9.24.24 Weekly Press Conference

Good morning. The Vice Chair and I are grateful to be joined by incredible leaders within our caucus, Nakima Williams and Sarah Jacobs. House Democrats have said from the beginning of this Congress that we will be ready to work in a bipartisan way to get things done for the American people whenever and wherever possible. But we are also going to call out extremism when it exists. And there is no greater example of Republican extremism than Trump's Project 2025. Should extreme MAGA Republicans be successful in winning the House, the Senate, and the presidency, they have created the blueprint in a 920-page roadmap that lays out exactly how they plan to govern. Under their plan, Project 2025 criminalizes abortion, hurts middle-class families, to help the wealthy and well-connected, and ends Social Security as we know it. It gives Donald Trump unchecked presidential power and unparalleled control over the American people. It is both deeply troubling and deeply unpopular because of the work of House Democrats, Leader Jeffries, Whip Clark, Jared Huffman, our own Vice Chair Ted Lieu, and the leaders behind me to put a spotlight on this dangerous plan. We know that House Republicans are in trouble because they are running scared any time we mention Project 2025. Later today, the Steering and Policy Committee will convene a hearing of hardworking Americans who will testify about what Project 2025 would mean to them in their daily lives. Don't just take our word for it. Listen to the abortion care providers and seniors who have to ration insulin who will courageously share their stories. House Democrats are fighting for them, as House Republicans are fighting to give Donald Trump more control of our daily lives. I'll turn it over to Vice Chair Ted Lieu. Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. Trump's Project 2025 isn't just a radical document. It's a document that Republicans this term have tried to implement through a series of appropriations bills. As Chairman Aguilar said, we're having a hearing today that the Steering and Policy Committee is hosting at 2.15 in HBC 215. I hope you all can make it. I want to thank Jared Huffman earlier this year for starting the Project 2025 Task Force. This is 920 pages of crazy. That's what Project 2025 is, with deadly consequences. I'm going to go through just three of the insane things in that document. Project 2025 wants to eliminate the Department of Education. That is on page 319 of the document. Project 2025 also wants to eliminate the National Weather Service. Think about that. We've got a hurricane coming into Georgia and Florida. This is what Project 2025's authors want to do. They want to eliminate the National Weather Service. That's on page 675 of the document. Get this. Project 2025 wants to allow children to work in hazardous conditions. Who comes up with this crazy stuff? That's on page 595 of the document. Again, I hope you all come to this hearing. Let me now introduce our amazing member from Georgia, the great Nakima Williams, who will talk about reproductive freedom and Project 2025. Thank you, Vice Chair Liu and Chairman Aguilar. Good morning, everyone. I'm Congresswoman Nakima Williams, and I proudly represent Georgia's fighting 5th Congressional District. I'm a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus and Vice Chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus. But y'all, before I came to Congress, I served as the VP of Public Policy at Planned Parenthood Southeast for 10 years. I will always carry with me the stories that I heard from people we served on the front lines just about how hard they had to fight to get the essential abortion care that they needed and deserved. This was long before the overturning of Roe v. Wade that was orchestrated by Donald Trump and his Republican Party. We're seeing the deadly result of abortion bans in around the country. Just last week, ProPublica reported on the death of two Georgia women, Candy Miller and Amber Thurman, who died because they couldn't receive the care that they desperately needed. Let me say that again. Candy Miller and Amber Thurman died because of Georgia's inhumane abortion ban that was ushered in by Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans. These were preventable deaths. As a mama, I'm heartbroken. And as a Georgian, as an elected official, I'm pissed, y'all, because it doesn't have to be this way. These were policy decisions. But let me be clear. It could get even worse. Trump's Project 2025 would lead to more heartbreak and more preventable deaths. Project 2025 would ban abortion nationwide, criminalizing patients and doctors, making it impossible for people to get the care that they need. Abortion is essential health care. One in four women will access abortion care at some point in their lives. And that's not one in four Democratic women, not one in four Republican or independent women. That's someone you know, someone you love, someone you go to church with, someone you grew up with, someone in your family. One in four women, y'all. I will continue to fight alongside House Democrats to protect reproductive freedom in the face of extreme Republican abortion bans and the looming threat of Trump's Project 2025, which will ban abortion nationwide. We will restore the reproductive freedom that Trump and House Republicans bragged about taking away. And we will ensure that every person can get the care that they need. Thank you so much. And I'll now turn it over to another co-conspirator for justice in our caucus, Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs. Well, thank you, Chairman Aguilar, Vice Chair Lou Nakima for really highlighting the stakes here. So I've spent the past few months traveling the country talking to young people, college students, women. I'm a 35 year old woman. So basically, this is a topic I talk about all the time with my friends