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Nancy Pelosi Holds Press Conference; Infrastructure Negotiations. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 28, 2021 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:19]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to NEWSROOM.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Any moment now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will speak to reporters on this crucial day for Democrats. Now, this morning, President Biden tried to rally his party to save his domestic agenda. The president is now headed to Europe. And he visited Capitol Hill to push a framework for his social safety net package.

A source says the president laid out the stakes, and they are high. He told House Democrats that his presidency and Democrats' control of Congress will be determined by what happens in the next week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No one got everything they wanted, including me. But that's what compromise is. That's consensus. And that's what I ran on.

I've long said compromise and consensus are the only way to get big things done in a democracy, important things for the country.

I know it's hard. I know how deeply people feel about the things that they fight for. But this framework includes historic investments in our nation and in our people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So the president is speaking there as if this were a done deal. But progressives do not seem to be on board yet.

So joining us now, we have CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash and CNN's Manu Raju, who has been tracking every step of the negotiations from Capitol Hill.

So, Manu, we know Nancy Pelosi was hoping to have a vote today on that bipartisan infrastructure bill, so the president could have a win as he heads off overseas. Is that going to happen? MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the question

right now is when Nancy Pelosi comes out here, how committed is she to having that vote today? She has made clear behind closed doors to her caucus that that vote is going to happen today.

When Joe Biden addressed the Democratic Caucus, he wanted both bills to pass, a larger plan that has not been drafted into legislative text and that separate infrastructure bill. Then Pelosi came on right after and she said she wants that vote to happen today.

And a number of members got up and cheered and said vote, vote, vote. And then other members sat down. Those members who were not applauding are progressives. And they have the votes to tank this if they want to. And at the moment, they are threatening to tank this because they believe that, if they were to vote yes now, they would give away substantial leverage on that larger bill, in their view, is not done being negotiated.

And there are significant changes that some of them want made to the bill. And just moments ago, the leader of the Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, made clear that, if the vote on the infrastructure bill comes up today, it will go down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Too many no-votes for the bill to pass today.

However, we are committed to staying here until we get this Build Back Better Act done, get the legislative text. We enthusiastically endorse the framework that the president laid out today for the Build Back Better Act.

And, look, this was hard too because there are things that aren't in there that people -- their hearts are breaking. Our hearts are breaking, all the women here, all the families. Paid leave is not in the framework that the president laid out. And it's breaking our hearts.

And we hope maybe something changes, but at least with the framework that is there, we can endorse that in principle. We can -- but we do need to have the legislative text and we will vote both bills through together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, Bernie Sanders just told me that he agrees with that position. He says it is not unreasonable for them to expect all 50 Democrats in the Senate to say they will support this bill, the larger bill when it is drafted and, at that point, perhaps move forward, but not move forward on that infrastructure bill today.

And that one hold -- done of the two holdouts here was Joe Manchin, the key voice here. I just asked him if he is supporting this framework. He would not say. He said he needs to see the legislative text. And he also said that -- this when I asked him about criticism from liberals, who say that they are compromising and he is not.

He said that he is working in good faith. And he continued to reiterate that, so -- but he would not take a position the overall bill here. So a lot of questions here at a key moment. But behind closed doors, Pelosi made the case to her members, she said, vote for this infrastructure bill today, but do not embarrass the president as he's going overseas.

We will see if that message takes hold -- guys.

BLACKWELL: Yes, we will see if that vote happens.

Dana, let me come to you.

You have got Cori Bush, Representative Bush, saying that she feels bamboozled, and Speaker Pelosi saying this party needs some trust and confidence. That seems to be lacking from each faction. Just address or assess, I should say, where the Democratic Party is today.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The good news for the Democratic leadership is the reason that they have a majority in the House and the Senate is because there are big differences.

They come from different places, different kinds of districts, from ruby red West Virginia to the Bronx in New York. And so that is the reality that the House speaker and the president are dealing with.

[14:05:12]

The difference between now and say, even -- I would -- 10 years ago, when I was covering the hill or even before that, is that the kind of members who have been elected to the House in particular are different. And they're different in that they don't have the patience that their predecessors had.

They don't have the reverence for the process. And they would use and they do use process in a negative way, because they say that there has been too much patience, there has been too much kicking the can down the road, because -- in the name of compromise, and that if they don't use the leverage that they have that Manu was talking about, then things will never get done.

And that is the reality of a real culture clash happening now.

CAMEROTA: We're just checking to see if we saw Speaker Pelosi walking in there. We see a lot of movement around the podium. Looks like we have a little bit more time to talk, but we will cut you off when we can.

