CQ Transcriptswire

SPEAKER: REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE

[*] PELOSI: Good morning. And a good morning it is, isn’t it?

(LAUGHTER)

Last night was a great night. The American people spoke out loudly and clearly that they wanted a new direction for America. And they voted in large numbers for change.

It was a great night too because of the speeches of two great Americans. I commend Senator McCain for the fine ending of his campaign with a speech that I thought was very uplifting, very unifying and one that was welcomed by people across America.

Senator Obama’s speech, again, was unifying. You saw it all.

But just the spirit that was established by these two speeches and then this morning by President Bush’s speech to cooperate in a transition toward an orderly transition as -- is setting a tone that I think we should all follow.

I’m very pleased with our congressional results last night. We’ll talk about that in a moment. But our increased numbers in the House better enable us to work closely with our new president for a vision for America and a plan to succeed, again, as we unify the American people.

And as I pledged last night, I do again, that we will do so in a strong bipartisan way with civility in our debate and fiscal responsibility in our budgeting.

The economy, of course, is the top item on the agenda as we go forward. And we’ll all be planning what happens in January when we meet with the new president-elect.

But even before then, we have a stimulus package on the table that I hope the Republicans in the Senate will allow to be taken up in a lame-duck session.

I’m in communication with the White House about such a stimulus package to grow our economy by creating jobs, to do it in a newer, greener way, to recognize the unemployment situation in our country by extending unemployment insurance, to understand that people are hungry in America and provide additional emergency food assistance, and to give help to the states for their health needs for seniors and children and other needs that they have.

Essential to the job creation issue is the -- a strong piece for rebuilding the infrastructure of America; again, in a way that reduces our dependence on foreign oil, creates good green jobs in America.

PELOSI: And that is the first order of business that we will have if it is -- appears to have opportunity, then we will have a lame-duck session to take it up. But again, these conversations are still taking place with the White House.

The agenda as we go forward, as you know, has always been about, again, growing our economy, expanding access to health care, improving the quality of education for all Americans, ending our dependence on foreign oil and bringing an end to the war in Iraq. And again, in a bipartisan way, we’ll be discussing these issues as we go forward.

I’m pleased to do so with the increased Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. I salute our chairman, Chris Van Hollen , for an absolutely masterful job of chairing the committee, recruiting the candidates, raising the issues, finding the resources to make this all possible.

What -- what happened was really historic in its nature. Two years and two days ago, we had 203 Democrats in the Congress -- 203 Democrats in the Congress. I don’t know what the final number will be in this election, but it’ll be well over 250. And that is the result of not one -- two years ago -- but two waves. This is historic, that you would have one wave after another.

It’s a single of the change the American people want. It’s a tribute to masterful chairmanship of Chris Van Hollen .

With that, I’d be pleased to take any questions you may have.

QUESTION: Are you planning on two stimulus packages now, perhaps one that you could do immediately and then another one in January?

PELOSI: Well, it depends on what the White House is willing to do.

We have passed a stimulus package; we passed it on September 26th. It’s $61 billion. It has those four features: infrastructure, aid to the states for Medicaid, extension of unemployment insurance, and emergency food assistance, $61 billion.

PELOSI: Since September 26th, our economic crisis has only worsened. The need for more has grown.

However, if we can’t get the administration interested in doing more, we -- the least we can do is the package that we have put forth.

And it’s substantial. It’s important. It’s a good first step.

First step, though, is to get it past the 60-vote obstacle that it had in the Senate when they rejected their own stimulus package before we left for the -- for the break.

But it’s that -- you know, again, depending on what that first package is we may need another one. And it may be that we do one further down the road as we watch what is happening to our economy.

QUESTION: Both you and President-elect Obama have warned the American people that there’s going to be a need for sacrifice and that everything won’t happen all at once.

What -- can you give us an idea -- you mentioned some priorities, but can you be more specific about what things you’d like to see the new Congress take up, like in the first 100 days?

PELOSI: Well, again, we’ll be working with the new president on his legislative agenda.

But our priorities have tracked the Obama campaign priorities for a very long time, and they are what I mentioned: the growth of our economy, the education of our children, the health of our people, the end of dependence on foreign oil, and the end of the war in Iraq.

Some of these -- some of these under those frames have some initiatives that we have passed over and over again but have vetoed by President Bush, like issues that relate to children’s health, the children’s health -- SCHIP program -- the children’s state and children’s health insurance program has strong bipartisan support in the Congress on both -- in both houses, on both sides of the aisle -- bipartisan, as I mentioned -- but vetoed by the president.

