that despair.

I was very proud of the delegation – they were so informed to begin with and again, we had some lively conversations which will serve us well here – and that's about information and intelligence and knowledge.  And that's what is so frustrating about what's happening back here.  Here, we have evidence-based challenges, whether it's what's happening as Mr. Becerra mentioned in Flint, whether it's what's happening with opioids, whether it's what's happening with Zika, whether it's what's happening with gun violence, to name a few, evidence-based challenges and the reason our Republican colleagues are not here is because they have not been in – governance is not what they're here to do.  They're anti-governance so ‘why should I do anything?' and they're not moved by evidence even though they establish commissions to say, ‘we want evidence-based this, that and the other thing.'  So, why?  So that they can avoid – ignore the evidence.

So my question to the Republican Leadership in the House is: what better thing do you have to do than to look after the needs of the American people – whether it's children who will be affected for a lifetime?  But there are answers and solutions if we move in more quickly.  What better thing do you have to do than to meet the needs of the children of Flint?  And I thank my colleague from Detroit who has been, well, both of them Congresswoman Lawrence, as well as Congressman Kildee for their leadership and persistence on this.  What better thing do you have to do than to put some resources to the policy that we are talking about for opioids?  It doesn't work unless you put the resources there.  We all agreed in large numbers.  Actually, I would not have supported the bill if I thought there was never going to be any money coming with it.  What better thing do you have to do that you go home for a month and a half after ignoring the President's request of months for funding for Zika?  Is it because it's not in your district?  It's in our country.  It's in this world that we live in.  What better thing do you have to do than giving us a vote on No Fly, No Buy and commonsense, sensible background checks legislation?  90 percent of the American people support No Fly, No Buy [and] 85% support the background checks.

So it isn't as if the public isn't watching and knowing of the inaction that is happening here.  We are only halfway through this break.  We can come back and act upon it.  What are they going to do?  They're going to do it in the Appropriations process?  Maybe.  And by the way, they already have thrown obstacles to the Zika funding.  Zika is a sexually – if you're infected by Zika, it can be sexually transmitted.  We have had this discussion before here.  And yet, they are saying, ‘Well, if we have funding for Zika, it cannot include contraception.'  What?  I wonder how many of their homes – I just wonder, I wonder this a lot – how many of the families of our Republican colleagues are not practicing birth control?  How come they don't have many more children?  How come they don't have five children in six years the way I did?  What is it with them that they don't understand a sexually transmitted disease – you use contraception?

You know, I grant them their position on many issues.  We have a different philosophy.  But come on.  Come back, do the job – do the job.  And any time I see any one of our Republican colleagues, I'm going to ask them: what was it that you accomplished during your break that was more important than the health and the well-being and the safety and the security of the American people?

I too am going to Florida shortly after this meeting, go to Orlando and have meetings related to what happened in Orlando two months ago, go to south Florida to talk about Zika.  Solutions are there.  The evidence and the science and the data lead us to a place where responsible governance for compromises and forgetting the job done are readily available.  But, the republicans are just saying ‘no.'  Any questions?

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Q:  Leader Pelosi, you were speaking about national security intelligence.  There's a report out this morning about a Russian cyber-attack affecting more than a hundred party officials and groups, and including possibly the Democratic Governors Association.  One, have you been briefed on this?  And two, is that your understanding and is it broad?

Leader Pelosi.  Yes.

Q:  It is as broad?

Leader Pelosi.  Well, I know it's broad in terms of affecting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  I don't know about the governors – I just know about what affects us and that it is the Russians.

Q:  How concerned are you about this act and this information possibly coming out during this election season?

Leader Pelosi.  Well, I don't have any concerns about any of the information coming out from the DCCC.  It's just wrong.  But I think that we want to learn more – I would've liked us to have been able to fully capture the hackers before it became public knowledge that they were hacking, but nonetheless, I think it's very clear.  I know for sure it is the Russians.  I've said that at the Convention two weeks ago and we are assessing the damage.  I don't know about the other Committees.  I just know deeply about the DCCC.

Q:  It also says that the Hillary Clinton campaign's aides could have been compromised as well.  Do you have any knowledge of that?

Leader Pelosi.  Well, let me just say this in terms of the presidential campaign.  This is an electronic Watergate.  This is an electronic Watergate.  This is a break-in.  I think that we have to recognize what is happening here.  The Russians broke in.  Who did they give the information to?  I don't know.  Who dumped it?  I don't know.  But I do know that this is a Watergate-like electronic break-in and anyone who would exploit for the purpose of embarrassment or something like that is an accomplice to that.  I want to talk about some other subjects.

Q:  You mentioned contraceptives, but isn't Planned Parenthood – the funding of Planned Parenthood that's holding the Zika funding from coming through?

