Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today at a press conference with Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Congressman Dan Kildee and Congressman Eric Swalwell on House Republicans’ agenda of inaction – as the Republican Congress has failed to pass a budget or take action to confront the public health emergencies of the Zika virus and Flint Water Crisis. Below are the Leader’s opening and closing remarks followed by the question and answer session:
Leader Pelosi’s Opening Remarks
“Good morning, everyone. It is still morning. Thank you for being here.
“Before we left for the three-week Easter break, I said to all of you that we shouldn’t leave unless we had a supplemental that dealt with Zika, that dealt with Flint, that dealt with opioids and some other subjects. We did leave, we came back, and we still do not have any action on Zika and Flint. Opioids – the Speaker says [it is] going through the regular order, so let’s hope that that happens. The bill that passed the Senate – still doesn’t have any funding. We still need funding for that. But that’s what this morning is about – it’s about the budget. Let’s call upon this Republican majority. They’re so consumed by their radical ideology, so disconnected from reality that even the pleas of expectant mothers and poisoned children fall on deaf ears.
“We’re here to make sure the American families’ message to the Republican Congress is heard: do your job. Instead of doing their job to protect the lives of children and families, Republicans are wasting this week grandstanding on the IRS. In the Republican Congress, if you’re not a special interest or a big corporation, you’re on your own, whether it’s Flint, Zika, the ‘Road to Ruin’ budget. Our colleagues here – on the frontlines of that fight.
“I’m pleased now to yield to the distinguished Chair of Democratic Caucus, a person who has served on the Budget Committee, is a Member of the Ways and Means Committee, Xavier Becerra.”
Leader Pelosi’s Closing Remarks
“Thank you very much, Congressman Swalwell. As the director of the Future Forum, as the leader of the Future Forum, I thank you for your important statement today, for your leadership across the country and for your strong statement asking Congress to do its job. I thank our distinguished Chairman. These statements come from a very deep place with our colleagues. I thank Congressman Becerra for his strong statement on the budget in asking Congress to do its job, Congressman Kildee – from a very deep place – asking Congress to do its job on Flint, Michigan, and of course, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, on the Appropriations Committee, has many concerns that she wants Congress to do its job, and I thank her for her strong statement regarding Zika.
“Just as we were coming in here, I was handed this statement: new map finds two billion people at risk of Zika virus. The good news for the United States is that mosquitos that carry Zika can be found, that even though it can be found as far north – anyway, it talks about how far north its coming, even though the numbers are not as great in the U.S., yet. So, there is reason to be hopeful, if we get our job done.
“You know, a budget – we say this all the time here – is supposed to be a statement of our national values. Why have the Republicans not brought a budget to the Floor? We have a saying in the world that we live in of public policy – if we want to know your values, if you want to tell us your values, show us your budget, show us your budget. And I think one reason they haven’t brought a budget to the Floor is that they don’t want the public to see their lack of values in their budget – that they would remove the guarantee of Medicare, the list goes on and on. But even that is not cruel enough to some of their Members. So, maybe they don’t want us to see their values, maybe their values are not cruel enough to get the majority vote of the Republicans. In any case, they should bring it to the Floor. Do your job. With that, we’d be pleased to take any questions you may have. Yes?”
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Q: What do you think is holding back funding for the Flint crisis? What are the real obstacles, legislation wise that are not allowing – there are lots of efforts, even from the Republicans, that are saying it should go forward?
Leader Pelosi. Sure. Do you want to speak to that?
Congressman Kildee. Yes, thank you, Leader Pelosi. Well, I guess you’d have to ask them, but here’s my analysis. It seems to be rather duplicitous for many Members of the Republican Congress, especially those Members who have participated in the Committee Hearings – for them, on one hand, to attempt to lay blame for the Flint crisis at the doorstep of the Environmental Protection Agency, which to the extent that they have the responsibility because it’s those very same Republicans who have continuously voted to constrain the EPA in its ability to deal with environmental issues. So, on one hand, they want to blame the EPA, that they themselves constrained. But then on the other hand, when it actually comes to providing help to the people of Flint, I’ve heard it said from the very same Members, that this was a state-created crisis.
So, here’s my concern. You know, if a house is on fire, one does not call the fire inspector, assemble the City Council, deliberate over how the fire was caused, and then, make a decision as to whether or not we should do something about the fire that is burning. There is a fire burning in Flint, Michigan. There is a crisis in Flint, Michigan. They are citizens of the United States, and they are citizens of the state of Michigan. My legislation would say: we will have a conversation about how this happened, but before we get to that, let’s as Americans and as Michiganians come together to fix this problem and provide help.