Well, that could be something we could bring up as a discrete piece of the health of the American people.

Another piece could be the stem cell research legislation to increase research and embryonic stem cell research. And that -- and that could be a discrete piece of the health issue. The -- we have both said that -- all of us have said that some of the issues that we have may have some short-term solutions but many of them require long-term -- long-term -- attention. We need to do them right.

If you’re talking about access to quality health care for all Americans, you have to -- to think in a comprehensive way. You have to involve -- it has to be bipartisan -- again, bipartisan, comprehensive, and adhere to fiscal soundness.

PELOSI: That will be -- that is a cornerstone of how we go forward.

So again, some will be discrete pieces, some will be comprehensive. The comprehensive will take longer. And I think it’s important for the American people to know that many of our options have been diminished because of the downturn in the economy in the last couple of months. The revenue forgone from the cause of the financial crisis has changed the budget projections. That’s why we had Chairman Bernanke come into the Budget Committee a couple of Mondays ago and talk about the impact on the budget.

When we came into this Congress two years ago in the majority, we projected that we would be in balance by 2012. That would still be our hope, but we have a lot less money to draw upon because of the downturn in the economy. Now we want the economy to turn up, to create jobs, to return revenue to the treasury so that we can continue to be on course to balance our budget.

QUESTION: Madam Speaker, (inaudible) Republicans in the Senate still have the opportunity to filibuster. How do you think that, sort of, balance of power (inaudible)?

PELOSI: What did it end up? Do we know on the Senate side yet?

QUESTION: (inaudible)

PELOSI: Five seats? That’s very significant.

But my view on the subject in the Senate is the following: At five seats -- as I said, very significant. I do not think that -- it’s a lot different to need four or five Republicans to vote with you than nine.

PELOSI: It’s almost double, especially since we haven’t seen the final returns. There could be -- they could have picked up six seats, is my understanding. There’s an opportunity for that. But let’s say it’s five.

One of the main reasons I believe, watching it from this side, sending over and over again -- maybe five or six times -- the end to the war in Iraq, a time frame for the withdrawal of our troops out of Iraq, and any number off issues that we have sent over there -- stimulus package, unemployment insurance extension, you name it -- and to see it hit that obstacle.

I believe part of the obstacle is thrown up because they want to protect President Bush from having to sign or veto that legislation -- veto.

Because when the president vetoes legislation, the world knows. When the Senate blocks the 60 votes, some people know.

And they did not want to raise the profile of those popular issues needed by the American people that the president vetoing them.

So I think -- my own view from here, because, again, we are -- we work in a bipartisan way to send legislation to the Senate that, again, hits a Republican obstacle there. My view is that they’re not going to be -- that one motivation for a road block, which is to protect the president from a veto, will no longer be part of their motivation.

And I think that, in the spirit of working in a bipartisan way, we’ll soon find out if people want to be part of the solution, if they want to weigh in on shaping the legislation so that we can get the job done for the American people. It is our responsibility to try to find common ground when we can.

And with our added numbers -- more numbers in the House, more in the Senate, a Democrat in the White House -- we have an opportunity, we have a responsibility, and the American people should and will hold us accountable.

QUESTION: Madam Speaker...

PELOSI: Yes?

QUESTION: ... I understand you’ve spoken with President-elect Obama today. Can you tell us about that... PELOSI: You do? Did he tell you that?

(LAUGHTER)

How would you know that?

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: I can’t reveal that, Madam.

(LAUGHTER)

I understand you spoke with Senator -- President-elect Obama today. To what extent are you coordinating a message here in the transition? And are you concerned that there’s pent-up demand from your party’s base on the left to get things done quickly that’s somewhat unrealistic?

PELOSI: Well, first of all, my message, my conversation with President-elect Obama was one of congratulations, best wishes and great gratitude for his success in winning the election. We really didn’t discuss some of these issues that you have brought up now. We do on a regular basis, but that was not the subject of the call this morning.

PELOSI: We talked about when we would talk about that.

But the fact is is that this president goes into office with more expectations than any president I can ever remember in my life time.

I was a student when John F. Kennedy became president. It was very exciting. And we thought, again, it was the most important election ever, in history. And it probably was at the time.

But at this time, with the state of our economy, with us engaged in two wars, with the desperate need of the American people for access to quality health care -- that being a health issue and an economic issue -- with our dependence on foreign oil that must be stopped -- with all of these big challenges, we have to do what government is supposed to do.