and peers. And here's the deal. All of these young people are terrified about Project 2025. And so am I. So not only would Project 2025 make it difficult or impossible to access abortion, birth control, emergency contraception and other reproductive services, as my colleague Nakima highlighted, it would also authorize a pregnancy surveillance system. So even if you live in a state like California, like I do, where we have strong state level abortion and privacy laws, you would not be protected. Every abortion, every miscarriage, every stillbirth, every pregnancy loss, every pregnancy, even abortions and pregnancy losses that result from medical treatment would be logged and reported to the federal government and used to monitor pregnancies. Project 2025 would supersede HIPAA. It would nullify doctor patient confidentiality and it would reject our right to privacy. And pretty soon, it would be used to weaponize health data against patients and providers in court. We've already seen this happen. In 2017, Mississippi police charged Latice Fisher after digging into her Google search history and finding that she searched how to buy Miss a postal abortion pill online. In 2022, Nebraska police used Facebook messages between a mother and a daughter, private Facebook messages to prosecute an abortion that was illegal under state law. Now imagine how much more this would happen if there was a centralized treasure trove of this information of this data. Now, House Democrats, we want to protect the sensitive data and we have a bill to do it. My body, my data act. House Democrats, we want to strengthen HIPAA for the post row era, not gut it. And we have a bill to do that. The Safer Health Act. But you know who stands in the way? MAGA Republicans. House Democrats will continue to fight to protect patient privacy, protect their right to make their own health decisions and protect them from abortion and pregnancy surveillance. So thank you so much. And now I will turn it over to Chairman Aguilar for questions. Thank you so much, Sarah and Nikema for joining us. Questions. Look, I think the core of the question is about governing, and I don't think there's any question that House Democrats want to govern. You'll see tomorrow how many House Democrats versus House Republicans vote to avoid a shutdown. You've seen this year when we passed an omnibus bill, where House Democrats stood. When we funded aid to Israel and Ukraine, you saw exactly where House Democrats were in contrast to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. House Democrats want to govern. I've said before from this podium, we wake up every day trying to get to yes on bills and legislation, no matter who is in the majority, because we know we want to help people. We want to make a difference in the lives of folks in our community. And you do that by passing legislation and beating back against terrible ideas and legislation like Project 2025. So I don't think there's any question that House Democrats will work with anyone anywhere to fund government, to fund our military, to protect our troops, to support Social Security and Medicare, to protect a woman's right to reproductive freedom. Those are the things that we're fighting for. And if we have an omnibus or a CR or a policy that does that, we're going to work to accomplish that. Well, first, House Democratic Caucus wants to ensure that there's stability in the region. We want to make sure that we deescalate as much as we can, to the extent possible, what is happening. I've also said from this podium that Israel has a right to defend itself. Hezbollah has indicated that they want the destruction of the state of Israel. Those are very real statements, and Israel is acting. But to the extent that we can, we need to lower the temperature. Ranking Member Meeks shared with the caucus that he was having phone calls and conversations with folks around the globe to do just that. We need to continue to do that in the days and weeks ahead. Hi, thank you for asking the question. I represent San Diego, the largest military community in the country, and I'm the youngest Jewish member of Congress. So this is an issue I am following very closely and think about a lot. I think the most important thing is to continue working towards making sure we get to a ceasefire deal that will get the hostages home and will save and protect the people's lives in Gaza. And we know that that ceasefire deal that the Biden administration has been working day in and day out trying to get done is the key to de-escalating tensions in the rest of the region. When we see something that is offensive, and you've seen us act in unison when that's happened, but depicting the only Palestinian American in Congress as a terrorist is shameful. And we need to continue to eliminate and speak out against Islamophobia. And Leader Jeffrey Zwick-Clark and I stand by the statement that we put out. Pablo? So Speaker Johnson said that he was a free, fair, and safe Republican. Do you believe him, given his arguments in the military alliance? He doesn't have a track record that would indicate to the American people that he should be believed. He was the chief architect of the House Republican legal strategy to turn back a free and fair election. So the metric that he's using is a little curious. And so I think that gives us all a bit of heartburn. Look, at the end of the day, the one thing that we can control is to ensure that it is a free and fair election, which I'm confident it will be. And to ensure that when those votes are counted on January 6th of next year, Speaker Jeffries is the one with the authority. And so January 3rd becomes incredibly important before January 6th when the new Congress comes in. Those are hypotheticals, and we're not going to go down that route. But what I would say is, history is always our guide. And Speaker Johnson doesn't have any credibility when it comes to