Press Conference - The Past Year in Congress

Interview

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SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you very much, Mr. Leader. Thank you for your kind words.

Thank you for your important statement. So, first off, I want to associate myself with your remarks, certainly about our achievements of this year.

Later today we will have a vote on the omnibus bill in the House, and we will -- there will be an opportunity for members to give our veterans in this holiday season the biggest increase in veterans' health benefits in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration.

We will also take up the issue of Iraq, which the Democrats will not be supporting. But let's remember one thing about that legislation: Even the Republicans in the Senate, who stick so closely with the president on the issue have decided to put him on a short leash. He asked for nearly $200 billion. He'll come in very much lower than that because people want to hold him more accountable.

On the positive side, this is a historic day. It's very fitting that we should end this first session of Congress on the day that we have signed into the law historic energy legislation. It signals change. The American people gave us the majority last year. They asked for a new direction. The Democratic leader in the Senate has spelled out some of the change that we have made here as a down payment on the future. Of course, much more needs to be done, and we hope to do it -- as we did some of this -- this year, with strong, bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate, with strict fiscal disciple, living up to the highest ethical standard.

But back to the energy bill. This is about our national security. Admiral McGinn said, "Our dependence on foreign oil presents a clear and present danger to the American people." It's about our environmental health, the emissions that will be prevented because of this bill, important to the environment and preserving this planet and to the health and well being of our children and indeed, all in the world -- all in the world will be affected by this. It's about energy, about conserving it, about reducing our dependence on foreign oil and what that means economically because it's about our economy as well. As the American people go into the Christmas holidays facing record prices at the pump, this legislation is a sign of hope. It's about change, about going into the future. It will save, on an annual basis, American consumers $70 -- $700 to $1000 per year, the price at the pump, not counting the savings in home heating oil that will ensue as well, about a $22 billion savings to America's consumers.

So it is indeed cause for celebration. We were -- many of -- some of us pleased to join -- I mean, all of who were there were pleased to join the president at the signing ceremony today, to see the Democratic and Republicans in the House and Senate join with the president in signaling change for the future.

But it did not come easily. It took a lot of struggle, a lot of convincing, and much more needs to be done.

But nothing signaled change more clearly, I think, to the American people than the successful passage of the energy legislation. This is a ship that has left the port, as I'm fond of saying, reaching out to a whole new horizon. Every time we reach a horizon, we see another one taking us to a new world, a new world of energy efficiency, of environmental safety, of a moral responsibility to preserve this planet, god's gift to us, and to honor our responsibility to future generations.

So I'm very pleased and excited about what happened today, because it has kicked open the door to the future, leaving the past behind. The distinguished leader talked about how we made progress. In making that progress, we made history in many respects. Much more needs to be done.

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Q Madame Speaker, you know that most Democrats will not support the Iraq funding portion of the spending bill. Your predecessor presumably would have tried to keep that off the floor. What does it mean -- what's the impact when your caucus to pass major legislation with a minority of the majority caucus voting for it?

SPEAKER PELOSI: With the minority of the -- oh, the -- first of all, we're talking about our omnibus bill. Before I answer your question, because I may have to leave shortly because we have -- our session is continuing, let me just say how proud I am to associate myself with not only the remarks of Leader Reid, as I did earlier, but to compliment him on his leadership.

I simply don't -- I mean, being speaker has its challenges. I have enormous respect for the leadership of Harry Reid and how he has dealt with these issues. Because even though those barriers exist in the Senate, the 60-vote barrier, we were able to still make an array of accomplishments, that my colleagues have spelled out and I won't go into again. But we did make, as we promised, America safer, the economy fairer, strengthening families, preserving our planet, and the highest ethical standard with our ethics reform bill, strict fiscal discipline and strong bipartisan support.

So thank you, Harry Reid, for your great leadership, for making all of that possible.

As I said earlier, this bill on Iraq keeps the president on a shorter leash. Even the Republicans in the Senate and those in the House agreed to that. The president should not be very encouraged by that. The fact that these appropriations bills are coming back and that the bill is bifurcated so that members can express their disappointment with it -- I thank you, again, Senator Reid, for making that possible coming out of the Senate.

But the Congress will work its will. And if it is a minority of Democrats who vote for the bill, I think it will be a very slim minority. Don't you, Mr. Leader? Who will vote for the funding? I don't know what the number is. We have whipped it. We don't whip war votes.

I don't think there's any special significance to it. Our members voted, very unified way, to put conditions on our presence in Iraq after the redeployment of our troops, which was to begin in 30 days and to end within one year. That had a bipartisan majority in the House and in the Senate. The president instead wants a war without end, with a tremendous loss of life and of limb, tremendous loss of reputation in the world, tremendous loss of taxpayer dollars, and very significantly great loss of our capacity to protect our military, to protect our interests wherever they are threatened.

So I don't place a high -- this is the legislative part of the process. The Senate sent us a bill that the members will have to act upon. It would not have initiated in the House. It's only there because of the 60-vote barrier in the Senate, and that's a reality of life that we have to deal with.

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