Speeches
Pelosi Opening Remarks at Today's House Democratic Leadership Press Conference
09/05/2007
On Democratic
Accomplishments and Fall Agenda
Speaker Pelosi. “In this first few months, we set out with an
agenda in the first 100 hours that we have seen come to fruition as we left for
the August recess.
“To make our country
safer, H.R. 1, the very first bill that Congress introduced and passed in the
Congress, the 9/11 Commission recommendations, has been signed into law by the
President. To grow our economy, we
passed our innovation agenda, which has been signed into law by the
President…we passed the minimum wage, which was signed by the President and now
is the law of the land. To restore
accountability to the Congress, to restore honest leadership and open
government, we passed the most far reaching ethics and lobbying reform bill,
which we sent to the President last night, which we anticipate that he will
sign.
“Next on our agenda is
to continue some of the work begun in the first 100 hours, making college more
affordable…It is the largest college aid package since the GI Bill in
1944. We will pass SCHIP, to strengthen
our families and children; to expand health care for the 6 million children who
are on SCHIP and to grow that number to 11 million children.
“To preserve our planet, we passed our energy independence and global warming legislation. There is more to come on that. We are looking forward to going to conference with the Senate on that legislation and anticipate that we will be sending the President a bill that we hope he can sign. Those are part of our priorities.”
"Good
afternoon. Welcome back. Or should you be saying that to us?
"It is with great pride that I stand before you today; pride
in the work of the first months of this 110th Congress. In this first few months, we set out with an
agenda in the first 100 hours that we have seen come to fruition as we left for
the August recess.
"To make our country safer, H.R. 1, the very first bill that
Congress introduced and passed in the Congress, the 9/11 Commission
recommendations has been signed into law by the President. To grow our economy, we passed our innovation
agenda, which has been signed into law by the President. Our commitment to competitiveness, to keep
"Next on our agenda is to continue some of the work begun in
the first 100 hours, making college more affordable. This afternoon there was a conference on that
bill. We anticipate it will come to the
floor soon so that we can send it to the President. It is the largest college aid package since
the GI Bill in 1944. We will pass SCHIP,
to strengthen our families and children; again, to expand health care for the 6
million children who are on SCHIP and to grow that number to 11 million
children.
"So, again, to defend our country, to grow our economy, to
strengthen our families, to restore accountability, I am very proud of what we
are accomplishing.
"To preserve our planet, we passed our energy independence
and global warming legislation. There is
more to come on that. We are looking
forward to going to conference with the Senate on that legislation and
anticipate that we will be sending the President a bill that we hope he can
sign. Those are part of our
priorities.
"Also part of that will be to rewrite the FISA bill so that
it has a better balance between liberty and security, and we of course know
that the American people want a new direction in
"September is a critical month. Right now, today, we are having hearings in
the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee. As you know, we also have a hearing next week
to hear the President's plan presented by General Petraeus and Ambassador
Crocker. After that, we will have
something to say on that subject.
"What we do know is that we are hearing ground truth in
"Now I am pleased to yield to some of the people that made
our successes possible. We work as a
leadership team. We work with great
unity in our caucus, and we passed most of our bills with strong bipartisan
support. We are very proud of that. It reflects a new direction in the Congress
and a new era of accountability.
"I am pleased to yield to the distinguished leader, Mr.
Hoyer."