Press Conference with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House
Press Conference
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPS
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SPEAKER PELOSI: Good afternoon.
Q Good afternoon.
SPEAKER PELOSI: We're just finishing on the floor with our SCHIP legislation, so my apologies for running a few minutes late.
We are so excited. This is the day we have worked for, prayed for. hoped for; that we will now pass this legislation with a very strong bipartisan majority to insure 11 million children in America. And before the day is out, President Obama will sign it into law, improve public policy and make a difference in the lives of America's families. We're very excited about that.
The -- later today I'll be having a meeting with some of our members from Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri. I'd send our sympathies and good warm wishes to people who are affected in those states.
And I'll learn more from the members as to what their ongoing needs are. But in the meantime, we want the people of their states to know that we're all praying for them.
I've had some personal calls and personal examples of the -- how -- more than inconvenient, how drastic the conditions were in those states. And once again, at a time like this, we want them to know that their federal government is their partner.
We talked about the children's health bill, which is a step forward in a new direction.
I'm very proud, once again, to talk about our economic recovery package. It has a strategic mission to create jobs, to cut taxes and to stabilize -- and have a stabilization front to help states meet their fiscal needs so they can meet the health, education and public safety needs of the people in -- across the country.
We're proud of the product that came out of the House. As I've said to you before, one week and one day after President Obama stood on the steps of the Capitol and asked for swift, bold action to take our country in a new direction and to invest in science and health and education and renewable energy resources, this House of Representatives did just that. Now we're eagerly awaiting the Senate product and then we'll act together and it is still our plan -- it is our plan to send a bill to the president's desk next week.
It's even more necessary than ever. Job numbers are very -- excuse me, I'm sorry. There is something under here. I often wondered. (Laughs.) Excuse me, I'm sorry for my raspy voice.
As you well know, 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs in -- last year. The economy shrank 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Friday's job numbers estimate 500,000 lost their jobs in January. This is a continuing loss and that's why we have to have this bill passed so that we don't have another month tallied up going into the future where we lose a half a million jobs a month.
We again look forward to the Senate passage, the conference and then the passage and signature of the president.
Be pleased to take any questions you may have.
Q Madame Speaker?
SPEAKER PELOSI: Yes, Mike.
Q You're scheduled to meet with the secretary of Treasury -- secretary of the Treasury later this afternoon.
Tell me, there's a lot of talk now about another TARP-like vehicle about a so-called bad bank, to take care of more troubled assets. What has to happen, politically and as a matter of policy, before something like that could pass Congress?
SPEAKER PELOSI: What has to happen is we have to hear what the secretary has to say. He's a brand new secretary, as you know, and we look forward to hearing the initiative that the administration wants to take in this direction.
Yesterday, as you probably know, I met with Chairman Bernanke to get a update on where our economy is, where he sees it going and what some of the options are. And many of those options are decisions to be made by the Obama administration. So I will look forward to hearing from them before I have any comment on a --
Q So you're unaware of any plans like that, to have another bailout, another TARP?
SPEAKER PELOSI: I had thought -- I'll be very honest with you, Matt. I had thought before that, coming out of the Bush administration, and from the statements they had been making, that that was an inevitability. I'm not so sure that it is now, but I'll look forward to hearing what the administration has to say.
Q Madame Speaker, Jim Cooper of Tennessee --
SPEAKER PELOSI: Hi, Jim.
Q -- made some comments yesterday --
SPEAKER PELOSI: Oh, you're talking about Jim Cooper.
Q Oh, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER PELOSI: I'm hearing Jim Cooper of Tennessee. I said, "What a coincidence!" (Laughter.)
Q Made some comments -- made some comments over the weekend; said that he had gotten some quiet encouragement to sort of oppose House leadership on their approach to stimulus. Has anyone from the Obama administration clarified those comments? And what do you think of that?
SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, I think Mr. Cooper has clarified those comments. I think that he has put out a statement saying that that -- that he did not get that kind of encouragement from the White House.
Do we have a copy of his statement? Perhaps we can make it available to the gentleman.
Q You said he didn't get encouragement -- no, he didn't say he -- he indicated he got encouragement for his position of -- you know, a crusade against the spending in the bill.
SPEAKER PELOSI: You know what? I can't -- I don't talk about things that I really don't know about -- believe it or not. I don't know what he said, and I don't know what the distinction is that you are making. But the fact is that he has -- that I feel -- we put forth, again, a piece of legislation with a strategic mission of Barack Obama to take swift, bold action. We did so working with the administration, with the idea that the Senate would have their own ideas on the subject, and we would then reconcile.
That's what I'm talking about. Any individual person's agreement or disagreement or winks and nods that they think they received, you're just going to have to talk to them about it.
Q Speaking of the Blue Dogs, if --
SPEAKER PELOSI: Were we speaking about them?
Q Well, one of them, anyway.
SPEAKER PELOSI: Oh, I see. (Laughs.)
Q If the stimulus comes back from the Senate, goes into conference with the AMT attached, does that endanger -- does that endanger its potential in the House to pass? You know, you've got this perennial Blue Dog problem on the AMT. If it's attached to the stimulus, would it make it more difficult? And will you try to (get it out ?)?
SPEAKER PELOSI: You know what? Why don't we just wait to see -- why don't we wait and see what the Senate does, and when we see their product, then we can talk about what happens, and we go to reconcile the two bills. Then we'll talk about where we go from here. But let me say this very clearly: We will have a bill that will pass the House when we come out of the process with the Senate.
