Transcript of Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn Press Availability Today as Republicans Rushed Out of Washington Leaving the Middle Class Behind
Leader Pelosi's Opening Remarks:
"Good afternoon. And that's what it is, a good afternoon – but not a good afternoon for Congress to adjourn for this session of Congress. We were supposed to be in tomorrow and then another week, and now we've been informed by the Republican leadership that anything that we were ever going to do is over until we come back for the lame-duck session.
"It is especially disconcerting to me because today, September 18th, marks the sixth year since the Chairman of the Federal Reserve told us – our leadership and the Republican leadership, House and Senate – in my office told us, after hearing a description of the meltdown of the financial institutions from Secretary Paulson, Chairman Bernanke told us: ‘If we do not act immediately, we will not have an economy by Monday.' That statement, that reality, is something that still scars the confidence of the American people – of the great middle class.
"President Obama came into office and improved the situation enormously. When he took office, unemployment was over 9 percent. Now it's 6.1 percent. The deficit was $1.3 trillion. It's $500 billion. Certainly they all should be lower, but we're going so drastically in the right direction – a 60 percent decrease in the deficit. The market was at 7,000. It's now at 17,000. Fifteen million people have access to quality, affordable [health] care. Fifty-four consecutive months of private sector job growth. Millions of jobs created. But still: uncertainty for the middle class, and that's what we should be working on here.
"Our jumpstart for the middle class is about good paying jobs, here in our country; about building the infrastructure of America; it's about investing in education to keep America number one. Why can't we at least pass a bill – the Tierney-Warren bill – that cuts in half the interest rates that students pay on their student loans, freeing them and their entrepreneurial spirit to create jobs and grow the economy? And of course, ‘When Women Succeed, America Succeeds' – it would be a simple matter for them to pass equal pay for equal work, the Fair Pay Act. And I would hope that we could have at least done that for America's working families and for women. Because one of the most important things you can do to grow our economy is to unleash the power of women in our economy.
"So six years ago today, we got that bad news. The President, thank God, was able to push things down the road. But because of the uncertainty of six years ago, the American people need us to do much more. We should be doing that. We shouldn't be going home. And, with that, I'm pleased to yield to our distinguished Democratic Whip, Mr. Hoyer."
Leader Pelosi's Closing Remarks:
"Well, I thank the distinguished [Assistant] Leader for bringing up the Voting Rights Act, and also for his lifetime of service in the civil rights and voting rights initiatives for our country. But just again, another 500,000 people wanted to hand-deliver this to the Speaker. It is a bill that is a compromise bill that has bipartisan support. If it were brought up, it would pass on the floor of the House. Same thing with the immigration bill – it has bipartisan support. If brought up, it would pass on the floor of the House. Same thing with ENDA, which we have a discharge petition on now – on ENDA, ending discrimination in the workplace for the LGBT community. You would think it wouldn't be necessary in our country, but it is. We have the votes, in a bipartisan way, but the Speaker won't bring it up. Same thing with background checks – bipartisan support for that legislation. But the Speaker won't bring it up.
"The same leadership that won't bring up those bills is now saying it's time to go home. No – it's time to continue our work for the American people. And they're not just cutting us off by a day, but another week. We were supposed to go until the beginning of October. And really – all of the things we could have accomplished, as Mr. Hoyer said: equal pay for equal work, the list goes on and on. Instead, we have these ridiculous notions that are on the floor, not really to be taken seriously because they're just fillers – and not fillers of very much time.
"So again, the American people have to ask: ‘What do you do for a living? What are you doing for my living? What are you doing for me?' And what we're saying is: they're stalling the middle class. We're jumpstarting the middle class. Let's work together in a bipartisan way to get the job done for the American people. Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Clyburn would be happy to take any questions you might have now."
***
Q: We have questions for you. Can we ask you one question?
Leader Pelosi. Oh yeah, I know. That's one of the roles of the Leader.
Q: Let me just ask you this question: there has been much ado made about Debbie Wasserman-Schultz…
Leader Pelosi. I'm very happy to chat and get around to that. But let's talk about what really matters to the American people in terms of jobs, et cetera.
Q: Do you support her?
Leader Pelosi. Yes, of course I support her.
Q: The Senate Democratic leadership has indicated that when they come back during the lame-duck, they want to talk about a broader AUMF to deal with ISIS. Have you had any sort of conversations with the Republican Leadership here and what do you think about that debate as it goes forward?
Leader Pelosi. Well, let me say that I was very pleased with the debate yesterday on a very discrete bill – not an authorization, as you've suggested. And the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Mr. McKeon, I thought conducted the debate in a manner that I thought was appropriate to the seriousness of the situation. I have not had any current discussion since yesterday, the day before, with the leadership on this subject. I was in the room with the President of the United States when we had a discussion with Leader Reid, Leader McConnell and the Speaker of the House, Mr. Boehner.
Have you had any conversations, Steny?
Whip Hoyer. I have not had any extensive conversation. Mr. McCarthy and I had discussions about the vote yesterday and in the course of that conversation, the McGovern amendment came up in which the overwhelming majority of the Members in the House of Representatives voted that we ought to update – Republicans and Democrats, we got somewhere in the name of 380 votes – that we needed to update the current authorization for Military Use of Force, one of which was passed in 2001, the other of which was passed in 2002. Clearly, the facts on the ground have changed substantially since then. Both the Leader and I have indicated that we think what the President is doing he has the authority to do under one or both of those authorizations.
So to that limited extent, it's been discussed. But no discussions beyond that.
Q: Madam Leader, generals right now are disagreeing with President Obama as to whether there should be troops on the ground. What are your thoughts on this?