So, Many, if they're both -- if both the progressives and the Joe Manchins of the world want to see the text, why don't they just write the text?

RAJU: Yes, I'm actually told that they're actually trying to write the text at the moment. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader of the Senate, just told Democrats on a private meeting, I'm told, that they are actually drafting that bill. They're trying to put it together. He hopes that the House can actually introduce that legislative text sometime today. Now, that remains to be seen if they can do that.

Writing legislation is a very, very complicated process. They have been trying to do it along the way. But a lot of this stuff has not been negotiated up until the last minute. So can they actually get the bill together? And will that be enough to convince progressive to vote yes?

Because some say the text is not enough. They actually need to have a vote in the House approving it at the same time. So that's another question once -- if they do release it, will that be enough to convince progressives to back the infrastructure bill?

BASH: And can I just add one thing while we wait for the speaker?

It's something that Manu was just reporting on, playing the sound from Pramila Jayapal, who, of course, is the chair of the Progressive Caucus. While they're saying, hold on, Madam Speaker, we don't want to vote until we see the legislative text, until we can vote on these two bills together, that is true.

But one thing that she said was really striking. She said we enthusiastically endorse this framework. They support the framework in theory, and reluctantly so, as she said, because it doesn't have a lot of what they wanted in it. But that's a big deal. That is a big deal.

That is a giant pill that the progressives seem to have swallowed. It's a pill in theory, but it is still something that they are agreeing on. And so it seems as though, if you listen to her, it's not necessarily a matter of if, but a matter of when, assuming that everything that was presented to them by the president, by the speaker comes to pass.

BLACKWELL: Again, we're waiting for Speaker Pelosi to walk into the room.

In the meantime, let's bring in now CNN congressional correspondent Jessica Dean, chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins and CNN political director David Chalian.

Kaitlan, to you.

When the president came out today and said that he is pleased to announce a framework, we have a framework, what do we know about who is included in we? I mean, we have just read from Manchin that he hasn't seen it. So he's not part of we. Who's in the group?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the president was making this pitch from the White House, even though he does not have all 50 Senate Democrats that he needs on board yet.

And, of course, there's two moderates that we have been talking about for so long, Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema, have still not explicitly said yes, that they are backing this framework. And a framework is just that. It is not a deal. It is not legislative text. It is the outlines of the agreement of what they're working on.

And things have been changing really rapidly over the last several days over what's going to be in here, how it's going to be paid for. And so I think that's where the skepticism comes from on Capitol Hill.

But I do think the fact that the president gave that speech at all from the White House speaks to the level of urgency with which the White House is viewing this, because they delayed his trip here to Rome by about four hours, where he was asked to leave early this morning about 8:00 Eastern and they delayed it, so he could go and make that personal appeal to those House progressives, to those Democrats in the House and saying that he needs their vote on this.

And so if he doesn't get it, what does that say about how the progressives view a direct appeal from the president on his agenda is one thing, but also he did really want this in his hands when he came here, not only to Rome to meet with world leaders, as he was talking about the importance of how it makes America look earlier today, and Pelosi saying that he needs a vote of confidence from Congress, but also for that international climate conference that he has in just a few days, where he wanted to say, look, the United States is setting an example with these climate provisions here.

That's where we're moving. We'd like to see other countries do the same. And so that's the issue here facing the White House. And this is a kind of timeline that they set for themselves, where they said, yes, this is something we want done before the president goes.

[14:10:07]

And, of course, now he is on the way here on Air Force One right now. And there is still no agreement or consensus among Democrats on this yet as they do wait for that text.

CAMEROTA: So, David Chalian, we talked so much about the process. Let's just talk about the substance.

There's a lot in there. I mean, even Senator Bernie Sanders said that this framework would be transformational. But yet it's so funny. Even -- so, you hear that, transformational. That sounds good. But you're not hearing the tone be celebratory right now, because everybody's so bogged down in process.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. No, just a sentence later, he said, but there shouldn't be a vote today, right, because of the process issue.

I mean, my question also that I think we need progressives to answer is, so what do you get in return for continuing to defy the president's wish here and have the vote on infrastructure? How are you going to make this bill more palatable to you and your constituents when the president has basically said today, this is the framework that I can get all 50 Senate Democrats on? So I do think we need to hear from progressives, after we hear from

the speaker about the path forward here, is, how do you get a better deal than the one that the president says is the best deal he can get with -- that will get the votes for passage?

BASH: And, if I may, that's exactly what Pramila Jayapal is -- go ahead.

BLACKWELL: All right, here is -- I got to jump in here.