Q Speaker Pelosi, it's much easier to pass legislation through the House than it is in the Senate.
SPEAKER PELOSI: You notice that? (Laughter.)
Q There are a lot of changes being made to -- (laughter) -- (inaudible) -- being debated in the stimulus package in the Senate. If the -- if that package is changed substantially, will the House, you know, by and large just go along with many of those changes, or will there be a protracted conference negotiation?
SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, we'll just have to see what it is, now, won't we? Because it is -- they have another -- what, another day or two of their amendment process, and we'll just see what it is. But we -- this is the legislative process. You can't -- you can't say the bill passed my House and that's the bill I want to be signed by the president. You can want that, but you can't expect that that's going to be the case.
I think that you find us at a time -- just to enlarge the discussion -- where we're very comfortable about what the House has done, what we have put forth, that it respects the priorities of the president and the funding. We came in -- it was 850 (billion dollars) it was supposed to be; we came in at 819 (billion dollars), in fact, to leave room for the Senate to act upon some of their own initiatives and still be below the $900 billion that the president has said is the number he'd like it to be below.
So we feel comfortable, in our relationship and (it met ?) priorities and the rest, that we will have a bill. Now, we also feel comfortable in the opportunities we gave the Republicans to make their suggestions. Some of them are in the bill. If there's any give, maybe some of their suggestions may not be as important as they might have been when we had narrower prospects to choose from.
Q Madame Speaker? If the reinvestment act does fail in the Senate, is the House --
SPEAKER PELOSI: I'm sorry, if what?
Q If the reinvestment act, the stimulus, does fail in the Senate --
SPEAKER PELOSI: (Inaudible.)
Q -- is House democratic leadership prepared to go back to the negotiation table with Republicans and come up with a second plan?
SPEAKER PELOSI: First of all, I can't even think in terms of it failing on the Senate side. They have to pass their bill. And the bill that passes the Senate is the bill that is negotiated over there, not a bill that is negotiated over here. I think we've learned that over the years. So the passage on the Senate side is up to what happens on the Senate side, not to what happens on the House side.
Q Why would further action from the administration, to help the banks, not be inevitable? What's happened that --
SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, I don't know. I don't know what they're going to propose. I don't know whether they're talking about regulation reform. We know that's going to be an important part of their initiative. We're already working on that.
I think we marked up yesterday. I don't know if it's complete. The Financial Services Committee marked up a piece of the regulatory reform. There are different -- there are policy decisions that have to be made. And until they make their proposal, and I'm not sure we'll hear that today.
I think we will hear it when it is made public. Then I'm not going to talk about what we would do if they did this, under what circumstances would we do that. I'm just not going to waste anybody's time speculating, because until we see what it is --
Q (Off mike) -- something had changed that made you feel differently about the situation now.
SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, no. The way I interpreted Mike's question was TARP funds. If you're talking about something else that has to do with -- look, we are all for stabilizing our financial institutions. We're all for strengthening our economy. The administration will come forth with their initiative that does those two things, protects the system and the economy.
So we look forward to hearing from them on that. What form that request will make, we'll all find out together. I thought you were speaking just more of a continuation of the same approach that was taken by the Bush administration.
Q Specifically they talk about a bad bank, things of that nature, the formation of something to take over many of these troubled assets, which presumably would cost many more billions of dollars.
SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, we don't know that. We'll see what they ask for. But that's really a -- you're talking policy now in terms of how we would go forward and what are we talking about, the -- you know, the administrative cost of a bank or are we talking about a major infusion. We don't know until -- I'm not a speculator, in terms of answering questions that I don't know the basis of. When they tell us, I'll give you a comment.
Q Madame Speaker, is a week -- is a week realistic to get a conference report?
SPEAKER PELOSI: Yeah.
Q And if not, are you still going to stick by your pledge to keep members here even though your whip, James Clyburn, has to be in South Carolina for his daughter's wedding that Saturday?
SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, Mr. Clyburn's daughter's wedding is of the highest priority. I would never encourage anyone not to be at his daughter's wedding. In fact, I would encourage him to be there. But the -- we have to have legislation passed. And I believe that we will. I believe that we will.
It is -- it's pretty -- it's a pretty exciting time, because this legislation is, again, a step in turning around the ship of state, which is very difficult to do. And we have the excitement of the vitality of discussion of ideas.
I reject and House Democrats have rejected the same warmed-over stew of bad, failed economic policies of the Bush administration that got us where we are today. Instead, we're going in a new direction. We hope that we can work together to incorporate some of the constructive suggestions that our Republican colleagues have made. We have their net operating loss carryback. That was not my idea. I know that may come as a shock to you. That was not my idea to have that as a priority in this legislation. It was their -- and it is in there and it is substantial. Other ideas that they had did not get the majority of votes and so they're not in there.
But we, again, find it very invigorating to have this discussion of ideas, different thoughts about how we should go forward. We've made our mark, working with the Obama administration. Now we'll see what the Senate does. And I believe that we will be done in time.
And I thank you very much for coming today. We have --
Q Should carryback be taken out if it doesn't win any votes?
SPEAKER PELOSI: Say what?
Q Should carryback be taken out if it doesn't win any Republican votes?
SPEAKER PELOSI: It's an interesting question. Don't you think? (Laughter.)
END.
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