Leader Pelosi.  No.  The point is: what's Planned Parenthood?  It's an organization addressing women's health.

Rosa, do you want to speak to this?  Because this is Rosa's Committee.

Congresswoman DeLauro.  I just would point out – why when we know the difficulty that we have around these issues, why add to the difficulty that we are experiencing in Puerto Rico?  And you know, I will quote Pope Francis on this issue, when he said to the Brazilians, ‘Use your conscience to determine whether or not to use contraception.'

As the Leader pointed out, it can be a sexually-transmitted virus.  So – but why add that kind of a writer to a piece of legislation that you know is going to hold it up and create the kind of decent that will keep it from going forward?  There's an obstructionism here that says, ‘Why don't we want to fund a crisis in Zika where we can help to save lives?'  It's mindless.

Leader Pelosi.  I don't think that that's the only reason.  The Republicans could have brought a bill forward that they have just said, ‘Whatever we bring forward is not going to have contraception in it,' but they haven't brought anything forward and we have offered so many compromises to them, even to the point of going with the Senate language of not all of the money just now because the money is urgently needed.  So, Planned Parenthood is not a reason, it's an excuse to do nothing.  So make sure that you that in perspective.  But it's a silly excuse.

Yes, sir.

Q:  On the trip and on national defense, how much discussion was there of Russia's actions in Ukraine and potential build-up of forces there?  And what do you think the U.S. should do?  Should they make some sort of attempt at trying to increase their foothold in Ukraine?  What should the U.S. and NATO do?

Leader Pelosi.  Well, the way that entered our conversation because we were talking about NATO and there were questions about what's happening in the public domain and the U.S. on the subject of NATO and what was the public support for – the sort of craziness that is going on.  And then, we talked about the E.U. and Brexit and what that meant, especially in Italy, because they are saying Italy is next to go.  But that was not the impression that we got in Italy.

It was a stronger E.U., a more fulsome E.U. rather than leaving.  So from the standpoint of the Ukraine, as with every trip that we have to any country or our visiting dignitaries here, we appreciate their holding to the sanctions.  This is the most important message that we deliver: thank you for supporting the sanctions on the on-going basis – and that's the subject that we have with all of the elected, the Leadership, the Speaker of the House, the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, the President of the country, Sergio Mattarella, and the Foreign Minister.  At every level, we talked about the sanctions.  That's the manifestation of that issue that we addressed there because that related to the country that we were visiting.

Yes, ma'am.

Q:  Yeah.  Have you been notified by the FBI that you personally, your accounts were targeted in the cyber attack by the Russians?

Leader Pelosi.  I don't – I just know that the DCCC has been.  I don't know if I have.  I don't know.

Q:  Madam Leader?

Leader Pelosi.  Yes.

Q:  Congressman Israel said that he practically needed a broom and mop to clean up after Donald Trump.  I wonder if you have any reaction to his comments last night that President Obama is the founder of ISIS and that Hillary Clinton was the cofounder of ISIS, and does the Administration ultimately bear any responsibility for the rise of ISIS?

Leader Pelosi.  Let me just talk about some comments.  I don't spend a whole lot of time on politics, as you know, here.  You are the ones who bring it up.  But the comment that was made by the Republican nominee about the Second Amendment – it was clear that he didn't understand that the words of a presidential candidate, a nominee, weigh a ton.  There are many other references he could have made about getting out to vote.  He could have said: "If you're anti-choice, if you're opposed to a women's right to choose, you better get out, you better take action, because Hillary Clinton is going to appoint these judges, and that would be relevant, because the Court does make decisions about choice.  If you're concerned about immigration, you better get out and vote because this Court might make decisions that are more thoughtful in terms of comprehensive immigration reform."

To choose the Second Amendment in the manner in which he did, perhaps unwittingly – but the double meaning that it had, wittingly or not, is very, very problematic.  Very problematic and scary.  We don't know whether he intended it or not, but even if he didn't, words weigh a ton.  So for him to turn around and say what he did about the President and the Secretary is so bizarre.  It's reminiscent of demagogues who want to be in the press no matter what they have to say.  They make their verbal poo-poo.  Any place to get attention.  And this is a tactic.  This is not an accident.  This is a tactic.  And here we are talking about it.

The fact is that the invasion of Iraq, the invasion in Iraq under misrepresentations to the American people, has done more to inflame the terrorists than any action you can name.  So if he wants to say after this therefore because of this, let's just go right back to the misrepresentation given to the American people that we should go into Iraq on a false pretense that everybody knows not to be true, and that we knew at the time not to be true.  I was the senior Democrat on Intelligence, I said at the time: "The intelligence does not support the threat."  A similar statement was made by Senator Bob Graham, the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the Senate, because they had the majority.  And yet they put out something that still has uncertainty among certain people.  And look, they took a poll of Republicans, and 72 percent of them aren't sure that the President is a citizen?  Come on.  Steve, he mentioned your name.