So, I don’t have a good answer as to why Republicans in Michigan and Republicans across the country have all the sympathy that they can muster but don’t use the tools that they have available to them in their very hands to reach out and help the people of Flint. And so, I’ll leave it with this – it makes one question, as to whether there is something about the very poor community of Flint that is a majority minority community that sets it aside from other places that perhaps would get more immediate response from some of these people who seem to offer sympathy but no help.
Leader Pelosi. And getting back to the point that Congressman Kildee made earlier about one of his earliest votes was for Sandy assistance – overwhelmingly, the Republicans voted against the Sandy assistance for New York, while you proudly voted for it. And so, some of what we hear from there is, ‘Well, it’s not in my backyard.’ But when it is in their backyard – other disasters that have befallen our beautiful country – they expect us to respond fully. And so you know, we’re saying we want a supplemental because it will take too long to get the full appropriations process done – the Speaker does not want a supplemental, and we’re saying we just can’t wait, whether it is Zika, whether it’s Flint, or others.
Yes, sir?
Q: We’re about seven or eight months into the new Speakership of Paul Ryan here. I’ve had a number of Members from the other side of the aisle say to me, ‘well – new Speaker, but we have the same membership.’ And they ascribe that mathematic as the reason [they] can’t move any of these issues, whether it be Puerto Rico, Zika, education, budgets, etc. Do you lay that at the mathematics of the place that have not changed or do you put that at the feet of Speaker Ryan who has not passed a whole lot of major bills?
Leader Pelosi. This is the Congress of the United States, the Congress of the United States. Each one of us has a responsibility to weigh in on our doing our job. And wherever the buck stops, the fact is Congress is not doing its job. And these are emergencies. These are emergencies: Zika, Flint and others. So, I’m not getting into what goes on in the Republican Conference. You’ll have to ask them about that, Chad.
Q: But at the end of the day, that’s the issue that they were unable to move major bills under Speaker Boehner – he is responsible now. And do you fault him in some ways as being the person at the top?
Leader Pelosi. Well, I’m just saying it’s a dysfunctional Republican Congress. They have been obstructionists, in terms of Congress acting and doing its job, they’ve been obstructionists to the President’s initiatives, and now, they want to make the third branch of government, the Judiciary, an incomplete body and not being able to function fully. So, this is an anti-governance attitude that exists in their caucus. As you saw, only thirty-some Members who were able to threaten to vacate the chair, and Speaker Boehner left. So, it’s up to them to see how they can live up to their responsibilities. It’s up to us to make sure the public know what is at risk and what it means to the American people, that this dysfunction is not an academic conversation. It has a direct impact on the health and well-being and the economic security of the American people.
Yes, sir?
Q: Those of us who tried to ask [Speaker] Ryan or [Congressman] Hal Rogers their plan on Zika, we basically got the message: ‘We need more information. We’re working on it. We’re going to act.’ So we haven’t gotten the sense of how, when or on what vehicle. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve spoken to Hal Rogers or Paul Ryan about Zika and maybe you can help the public get a greater sense about what’s going forward in the future.
Leader Pelosi. Well, first I’m going to yield to Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro who is what we would call a cardinal in the appropriations process and has been working on this as her subcommittee’s jurisdiction.
Congresswoman DeLauro. Thank you, Madam Leader. First of all, this notion that the Administration has not provided information really is misrepresentation. I don’t bring with me but I held it up both last week in the appropriations process just yesterday afternoon about this much paper, very detailed, as to what the money will be used from – whether it is at NIH, whether it is at CDC, whether it is at the Department of State. And I have personally been in briefings with Secretary Burwell and Republican colleagues. And the Administration, quite frankly, has tried to provide as much information with the briefings, with the justifications, with language, with charts. It is all laid out.
I’m going to make this aside which I made yesterday. We have more information about this about what we had about going to war with Iraq where we couldn’t find a weapon of mass destruction. And we spent eight billion dollars, which is unaccounted for today – and that’s not my number, it is the Special Inspector General who said that, with regard to the reconstruction there. But back to Zika: yes, last week Ranking Member Lowey, myself and Debbie Wasserman Schultz – where Florida is a real problem with regard to the Zika virus – we said, ‘Okay, if the Administration hasn’t provided you with that information, let’s do a hearing. Let’s bring the Administration in. Let’s ask them, point blank, the issues that you need to address.’ They said no. Mr. Rogers yesterday said that ‘we’ve had briefings, and meetings,’ et cetera. This is a lack – I [don’t] want to impugn good will.
