LIVE: House Speaker Pelosi Holds Weekly Press Conference

Yeah, it's afternoon night. We're right now having the defense National Defense Authorization Act on the floor So we're very excited about the fact of bringing up under suspension hope to have a very strong bipartisan Bill, but I'll get to that further But first, I mean the joy the pride the euphoria that we feel today having passed the Respect for Marriage Act a landmark decision Landmark law changing the law for full equality So it is a glorious day here in the house Now the federal government will never stand in the way of anyone marrying the person you love This morning was also a moment of personal pride Signing signing this legislation is one of the last bills that I signed in the enrollment ceremony as speaker of the house It was my first speech on the floor When they I was sworn in and had just a look a moment to speak was about the I've come here to fight against HIV and AIDS That was my very first words on the floor of the house and one of the final bills as speaker the first time around that I signed December 2010 was the repeal of don't ask don't tell So now here we are now and we have the repeal and we have the Respect for Marriage Act and what it does It It repeals certain things How wonderful is it that on the same day that Brittany Griner is going to be free? Thank you President Biden. Thank you to Secretary of State and other national security people and to my colleague Greg Stanton who represents Arizona Phoenix, Arizona in the Congress He has brought her here. We have met her When she was here playing and basketball and Now today she is free free to go home to her wife on the same day that we passed the Marriage Protection Act so we are respect for marriage the Respect for Marriage Act. So we're just Her freedom is a gift to the world to all of us our gift to her is this legislation that her marriage is protected wherever She may She may live her wife Cheryl and she and their family will have a holiday season Without worrying about whether their marriage is protected again We commend President Biden our colleague Greg Stanton was the Secretary of State and the others and I saw on my way over to vote to speak on the floor on the merit the defense bill that Paul Whelan has said that the president made the right decision in getting her to be free as we're all Committed to his freedom as soon as possible So we have the National Defense Authorization Act on the floor as I said to you It's going to be very strongly bipartisan. There's so many Initiatives in there that support our workforce Men and women in uniform and their families and so we're urging a strong Democratic vote in that regard The number is higher and so some there's some reluctance about a higher defense bill But our needs are greater and many of the needs of our men and women in uniform are Where we have increased our funding in the bill. I salute sir, the chairman Adam Smith and ranking member Mike Rogers I just commit commend to both of them but spoke personally with both of them to thank them for bringing this legislation to the floor as With all legislation. We did not get everything we wanted, but we did advance Honoring our oath of office to protect and defend This year Democrats fought for and won Kenny provisions in it and I want to point those out 4.6% pay raise for service members strengthening the fight against sexual harassment in the military a Step forward from where we were last year, which was good This is better making it easier for federal firefighters who contract certain diseases to qualify for federal workers compensation historic investments in defense research at HBC use and other minority serving institutions requiring the government contracts to use American made semiconductors per our chips and science legislation But it's in this bill to promoting American global leadership by investing in our alliances almost 20 billion dollars between Europe and Asia and Landmark ocean conservation package very important, especially 40% of the population lives on the coast Including on the Great Lakes and so this legislation is very important We did defeat the Republicans extreme attack on health freedom Ensuring our troops can travel to access full Services reproductive service including abortion if stationed in an anti-choice state So that was sustained in this legislation Meanwhile that Congress remains hard at work on an omnibus government. You're interested in that right the omnibus bill, maybe me too under the tireless leadership of chair Rosa DeLauro and she is She has more she's not 24-7. She's more like more hours and more days intensely onto this Making a bipartisan progress to assembling an omnibus. It must be bipartisan Let me clear our strong strong preference is to have a bipartisan Omnibus bill we still see a pathway to achieving that However, if we don't have it, we may be forced to put forth a year-long CR I don't like that But it's much better than the poison that might befall us in another kind of bill This is the last resort in doing so would leave many critical government services including the Defense Department inadequately funding the airhead Secretary Austin has been Relentless relentlessly relentless CR is not an answer for us We need the additional funding that would be in the bill some of which was in the Authorization that I discussed earlier last week separate but secretary Austin in writing warned that failure to pass the honors will result in serious harm significant harm to our people and our programs and would calm cause harm to our national security and our Competitiveness he wrote to all of us all the leaders. I'll close with this This week we awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to our heroes of January 6 2021 in one of our nation's darkest hours. These law enforcement officers bravely stood in the breach Stared down deadly violence and ensured our Republic survived that day We remain grateful for their service and sacrifice Defending not only our Capitol our Congress, but our Constitution All of us take the oath of office to preserve Protect and defend the Constitution Which is the bedrock of our democracy? That's what they did that day Clearly honoring the sacred oath is not a priority shared by our former president You got first last time Well, he himself has said the president did the right thing Paul Allen, he himself said the president did the right thing. I saw that as I was going to the floor the We are fully everyone is fully committed Brittany being a basketball star and her name was more famous to everyday Americans But Paul Allen is of at least equal concern to us to have his freedom So that nobody is saying oh, well, we just settled for this. No, he becomes even a larger priority Well, he has served most of his term is my understanding majority of his term I Agree with their characterization of who he is this bad guy But the fact is we wanted Brittany Geiner Geiner Freed and that's what that's the leverage that we had to do just