Weekly House Democrats Press Conference 6.23.2021 | Building Back Better & Protecting Our Democracy

caucus priorities, working in partnership with the Biden administration, as well as our colleagues in the Senate from the very beginning, as we've been grappling with this deadly pandemic, which is both a public health crisis that has caused so much pain, suffering and death, as well as an economic crisis that has caused a tremendous amount of dislocation, particularly for the poor working families and middle class Americans. We've had three objectives, crush the virus, provide direct relief to everyday Americans who are struggling, and lay the foundation to revive our economy and create opportunity and prosperity in every single zip code that continues to be our objective as we are moving forward. And today we spent a talking about the fact that one of the most transformative parts of the American rescue plan will begin to take effect. And we need to make sure that every single American, every single constituent that we represent understands what's coming on July 15 of next month, when the child tax credit will take effect. And the average American family with children will see approximately $500 in relief every single month for the rest of the year and hopefully beyond it will lift more than half the American children who are currently in poverty out of poverty. And it will also benefit working families and middle class Americans more than 90% of the people in almost every single congressional district, families with children will benefit. It's transformative. And not a single Republican, not a single one voted for it. And so the reality is that we're continuing to advance the ball on behalf of everyday Americans. And they continue to play games in trying to suppress the vote and undermine our democracy. Now yield to our vice chair, Peter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, is it chairman mentioned the work that the American rescue plan was the focus of our caucus meeting and hearing firsthand from speakers and hearing from members over 200 house and senate members went to their districts and talked about the child tax credit up to $300 per child for working families. These are the benefits that have meaningful and lasting impacts for our communities back home. These are the things that our communities are concerned about. And we know time and time again, House Democrats continue to stand up to lift up our communities. We we thanked in the room we thanked Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro for her years of leadership on this issue. She has been a champion of the child tax credit, making it permanent, extending that benefit that individuals and families are going to see next month is so important and such a high priority for our caucus within the American families plan and the American jobs plan. We're going to continue to talk about these the 320 320 million vaccines in arms, rising wages, those are the priorities in our communities. Those are the things that we keep hearing time and time again, back home, and we're going to continue to build on that success. Those are the priorities that that we're focused on. There are many things here in DC, obviously that folks want to talk about, but meaning making meaningful, lasting change in our communities with those proposals and those policies that we've enacted is a forefront of our minds. Mr. Chairman. Thanks, Pete. Questions? I'm going to hear first and I'll come the other side. I'm confident at the end of the day, that we are going to be able to get the American jobs plan over the finish line in the same way that we got the American rescue plan over the finish line. But there's a process that has been set forth. The president has been very clear in his public conversations with the American people in his more intimate conversations with us through the administration, that he's committed to trying to achieve bipartisan progress in this area. Infrastructure has traditionally been bipartisan in nature, but it's the Republicans who may choose to politicize it. There's nothing partisan about a crumbling bridge or road or tunnel, crumbling airports, a mass transit system, the need to modernize our public school buildings to bring broadband access to every single corner of America in inner city America, rural America, small town America, Appalachia. There's nothing partisan about that. And so the question is, are the Republicans and Mitch McConnell simply going to continue to adopt the obstruction playbook? Or are they going to negotiate in good faith to try to find common ground? And I think you've seen we're willing to be patient to see if we can achieve a bipartisan result. And if not, we're prepared to do what's necessary to get the American jobs plan over the finish line. And yesterday, your fellow New Yorker, Congressman Bowman, suggested on the House side, fixing up the block legislations, block actions, such as on New York. How concerned are you about that given the slim democratic margin in the House? And are you having any conversations with the presses? I haven't had a conversation with Congressman Bowman about this particular point. I look forward to having that discussion with him. I'm confident that at the end of the day, as we were united with the American rescue plan, we'll be united with the American jobs plan. But we have to see what the ultimate product is before we're in a position to really meaningfully comment. I'll also ask our vice chair to weigh in. I think the House Democratic Caucus, the speaker and others have been clear that we believe a meaningful investment in the caring economy, in long term care, in home care, in childcare, in caring for our seniors, in health care, is important for the American people emerging from a deadly pandemic, where the president has been very clear that we cannot go back to pre pandemic normal, because pre pandemic normal was a problem for so many everyday Americans, which is why investing in the caring economy is going to be an incredibly important part of what we attempt to accomplish and will accomplish for the people this year. What the vehicle ultimately is to do that remains to be seen. But we have an ironclad commitment to the American people to meaningfully invest in the caring economy. The Senate is going to take whatever process that they that they want to take. That's not going to deter us from that commitment that the chairman that the chairman mentioned. So we're going to focus and I want to give credit next week, we're going to have Chairman Defazio's Invest in America Act on the floor. This was a bill that passed in a bipartisan way at a committee, reducing emissions, reducing traffic, creating hundreds of 1000s of jobs. That is the infrastructure focus that our committees continue to work within regular order. Like the chairman said, if there are other vehicles to achieve, achieve change in a lasting way, we're going to do that. And so we'll let those conversations play out. But that's not going to stop us from continuing to advance our objectives to create jobs and to help our economies. Well, the deck has