Congressman Israel.  I would just say one thing: that is typical Trump-ian stupidity, is what we have to call it.  I will say this: while we were in Afghanistan, we learned that ISIS has an offshoot that was operating within Afghanistan.  We, the Afghan national army and NATO partners have done a very effective job of pushing them back, containing them to a small area.  There's only one presidential candidate who is publicly saying that we ought to weaken our NATO allies and turn away from our NATO allies – the same allies who are fighting ISIS in Afghanistan and effectively pushing them back – and that is Donald Trump.  So, I don't mind his absurd statements.  What concerns me are his dangerous policies.

Leader Pelosi.  Mr. Carson, did you want to add anything?

Congressman Carson.  Yeah, thank you.  I just want to say that, no matter how brutish Mr. Trump presents himself, no matter how provocative his statements are, he's smart in that – there's a great piece on the cover of the current TIME that suggests a meltdown.  It appears as if he knows he will not be the next President of the United States, so he's trying to sabotage this thing, because he's not used to losing.  It's clear that Trump doesn't have people around him, or he hasn't had people around him, who can correct him.  When you're in political life you often have to answer either to the press, and most importantly, to your constituents, and he has not had those levers of accountability.  So it's clear, when he sees poll numbers declining, he's crying like a baby, and what you're seeing is not a meltdown, but someone who is trying to sabotage himself to clear the way for President Clinton.

Leader Pelosi.  Yes, ma'am.

Q:  Congresswoman DeLauro said the Administration will have to reprogram more funding to fight Zika, in the absence on Congressional action on the issue.  So have either of you gotten information from the Administration on how much other funding can be moved around and for how long?

Leader Pelosi.  It's not a question that it can be moved around.  I don't want anyone to draw any inference from the fact that they are spending money to fight [Zika].  This money is needed where it was for Ebola and the rest.  I don't want any inference to be drawn that the money is not necessary where it is in the fight against Ebola, and biomedical research, all of the other purposes of the Department of Health and Human Services.  I used to be on Rosa's committee, which she now heads – I call it the "lamb" Committee, because everything there is very valuable to the American people, every investment, and the competition for the dollar is very keen.  And that's why we have to go to the Defense Department, Defense budget, to get some resources for research, because that's where the money is.  But unfortunately, they will have to take more money form the NIH, and they have said that.  So the question is how we are going to restore that  money.  And by the way, it's not anywhere near enough of what they need to go forward.

Q:  How much?

Leader Pelosi.  Well, we are waiting to hear.  They are going to make a public announcement about it.  But mind you, even with that, as Congresswoman DeLauro said, they will be running out of money at the end of September in terms of CDC, BARDA – which is an initiative to work with the private sector for the development of vaccines – all of the rest of that, the money isn't there.  And why isn't it?  Why isn't it?  Because the Republicans want to sit on the beach for six weeks?  Because they want to avoid science, evidence, data?  And what is it that?  You know, this reporter asked about Planned Parenthood.  This isn't about Planned Parenthood.  It's about Planned Parenthood as an excuse.  But what is the reason that they have, five months after the President of the United States has pointed this out?  Is it that that it's just not in their neighborhood?  Is it the same thing as with Sandy, they want us to pay for Midwestern national disasters, but not when they're in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut,?  What is it that motivates them or doesn't motivate them?  Mr. Chairman, did you want to address any of this?

Chairman Becerra.  Actually, I did want to mention one point on Zika funding.  Let no one be surprised about this and no one should make a mistake that this is not a fluke that we haven't been able to fund Zika treatment and prevention.  Many of you are aware that the Social Security Administration has now announced that because of the Republican funding levels that have been proposed, that they are going to have to close down offices in some cases for some weeks where every American who is either trying to collect benefits, apply for benefits has a hearing for disability insurance – all that will have to be put on hold because the Social Security Administration doesn't have the resources to keep its doors open as a result of the funding levels that Republicans are proposing.

It is not coincidental, and it is not an accident that we find Republicans unwilling to fund Zika or the Social Security Administration or any of a number of other subjects and it's unfortunate that this is their mode of operation.  But make no mistake, they intend to starve certain parts of our government and they intend to rob money from other parts of our government in their efforts to try to shrink the size of government.  It's unfortunate that those who pay are women who become pregnant and contract Zika, and Americans who paid for over 40 years into Social Security, who now will not be able to apply for their benefits the way they expected because our Republican colleagues have decided that this is the way they want to run government.  So no one then should be surprised that had we have government shutdowns as well.  This is the way they intend to operate our government.  No small business on main street would operate this way.  There's no reason why the largest economy in the world should operate this way either.