that Well, what is really even more curious is that there were eight people who voted for it in its first form That we sent over to the Senate what came back was more in their direction It was not as strong as our original bill, although it's strong but wasn't as strong as what we had and you wonder why Before the election they voted for it. Did they see that to be their advantage and after the election they voted against it, but the We're so proud of this This is America has always been about expanding freedom always in our country until the Dobbs decision and that was that was most unfortunate because it took us in the opposite direction of expanding freedom and also the secretary the Justice was very clear and saying what he said would be at risk and one of them was marriage equality And so we had to make it a statute the law of the land not at the discretion of the Justice Department Because the Justice Department already upheld Already upheld it's the the constitutionality of Marriage equality So now he was going to say we're going to revisit that despite everything they've ever said about prior Privacy in the Constitution and precedent in the court. He was putting on the table that that might be a Victim of his misguided attitudes, so this was important Yeah Let me just say that I'm a sports fan and what I love about sports is I don't have to get involved in policy It's all about the numbers. It's all about the numbers. It's interesting that they've changed their names to the commanders. I Quite frankly have not read that that report so I cannot speak with any authority on it But I would not be an expert in that in that regard. I do I'm excited about the progress our San Francisco 49ers are making. I'm a big supporter of the Ravens In fact, I think I told you this But when my husband was assaulted and in that horrible situation when he came out of surgery my son was the first one to talk to him when he could talk and he said Mommy's on her way home on the plane from DC. And the first thing he said coming out of surgeries Oh, she's going to be so happy because the Ravens won last night That was Thursday night football. Yes, Jake Yeah Yeah, I do you remember that Yeah as an appropriator myself, I know that left to their own devices They can come to a conclusion and a fair one What influence their leaders have on that decision to say they want to cut the DoD here? Here's what it always is. We have a big defense number as I said on the floor We need a bigger defense number because not only to keep us qualitatively and Technologically ahead of the game and that takes some money Also, we have first and foremost the concern of our men and women in uniform a pay raise housing allowance Help to the commissary so that their food Costs are lower and the list goes on in terms of what it means is a quality of life of our men and women in Uniform so we we support that and it really a very large amount of money would be in the appropriations bill Which we would be have been willing to recognize and to do The issue at hand is did you know? Did you all know that veterans are not a security? They don't come under security They come under they don't come under defense. They come under judiciary. Excuse me domestic. They don't come under defense They come under NDD non-defense Discretionary spending more on the subject than you want to know. So the more we do for our veterans, which we are we should do they want to Take it out of other needs that we have for our judiciary for our housing for education for food for transportation for energy for all look at the look at the Cabinet and see the different categories that we have a responsibility for so if you if we're increasing veterans at the expense of our domestic agenda then you see how Challenging that is so we have suggested for years now that we have to veterans in their own category So that we can it's not at anybody's expense that we are Because our veterans they tell me we need our veterans and benefits We need the VA we need all of that, but we also need food stamps and we need Medicaid We need other things that are in the domestic side of the budget. So that's the How do we and as as you said, they said well you have your domestic. We know we were fighting a pandemic that's what the Those first bills were about because they don't just name reconciliation they name other other bills as well So that's what we call Legislating and we'll just have to get it done But if not, we may just have to go to a CR which would be most unfortunate we have to weigh it against how unfortunate would be if they Cannibalized the domestic budget at the expense of the defense budget. We need them both Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am Well, I said all along I support whatever the committee recommends whatever the committee recommends But in order for that to happen, they have to have the votes and that's what we're waiting to hear It could be that they could get something that could be ready next week But I have oh, I've said whatever the committee recommends I support among the people who have been advocating they have some Disagreements who wants this more than that who wants this one and they'll just have to as we do when we legislate Come to a conclusion so that we could have the legislation which I hope that we will have Okay, Chad What is he talking about? Is he is this biblical? Is he speaking in biblical terms now? Fox News goes biblical. Let's go What do you got? I Think that's a question for the Republicans You're saying they're saying we should have the defense bill passed now But we we're not going to do this funding until next year. It's totally inconsistent Unsafe and the rest so you just have to ask them that but it is it just shows you how Determined they are Not to invest in the American people The education the strength of our nation is of course related to our military might and we recognize that whether it's how In terms of technology and the rest we take ourselves to a new place and not just old ways of thinking about Defense and that's what this Authorization bill takes a giant step to do but our military our strength by nation is also measured in the health education well-being of the American people Certainly our men and women in uniform and their families But beyond that and what I love about this, but one of the things that I like about this bill Scratch that love about the bill. One of the things I like about this bill is that it has a bit major investment in HPC use historically back colleges and universities and other minority serving Institutions to make sure that our defense has the benefit of the thinking of everyone in our community Wherever they are in our economy our society and our ethnicity. So it's about How you measure our strength and we think our strength cannot ignore the health education well-being of the American people which is what the NDD is about the non-defense discretionary spending. Thank you all very much. Thank you so much Well, we've done all right