Contact: Speaker’s Press Office,

202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the Floor of the House of Representatives in support of H.R. 133, Omnibus Appropriations and Emergency Coronavirus Relief.  Below are the Speaker’s remarks:

Speaker Pelosi.  Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, for the recognition.  And I thank the gentlelady for bringing this important legislation to the Floor.  I thank you and Ranking Member Kay Granger for bringing this in a very strong, bipartisan way.

I spoke this morning at some length so it's on record as to my attitude here.  I salute the legislation that is here and urge it’s passage.  

But I do want to take a minute to thank Madam Chair [Nita Lowey].  She has served in the Congress for a long time.  We've – side-by-side over the years with Rosa DeLauro, Steny Hoyer and Mr. Clyburn as appropriators.  I have seen her values-based, astute political knowledge, her strategic thinking, her encyclopedic knowledge of the legislation produce the results, understanding what the traffic will bear and what the country needs, first and foremost.  So, Madam Chair, thank you.  I don’t know how many more times we will thank you.  But, hopefully, when the coronavirus goes away, we can all join in embracing your great leadership and expressing gratitude.  

And, as I do, Mr. Speaker, I want to just again take a moment in recognition of the other chairs who worked to make this legislation so, so effective: Richie Neal with direct payments, with the Employment Retention Tax Credit, with Unemployment Insurance, to name a few.  Congresswoman Velázquez, with small business.  Under her leadership, and working in a bipartisan way, small businesses, which are the heart of our economy, have received almost a trillion dollars in these coronavirus bills, almost a trillion dollars.   

And we support that, but I also would hope there would be some commensurate recognition of the jobs of small business and the jobs of state and local government.  They have only received $160 billion in all of these bills, $160 billion.  Does that sound familiar?  That's exactly the amount of money that the Republicans put in the CARES bill to give to the wealthiest in our country.  And, yet, for all the states and localities – and it was retroactive, having nothing to do with the coronavirus: $160 billion.  And they thought that was commensurate with the responsibilities of our health care workers, our state and local police and fire, first responders, transportation, sanitation, food workers, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers. 

So, yes, there is more work to do, and it will cost some money, but it will protect jobs and, most importantly, it will meet the needs of the American people: to crush the virus and to do so in a way that brings us all into the future in a very safe way. 

And I thank Congresswoman Velázquez for her extraordinary leadership in that regard.  Maxine Waters, coming to the needs of people: renters, landlords, et cetera, with her important legislation.  Of course we want more, but for now, this will see us through.  Her Community Development Financial Institutions legislation, her MDIs, making all that is available in the small business piece available to so many more people.  

Mr. Scott, Bobby Scott of Virginia: school, student loans, child care.  Thank you.  Thank you for making it right.  [Frank] Pallone, thank you, Mr. Pallone, for your leadership again and again.  Vaccines, the vaccine issue is so important; how it is delivered, how it is produced, distributed.  Going from vaccine to vaccination, from lab to arm, so much required and much of it is in this bill.  Testing, tracing, still needed – provide a relief fund that goes along with that and for broadband, the personal interest you took in broadband. 

Mr. DeFazio on transportation and WRDA.  Yesterday morning, we didn't even have WRDA in the bill.  That's why this all has taken longer to do.  So, I thank him for the important role he played.  You know about the airlines and the rest, but so much more.  Mr. Peterson on the nutrition.  People are hungry in our country and we had to fight for nutrition money, but I thank him for his persistence. 

And the advocacy of Jim McGovern, our champion on hunger in the Congress, as is Rosa DeLauro.  I don't know if she's here.  But Mr. McGovern has gone on hunger strikes and the rest and he really values what is in this bill on nutrition, to feed the hungry in our country.  And Mrs. Maloney on paying the Postal Service. 

Just a brief reference to them to say thank you.  This has been a long, difficult negotiation.  These chairs, their members of the committee and their staff have been invaluable.  Shalanda and Chris – I don’t know where Chris is?  Shalanda and Chris, thank you so much for making all of this happen. 

So, with that, Mr. Chairman, I reference the statement I made this morning about wanting one thing and another, about the attitude we have to this and the need for us to recognize this as a first step and that the need for us to address the important contribution that our health workers, our police and fire, first responders, sanitation, transportation, food workers, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers.

If we're going to have safe – be safely re-enter our economy and schools, we must crush the virus.  I have hope because of the [vaccine] – that's why we could support this bill.  It doesn't go all the way, but it takes us down the path, a first step.  I have hope because of the [vaccine] and I hope because of the election of Joe Biden as a President of the United States.  A president who will follow science.  He will follow science and he will recognize that we have to meet the needs of all of the American people, wherever they live in our country, especially addressing Barbara Lee’s concerns about the communities of color that have been underserved in so much what have we have done.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.  I yield back the balance of my time with great appreciation to Madam Chair, Nita Lowey.  Thank you.  Ranking Member Granger, thank you.

# # #