Congresswoman Edwards.  Just very briefly, when we had a map of the potential spread of the Zika virus, not just from those who had traveled but from local contraction months ago, we had that map and the Republicans had that map.  And so what is happening today in Florida and in Texas and in other places around the country is not a surprise.  What is shameful is that Republicans left town knowing that this is precisely what would happen over this summer without the CDC getting the $1.9 billion that they requested for vaccine development for additional research and for treatment.

And so it's just been patently irresponsible for Republicans to have left town and not dealt with this crisis and the other public health crises that we talked about earlier.  And I would say just in closing to Speaker Ryan: get back to Washington and do your job, just do your job.  Doing nothing is not a form of governance.

Leader Pelosi.  There's a point on Zika I want to make, and that is that the Republicans seem to be a letter-writing binge – Republicans from Texas, Republicans from Alabama.  I don't know all the states writing to the Secretary saying, ‘Spend the money you have.'  She has been spending the money, she has been spending the money and she's written back to them very respectfully about how the money has been spent, not any of it is appropriated for this purpose but taken from other initiatives which must be restored.  So, I want to commend the Secretary because – Secretary Burwell  because she has handled this with great dignity and great respect for everyone's view saying, ‘How can we get the resources that we need?'

We cannot ignore the fact though that Zika exists.  The money is being spent.  Every possible option is being exhausted.  And now, we are going into the National Institute of Health, which is supposed to be a priority for us.

Congresswoman DeLauro.  On that issue, just very quickly from the outset, the President made a request in February for the – he asked for $1.9 billion over and over again.  In our Committee, the Republicans said that there wasn't enough data, there wasn't enough information about where money was being spent, which was not true.  There was unbelievable detail as to where the resources were going to be.  As a matter of fact, more detail than we had ever received on the cost of an Iraq war or an accountability for resources spent in Iraq.

And the Leader just mentioned, chapter-in-verse, every line delineating where money is going to be spent, the money that is now going to Texas – the money that is going to the States to be able to cope with this crisis.  So, they continue to say that the Administration has not provided information.  It is a lie and a misrepresentation.  The data is there – take a look at it.

Leader Pelosi.  On that subject, I just want to take this to the larger issue of budget.  We had a budget agreement last year.  It was a compromise.  It was in our view, not what we thought would be useful to meeting the needs of the American people, but it was a compromise and we agreed to it.  It did not take into consideration the fact that that there would be a Zika crisis, an opioids crisis, that what would happen in Flint would happen.  So all of these things would normally – and we are so far away from normal – would normally be considered to be emergency spending because the budget was bare bones as it was, and so when something unusual happens like a natural disaster, then you have emergency spending and that's what we anticipated would happen.  That's what the president requested.

Instead, they're saying, nothing – five months later, February to now we have nothing.  And by the way, spend the money that we appropriated for other purposes and by the way, anything we do in addition to that you are going to have to take out of the budget from last year which is our budget agreement.  So this is – it doesn't make sense.  Sense or cents.

It doesn't add up and just to enlarge the issue further, you can see it played out in the presidential, if you want to talk politics – Hillary Clinton is proposing an economic package with job creation and reducing the deficit and bigger paychecks to the American people.  [A] Middle Class economy.

Donald Trump, true-to-form of the Republicans, is revisiting the Bush Tax Cuts which took us deeply into debt when President Bush came into office – trickle-down versus bubble-up.  And by the way, the same trickle-down people are saying, ‘We want tax cuts for the rich because we think that's really important for our country even though those tax cuts do not produce jobs, they didn't, and at the same time, we want to reduce the deficit to take the food out of the mouths of babies, take Pell Grants, all the things that invest in the future.  And by the way if we have a national emergency, take it out of some other good initiative that we all in a bipartisan way have agreed to in the past.'

But I don't understand why they don't understand.  And there's an expression that I sometimes used with my colleagues: you'll understand when you understand.  When are they going to understand that the money is being spent, that more money is needed?  Would it take a tragedy in their own districts?  One beautiful thing – and I will close with this – is when we were in Europe and talking to the President of Italy and Members were asking, ‘How come Italy has not been affected by any of the terrorist attacks?' The President of Italy said, ‘We are Europeans.  The attacks on the other countries are attacks on Europe.  We are Europeans.'

We are all Americans.  The Zika in the southern part of our country is in our country.  And because it hasn't hit home in their district, it doesn't mean that it isn't hitting home for the American people.  You know how I am about babies – and this is about babies and I just can't understand it.  So what are they doing?

What better use of time do they have right now than to come back here and get the job done for the American people?  Mr. Speaker, bring the Congress back.  Honor our responsibilities to the American people.  Get the job done.  Thank you all.