been stacked for far too long, in the opinion of many of us against everyday Americans, and in favor of some of these gigantic companies that have intensified their concentration of market power, perhaps to the detriment of the American people of a competitive marketplace and to the detriment of the public good. But a markup is in place for purposes of being able to have a debate on behalf of the American people in front of the American people. And I expect that it will be a spirited debate. I expect that all of these bills will pass with bipartisan support, particular piece of legislation that I'm carrying, would simply change the burden requirements, which currently falls on the Federal Trade Commission to demonstrate that when there is a proposed tech merger, that that merger would have an anti-competitive impact. The burden basically falls on the through the FTC to prove that something shouldn't happen. That burden is misplaced in the view of many of us. The burden should actually fall on these companies that have an enormous amount of power, wealth, and market concentration to demonstrate that the proposed acquisition should happen and would not undermine the competitive marketplace. That seems to me to be a common sense approach. And it also happens to have bipartisan support. Well, there's a conversation, I think, as everyone knows, that's going to take place this afternoon between high level members of the administration, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer. I'd expect that we'll get some more clarity coming out of that meeting as to when this is all going to come together. Everything has sort of come back to the lobby opening yesterday. The only thing that's left since the remainder of the pandemic is proxy voting. Are your members hoping to win this public hearing and to end it next week to coming back to voting in person? Or is there a push from your members to keep proxy voting? Yeah, I haven't had a lot of discussion with members, and I'll yield to Pete as well on this particular question. I think all along, we've been guided by the public health professionals by the capital physician in terms of what the recommendations are as it relates to the concentration of members or the ability to travel and travel safely, which is what yielded the need to engage in proxy voting in the first instance. And I think the speaker has been very clear with respect to the covered period being extended, that we're going to follow the public health guidance moving forward. There hasn't been a strong push one way or the other as it relates to proxy voting that I've felt, and I'll yield to Pete to see what his thoughts are on the matter. I would just say that this has been incredibly helpful, and we know that Republican members have utilized this as well, proxy voting. But I would reject that things have completely changed and gone back to normal. We still have 20-minute votes. We are still being asked to be safe. We are still encouraging folks to get vaccinated, and some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have not. And we would encourage others, we would encourage them to tell their constituents, to tell their communities to get vaccinated as well with the increasing variant spread. So we're going to follow the public health guidance, and it has nothing to do with the politics of this place. It has to do with making sure that members are safe, making sure that people can get here, and be here, and carry on this business. That's what our members are focused on. But just like the chairman, I haven't had a lot of conversations with members about this specific issue, but we're carrying on the business of the people. We're marking up bills, we're getting them to the floor, we're voting on them on the floor, and so we're going to continue to carry forward with the business. Is there a question there? I guess I would just, you know, continue to say no member has specifically told me that they are not coming back until 100%. So I haven't heard that. I haven't seen anything to that point. I think when we're at home, and most of us were back home this weekend, I was in the west end of Coney Island, one of the poorest parts of the congressional district I represent. Nobody was asking about proxy voting. We were handing out food to people who are struggling through this pandemic. The American people are concerned. Important question in terms of process. But we're going to continue to focus on the concerns of the American people. How do they put food on the table? How do they pay the rent? How do they educate their children? How do they shelter their family? And that is what the American Rescue Plan was all about. That's what the American Jobs Plan is all about. That's what the American Families Plan is all about. And that's what House Democrats are all about. But we want to continue to move forward to protect and defend the right to vote in America. And that's going to take two forms. The For the People Act, H.R.1, as well as H.R.4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And it's extraordinary to me that the Senate is becoming an institution because of the Republicans that is primarily concerned with defending the status quo on behalf of the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected, and undermining our democracy. And the Senate's going to have to work out how to deal with some of the procedural obstacles to progress. But the word filibuster does not appear in the United States Constitution. And they're going to have to take a look at how to proceed. And I know those conversations are underway. With respect to H.R.4, the Supreme Court was very clear in striking down portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in the Shelby County versus Holder decision in terms of what it thought Congress should do in order to make the Voting Rights Act hold. And so we're following that process, which involves a series of hearings and testimony that we receive, and reports ultimately that are compiled. That process will be underway over the next few months. And I expect that at some point in the fall, we'll pass H.R.4, send it over to the Senate, and hopefully the Senate, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, can get their act together in terms of defending and protecting the right to vote, which is fundamental to our democracy. And voter suppression for the Republicans is a way of life. It's a strategy. They are worshiping at the altar of voter suppression. That's a disgrace. And we're going to have to do something about it, and we will. I don't want to comment on any particular change until we are able to view any revised bill in its entirety. I do know that Joe Manchin has had some very productive conversations with civil rights groups and leaders like Stacey Abrams, and I believe that there is common ground to be found. The Senate Democrats are united in protecting the right to vote. 50 of them voted to advance the For the People Act yesterday, 50 Republicans voted to suppress the ability of the American people to participate in government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Thank you.