There is no plan. There is no action, except to say, ‘We don’t want to do your supplemental. But we want you to take money from Ebola’ – which $510 million is already there, and which the World Health Organization [and] others have said that if we abandon what we said we were going to do in West Africa, that what will happen is other countries will back out as well, and that public health infrastructure that we are helping to create is not going to occur. And we will see additional flare-ups. I just want to say, this is Dr. Bruce Aylward, Special Representative for Ebola at the WHO: ‘We are now at a critical period in the Ebola epidemic, as we move from managing cases and patients to managing the residual risk of new infections. We still anticipate more flare-ups and must be prepared for them.’ There’s been a recent flare-up in Liberia. The point is they have no plan. They don’t want to act. And while they are fiddling, American lives, people overseas – their lives are at risk. And we are telling American women: ‘Don’t get pregnant.’
Leader Pelosi. On that – I like to always make the distinction between a reason and an excuse. And what Chairman Rogers – and I have all the respect in the world for him, I served with him on the Appropriations Committee – but what he and the Republican majority are saying is not a reason not to do the supplemental. It’s an excuse not to do it. My understanding from the Republican Leadership is they don’t want to do a supplemental. They don’t want to do it because, if we have Zika, and if we have Flint, and if we have opioids, which we really need to do, then other people may want to add some other things.
But that’s not about leadership. That’s just about an excuse, not a reason to do something. And if they don’t understand the subject of public health, because they ignore the scientific evidence as to how people are at risk, that public health [risks] – Ebola, Zika and the rest – know no boundaries, and that we have to keep Ebola at bay – and you don’t do that by transferring the money to Zika and think that you are trying to solve a problem.
Any other questions? Yes, sir.
Q: Has the GOP side given you any indication that they have a certain number in mind on top of the Ebola funds…
Leader Pelosi. Excuse me, I’m sorry, has the what?
Q: Has the GOP side given any indication that they have a number in mind – if not 1.9 billion dollars then some other number?
Leader Pelosi. No. No, they haven’t.
Congresswoman DeLauro. No, they have not. All they want to do is to dismantle global health security, and as the Leader pointed out, it is an excuse not to act on the supplemental and do what we need to do. They have no number. They are not holding any meetings. We have nothing that says that they are willing to address this.
Leader Pelosi. And they do not want to have a public hearing so that the public can hear the evidence to substantiate or to document the need.
But, in closing though, I just want to yield back to my distinguished Chairman, Mr. Becerra and to the leader of our Future Forum for any closing remarks they have since the questions you addressed were to us.
Congressman Swalwell. Again, to close – especially having talked to thousands of young people – it’s a generation that’s very collaborative and inventive, but a generation that’s pulling its hair out when it looks at Republican leaders in this town and their failure to collaborate on these issues. And so, as we continue to go across the country, it is quite frustrating when we’re asked: what are we doing on corporate inversions to keep jobs here? What are we doing to just pass a budget like we all have to pass in our households? What are we doing to address Zika and making sure that our healthcare plan on that is not: ‘don’t get pregnant’? People are saying: ‘Just do your job. Be as collaborative as we are.’ And I think that’s our message to House Republicans. Chairman Becerra.
Chairman Becerra. I would simply close by reminding everyone that we run for office to be part of our government. And the job of government is to govern. And if you’re not going to address the crisis that we now know with the Zika virus, then squarely on their shoulders, on the Republican shoulders, will be this crisis blowing up where women and many Americans may be in jeopardy, children‘s lives may be in jeopardy. If another student in America says: ‘I can’t go to this particular college that I got accepted to because we haven’t dealt with the debt crisis in student loans,’ then that inability of that young person to go on and get that degree in the way he or she wanted rests on the shoulders of the folks who didn’t want to do their job here. And if this Congress won’t deal with the 9,000 children who have been poisoned by lead in Flint, that rests squarely on the shoulders of this Republican Congress not willing to do its job. If you don’t want to govern, get out of the kitchen.
Leader Pelosi. I think it’s important to note that what we’re hoping to do was to act in a bipartisan way to address these needs. In order for us to move forward as a Congress and in governance, show us your budget. We want to see your budget. We want the American people to see your budget so we can have a legitimate debate on the choices before the American people instead of a hysterical display of poor taste on the part of the Republican candidates. But the debate on the budget is old as our country. It’s a very legitimate debate to have. But we have to see theirs in order to debate it.
So, I thank our Chairman Becerra, Congresswoman – Ranking Member on her subcommittee on Appropriations, Congresswoman DeLauro. I sympathize and thank Dale – Dan, not Dale his uncle – Dan Kildee for sharing the depths of his concern and the strength of his intellect on finding his solutions, and of course to have the perspective of Congressman Swalwell – very important to all of this because all of this is about the future. So, I thank them for joining us – all of us coming together today to say to the Congress: ‘Do your job. Show us your budget. Hear the pleas of the children of Flint. Understand the threat that Zika presents to us. Acknowledge the concerns of our young people.’ And as our Chairman has said, don’t waste our time on the floor of the House on bills that are going nowhere, at the same time ignoring inversions – where money is going elsewhere.
Thank you all very much.
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