certifying free and fair elections. Vice Chair Liu? I just want to note that standing here today, Republicans still cannot explain who purportedly stole the election or how it was done, because the election wasn't stolen. There has been 60 court cases that looked at all their bizarre claims brought by Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump. And the courts looked at the facts and rejected all of those cases. I'm confident that our election officials across America are doing their public service. They're going to run elections in a fair and impartial manner. And then we'll see how America votes this November. From a state perspective, Nikima Williams. We have heard time and time again that Georgia's 2020 election was free and fair, and Donald Trump lost on the ballot. He lost in every subsequent recount. But yet still, the Republicans in our state that are supported by Speaker Johnson have introduced legislation this past legislative session and passed a rule on the State Board of Elections just last Friday that makes it their option if they certify our state results. They now want a hand count of all of the ballots in each county. Georgia has 159 counties, so that is 159 ways that our elections will be certified in the state of Georgia, which is a battleground state. They're trying to set the case so that as if it is a free and fair election, so that they can sow doubt in the election process and create chaos and confusion. We are going to continue to do the work to ensure that when people show up to cast their ballots, their votes will be counted and certified. That's what House Democrats stand for, free and fair elections. So thank you for your question. I simply note that Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries established this House AI bipartisan task force, and I assume they wouldn't have done that if they didn't expect the task force to do its work and put out recommendations that they would like to follow. So we're done with our hearings and now we're in the process of drafting the report. I don't know if Speaker Johnson or Scalise have been following everything that's been happening in the task force, so it's not clear to me they know the details, but it's been a very bipartisan task force. I think we're going to come up with a report that's going to talk about the kinds of AI we should regulate and how we might want to go about doing so. I think a lot also depends on what happens on November 5th. And I also just note that under Republican control this term in the Congress, we've just had trouble keeping the lights on. So it's not like AI is any different in terms of other issues that the Republicans have not gotten to because they are so chaotic and dysfunctional. So if there's a new makeup of Congress, I think you're going to see some legislation come through. Max? He also said it was righteous to stand by a six-month CR with poison pills attached to it. So things change and we'll continue to work in a bipartisan, bicameral way. I don't think that's a position shared by Senate Democrats and Republicans. We'll get through the politics of November and the politics of leadership elections, and then we'll go from there. But our responsibility is to fund government and to make sure that we're doing right by our constituents and we'll do that. We haven't whipped it to my knowledge. Catherine Clark would be the one to answer that question. But clearly for a suspension, we need two-thirds. So we're is that by Speaker Johnson doing this, that he has the Republicans to pass the bill. So we'll work in a bipartisan way to make sure that this gets done. Take another shot. Go ahead. I'll ask Sarah to clean up all the things that I don't mention here. But Secretary Blinken has been collaborative. He's shared documents. He's made his staff available. The times at which the committee has asked him to come forward, he has been negotiating a ceasefire deal, or today, supporting the president and having bilateral and multilateral meetings as part of the UN General Assembly. So not exactly good faith by asking him to come and testify today. So we don't feel that this is a warranted step, but I'll let Sarah talk about the specifics. Yeah, look, the House Foreign Affairs Democrats understand that this is a purely political effort to hold Secretary Blinken in contempt. After their partisan investigation, cherry-picked misleading report, they're now seeking to continue the political theater and trying to turn it into an election issue. Secretary Blinken has already and clearly communicated that he's willing to testify. He's engaged today doing his job in a series of critical meetings at the UN General Assembly in New York, including debating Russian and Chinese foreign ministers at the UN Security Council to counter their narratives on Russia's unjust war in Ukraine, hosting a meeting of the Global Coalition on Synthetic Drugs to lead the global fight against fentanyl. He's meeting with the UN Secretary General during a time of unprecedented refugee crises and conflicts. And he's securing financial commitments for the Lobito Corridor in Africa to China's Belt and Road Initiative. But Republicans are baselessly accusing him of obstruction despite his full cooperation with the committee's investigation. And they're rushing to hold him in contempt despite multiple efforts made on his behalf to find a compromise. So I think it's clear that the timing of these proceedings is entirely political. It's not about accountability. And to me, as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and someone who's worked at the State Department and the UN and knows the very real issues that we're facing, and as the representative of the largest military community in the country, who knows the cost of this war better than most, using Congress's power in order to just be obstructionist and political, to me, is pretty shameful. Thank you, folks.