Leader Pelosi. I don't stipulate to that; I don't know that the generals disagree on that. They said that there might come a time when they'd make a recommendation to the President, but I have been very clear, and many of my Members share my view that there's no support among many of us or among the American people for combat troops on the ground.
Q: Even if the generals say that there should be?
Leader Pelosi. Even if the generals say that there should be. Well, we don't know that they have and I think – let me just say instead what we should be working for is peace; what we should be working for is saluting the President for what he and the Vice President are doing for their part: for making sure there was a government in Iraq that was inclusive, of Sunni, Shi'a, other religions and the Kurds; salute the President for the diplomatic success he had in building a coalition among NATO nations as well as powers in the region to do their share; salute the President for the humanitarian success in ending what would have been a genocide of that particular sect in Iraq – the people on the mountain as you may recall – and we came to their rescue.
So let's think in terms of non-military strength that we can demonstrate. And, if we need to have leverage using military strength, I don't think there's any argument that could be made that boots on the ground will make a successful – we've been there, we've done that.
Q: Given that only three out of five Democrats voted for this narrow mission yesterday, does that worry you that if there is an AUMF vote in the lame duck that you all won't be able to come up with a majority for the President's position?
Leader Pelosi. It depends on what it is.
Q: So if it they were to conscribe the two from a decade ago that would work, but…
Leader Pelosi. I think there would be support for us – and I would say this of any President – to give the President the authority in a very constrained way to go forward. And I think the Democrats would support that kind of an initiative as far as this President is concerned.
Q: And as many as voted ‘yes' yesterday?
Leader Pelosi. Again, we'll have to see what that is, but yesterday I think some people thought that was a proxy for an authorization. I think that was part of it.
Whip Hoyer. Let me just make a small point though because I was very much for passage yesterday. I was one of the 114; I was with Leader Pelosi as was Assistant Leader Clyburn. We all believe that this was a necessary step to take. I talked – I don't know whether the Leader kept the same message – but I talked to a number of people who said a) they believe what the President is doing vis-à-vis confronting ISIL, he is authorized to do it and they are supportive of him doing it. They voted against this action, however, because they did not think it was going to be effective, and didn't have enough information from their perspective. So I don't think you can make an analogy or an analysis or a conclusion from yesterday's AUMF.
Assistant Leader Clyburn. One of the things I'm always a little bit leery of in answering a question like that – we are two months away from a lame-duck. What will be happening in this two-month period could very well determine the reaction from our Members. We have no idea what may or may not occur that will change the atmosphere, and therefore the equation when it comes to voting. So if things are two months from now the way they were yesterday, then we will expect a similar result. But if things are substantially different from what they were yesterday – in one way or another – I'll be expecting a different vote.
Leader Pelosi. And the fact is that it depends on what the President does because we believe that he has the authority to do what he's doing now. Where the threshold is that he crosses, triggering the McGovern resolution that Mr. Hoyer referenced, is very important. Certainly, he will be affected by what the generals say, but I think the generals should know that there is no appetite in the public for combat troops on the ground.
So you can probably expect from us – and I'd be happy to start talking about such a thing if I thought it would be necessary – that there would be a very constraining authorization to come forward. We certainly can't get away with the authorization of 2002, which is really stipulated on things that are not facts and not necessary anymore.
Q: Do you think for unexpected expenditures – ISIS, Ebola, Ukraine – that that's enough to move the needle to force turning off sequestration?
Leader Pelosi. Well, I hope that anything that can turn off sequestration would be a good idea. But if you mean having unlimited defense spending at the expense of investments domestically, that's not – if you want to turn off the whole thing, turn off the whole thing. But do not destroy the firewall where there is equity on both sides.
Whip Hoyer. The only other thing I would say on sequestration is: we made it very clear that sequestration is not a viable option for this country. It does not provide for the priorities of this country and one of the reasons Ryan-Murray was adopted was because our Republican friends knew it was not viable. They've put it off for two years. And now we're going to have to address this because we are trying to do it in fiscal year 2016. It is simply not a process that will allow America to do what it needs to do to expand its economy and invest in its people.
Q: Going into the elections, how do you think the prospects are for House Democrats in November in picking up seats? Do you think House Democrats can pick up seats in November?
Leader Pelosi. Yes.
Q: And if the Democrats don't take back the majority, would you still want to be Minority Leader?
Leader Pelosi. It's Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, it's me – we've knocked the NFL right off the front page.
[Laughter]
Q: We'll ask about that too if you want.
Leader Pelosi. Yes, I think that Democrats will pick up seats, to the extent that we can get out there and get our message across about our initiative to jumpstart the economy – versus the Republicans stalling the economy. I don't think anybody can tell you right now, today, this many weeks in advance, what the outcome of an election is, what the outcome will be. But I do think that we will soon demonstrate our support on the ground. And let me just tell you: no offense, but the view from Washington is not an accurate one as to what goes on in the heartland and in the districts across our country. You've had a recent experience of not knowing what was going on 90 miles down the road. So again, we see the quality of our candidates, the strength of our grand operation, our mobilization, the power of our message of jumpstarting the middle class, the exquisite management of Steve Israel of the mobilization, the message to fuel it, and the money to get it done. We've outraised everyone, because people believe that we need to gain seats and change what is happening here in Washington, D.C. I'm not going into my plans. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is a wonderful, respected leader in the Congress. She has all of our support.
Whip Hoyer. Absolutely.
Leader Pelosi. I don't understand what is going on in the press on that. But I do understand that she is a valued leader here in the Congress, and we all support her.
Whip Hoyer. Thank you very much
Leader Pelosi. Thank you all.