Here is Speaker Pelosi.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Good afternoon.

Thank you very much for accommodating the excitement that we had this morning with the visit of the president of the United States, a president with a big vision of America. And he came to speak to us about how he saw things now, presenting a framework about building back better with women.

I said over and over the provisions in the bill are about parents learning, parents earning. And that means with universal pre-K and child care, with home health care, with the child care tax credit, and all the rest that is a liberation for women to be able to pursue their careers, help take care of their families, while their children and their family members are cared for.

So, in any event, what we talked about was the fact that, if any one of these features were in a bill that we were taking up in the Congress, if we were taking up the child care pieces of this and the home health care pieces of it, it would be historic, big, nearly a trillion dollars, children learning, parents earning, caring for loved ones at home, and respecting those who do so.

Second piece, on the health care, this one is particularly meaningful to me because of the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act has been expanded, of course, to make it stronger, but also to include the young -- the people who were not covered in the states that did not expand Medicaid. We don't expand Medicaid. We expand the Affordable Care Act to enable those folks to have -- those families to have access to the Affordable Care Act.

If that were the only thing we were doing in this legislation, it would be transformational. It's transformative and cause for celebration. So, on the health side, there are many aspects to it. But that one is -- makes a drastic difference.

And then when we go to the third bucket, climate, well, as one who as -- when I was speaker first time, the climate issue -- well, for a long time, it has been my flagship issue, but at that time, I formed a select committee on climate and we did good things with President Bush in terms of an energy bill, but not a climate bill. We couldn't get 60 votes in the Senate. That was when President Obama was president.

And then we moved on to the -- we -- at the same time we were doing the health issue. But it was then so important, now drastic and urgent, a short fuse on the well-being of our planet.

And so in this bill, I mean, imagine, a half-a-trillion dollars in this framework that the president discussed, a half-a-trillion dollars, both in tax credits and outlays of what we need to do to protect the planet for the children.

All three of these, health, planet, child care, et cetera, are all about the children. They're also about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, how people access them, jobs that are created by the new green technologies, jobs that are part of the national security of our country that is necessitated by our protection of the environment.

And so it is an initiative that gives a big tax cut to the middle class, creates jobs, good-paying jobs, lowers costs for families, and while making the wealthiest and big corporations pay their fair share. That's really the framework that the president shared with us this morning. And it's remarkable.

[14:15:20]

It's remarkable in that it's a big vision, a bigger vision than we have seen in a very long time, maybe dating back to President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, in some respects to Lyndon Johnson, who had a great agenda as well.

But I remind, we always remind everyone that Franklin Roosevelt had 319 Democrats in the Congress at the time, and we have 220. And that makes a big difference. So, again, the transformative agenda, the president was knowledgeable. He knows chapter and verse, because he wrote this. He campaigned on this.

He spoke to this in his State of the Union address. I told him last night and this morning -- on the phone last night, but today in front of our colleagues, that when he gave that State of the Union address, we were standing behind, sitting behind him, the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, and the speaker of the House, me.

And people said, how did it feel, how did it feel, the two women? I said, well, that was exciting and historic, but what was really exciting was the speech the president made about women, not about two women, but about America's women, and what would happen with this progressive agenda that he was putting forth.

At the same time, we're moving forward with BIF, a once-in-a-century chance to rebuild the infrastructure that has passed the Senate a while back. The BIF, this has good things and it has missing things. And, of course, the fact that we have the reconciliation -- let me not call it that anymore -- let's call it the Build Back Better legislation -- is essential, because that's where we have the major investment in climate, although there is some in the BIF.

Roads, bridges, water systems crumbling. Some water systems are over 100 years made of -- and our colleagues talked about their own experiences in their own communities, some made of bricks and wood. That's a nice water system. The electric grid is vulnerable to catastrophic outages, which we have seen, and decades of underinvestment have taken a devastating toll on the safety of our infrastructure.

There's absolutely no question the most expensive, the most expensive maintenance is no maintenance. And that's where we are in many cases. And it's about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Over this -- the life of this bill, there will be 7.5 million jobs just in the BIF. If you take it with the other bill, it would be more like 20 million jobs over the 10-year period just with these two bills, not talking about what else happens in the community -- in the economy.

So, it's pretty exciting. So where we are in time -- that's what you want to know, right? At 3:00, the Rules -- or 2:30, right now, the Rules Committee is preparing to go in. They have text. The text is up. People have said: I want to see text. The text is up. The text is up for review, for consideration, for review.

People will then say, well, this should be this way or clarification or addition, subtraction, whatever it is. This is the legislative process. And, right now, though, today, we will be having a hearing. They will hear from our chairmen about the greatness of the Build Back Better initiative. And it's pretty exciting.