President Kennedy told us, “To govern is to choose.” And so we have to choose our priorities very carefully, about what is achievable, what can be done, and the best possible way. And a lot of it all about time; about the time it will take to get -- get certain initiatives done and what their relationship is to growing the economy to create good-paying jobs.

The -- I believe that the aspirations that people have for themselves, that they have pinned on President Obama -- will recognize that it will take some time to get much of this done. But there will be no time wasted in getting started.

QUESTION: Senator Obama won more than 60 percent of the Hispanic vote, as well as many Democrats throughout the Southwest; you know, a big win among the Latino vote. And I was wondering whether the majority in Congress and Senator Obama in the White House -- what are the -- what is the likelihood that he’ll deliver his promise on an immigration comprehensive reform bill within his first two years in office?

PELOSI: I wasn’t aware the timetable on it, because -- well, I just don’t know what -- we have always been for -- in our House, and for a while there, in a bipartisan way, and then that, sort of, fell by the by, the bipartisan part of it -- comprehensive immigration reform that protected our borders, enforced our laws, unified families, created a path to legalization -- comprehensiveness in that respect.

PELOSI: I believe that we have to move in that direction. And the urgency is only intensified by the ICE raids that are happening throughout -- in some parts of the country. As you may be aware of some of them in California. So the status quo is not acceptable.

Now, how do we sequence this? How do we do -- end the ICE raids, have a situation where we can end the ICE raids as we put together the comprehensive immigration reform?

I can tell you this: In order for it to succeed, it will have to be bipartisan. So it’s going to take a good deal of work to put together but it’s the path that we must go down.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) big Obama victory, do you expect the ideology of the next Congress to be more progressive (inaudible)?

PELOSI: Well, I like the characterization of this mandate as being so big. You all are more on top of the most current numbers. I’m watching my House races.

The -- here’s the thing. The country must be governed from the middle. A country must be governed from the middle. Now, I say that being a proud progressive Democrat in the Congress of the United States and as speaker of the House.

The point is, you have to bring people together to reach consensus on solutions that are sustainable and acceptable to the American people.

What is interesting about the last couple of years, in my view, is that when we saw from the center, we’ll talk about what we did in bipartisan way to raise the minimum wage -- first time in 10 years; to make college more affordable. The biggest package for college affordability in the -- since the 1944 G.I. Bill was passed. Honor the service of our veterans; the biggest package in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration. End our dependence on foreign oil; first CAFE standard bill in 32 -- 32 years.

So all of these things that were initiatives of a Democratic Congress, I don’t know you call them progressive. They are, I think. What they were -- had strong bipartisan support because they meet the needs of the American people from right to left.

So the Republicans have left a lot of field open as to how you define middle. But I do think that the priorities that we’ve talked about will be the priorities that address the needs of -- broadly address the needs of the American people.

There certainly are excellent ideas about how to go forward on the right, in middle and on the left. And wherever those solutions are, we should incorporate them.

But, again, all of these big issues need bipartisan discussion. Bipartisanship at the table in terms of the solutions that are offered.

I don’t include among them, though, for example initiatives to destroy Social Security, unravel Medicare. In other words, are you committed to this -- the principle of Social Security and Medicare and the rest now? Let’s see how we can learn from a bipartisan way to strength them.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

PELOSI: See, I don’t -- you see this whole thing -- and your questions about the insatiable appetite or the pent-up desires, the this, the that.

The American people have desperate needs. They’re fundamental: jobs, health care, education. They’re fundamental. And, of course, the country wants to end the war. And we no longer can afford the dependence on foreign oil. Excuse me.

At a time of this economic crisis, our priorities should be very clear about what we need to do. Each side of the spectrum can hope to influence the decision, but the fact is, is that a new president coming in, in my view, must take the country down the middle, solve the problems, to gain the confidence to take us more strongly in a new direction.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Rahm Emanuel chief of staff -- White House chief of staff?

PELOSI: I had not been informed of that decision at the -- so I have no idea.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

PELOSI: I have not spoken to Chairman Emanuel since the results were in on the election, surprising as that may seem, but usually I speak to him everyday.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

PELOSI: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

But again, Socialaro (ph) was a person during the campaign. I don’t know what will come of -- what Phil’s decisions will be, and I don’t know what Rahm Emanuel ’s decision -- and you’ll have to talk to them about their -- career plans.

But what I do know is that we are very much looking forward to working with the new president-elect in the transition, as -- and then as president of the United States in January. And we will have a very strong working relationship. And I know -- and I know that President- elect Obama will want that interaction with the Congress to be bipartisan. And I look forward to that.

Thank you all very much.

END

.ETX

Nov 05, 2008 13:11 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

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