I'm so proud of the work that our chairs have done and the work that everybody did to try to cut it in half, and in a way that we could maintain support for it, because there's competition for the dollar even at $3.5 trillion. When you cut it in half, that becomes, shall we say, keener.

So that's what's happening now. So, we had said for a long time now, if we had a framework that had our priorities spelled out clearly and agreed to, that added up to a top line, start with the priorities and then added up to a top line, which was the limit, priorities I mentioned, the top line, 1.75, approximately, and the commitment that we would have the same bill pass the House and the Senate, that's what we have now.

[14:20:08]

That's what the president presented. And we won't have anything, regardless of whatever input we had in the bill, unless it is agreed to by the Senate. And, of course, we have to have it comply with the Senate 51-vote rule, or the Byrd rule.

And the -- there are two things, the Byrd rule and the privilege scrub. Is that more on the subject than you ever want to know? But, anyway, that's what we have to do. And we hope to do that soon.

But we, again, have to listen as the printed version goes out. There are some clarifications that will come forth, because it's always a moving a bit, and that will happen in the manner of just amendments. So, we're on a path to get this done.

But for those who said I want to see text, the text is there for you to review, for you to complain about, for you to add to, to subtract from, whatever it is. And we will see what consensus emerges from that. But we're really very much on the path. So that's where we are. We

have the BIF. We have the hearing today. We have the text out there. We're on a path to get this all done.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Thank you, Madam Speaker.

We have been hearing from a lot of progressives who say they would still not vote for this package. So is it premature to move forward with a vote on the bipartisan package today? And do you trust that Senators Manchin and Sinema will vote based off what's outlined in this framework?

PELOSI: Well, I trust the president of the United States. And, again, the text is out there. If they have some -- anybody, any senator, any House members has some suggestions about where their comfort level is or their dismay might be, then we welcome that.

But I trust the president of the United States. We will. We have -- all the things I named, we have agreement on most of those things. Now, when people see the language, they may say, well, this goes further than I thought. I don't know. We will see what they say back.

But we are within range on those things. There are some things that are not in I frankly have not given up on. But being a mother of five in six years, I always bring that up, changed more diapers than anybody in the Congress, I still would like to see paid leave for the babies, if we can't get the rest. But that's still a work in progress, shall we say.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: When you hear from some of your members like Cori Bush from Missouri, who she felt that she was -- quote -- her words -- "bamboozled" by what she was expecting today, and Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, saying that she has the votes to keep the infrastructure bill from passing, what's your response when you hear that sort of dissension in your caucus about where you stand, when you present a very positive picture of where you are?

PELOSI: Well, I have respect for all the members on -- in the full spectrum of the big tent that is our Democratic Party.

And they have concerns when they hear Senator Manchin say something. They have -- others have concerns when they say something. Everybody has the chance to say what they wish.

Yes, sir.

RAJU: So, one of the things the progressives want is to have a vote on the Build Back Better bill at the same time as the infrastructure bill.

(CROSSTALK) PELOSI: Yes, that's right. That's right. That's what they say.

QUESTION: So, why not just wait, delay it for a few days, a week, whatever, in order to move these bills at the same time? Why are you insisting on having this infrastructure vote today?

PELOSI: Well, we have had a target for this for a long time.

You have to remember that we planned for $3.5 trillion. We were totally ready. And I say this because I feel some level of responsibility for working everybody so hard to be on time for September 15. And then the rug was pulled out when they said, we're not going that high. And then we had to take it down.

But in the meantime, the clock did not stop ticking on the calendar. Did I mix my metaphors there or my time frames? The -- so when we see that October 31 is the date of expiration of the Highway Trust Fund, then we made this the target date for us to get this done. We need certainty.

Let me just read this to you from our colleague.

Today -- "If the House does not pass the bill by October 31" -- this is from Peter DeFazio -- "Surface transportation programs once again must be extended. Without an authorization in place, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Federal Transit Administration will have to cease affected operations. As a result, that would force furlough of approximately 3, 700 employees at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

[14:25:06]

"Short-term extensions are highly disruptive of transportation project planning and delivery carried out by this department, the state -- states -- and the states -- Departments of Transportation, Transit."

And it goes on. So this is professional. Let's do it in a timely fashion. Let's not just keep having postponements and leaving any doubt as to when this will happen.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Madam Speaker, this -- you have called this, as has the president, transformational.

PELOSI: Excuse me. I'm sorry.

QUESTION: I said, you and the president have called this legislation transformational, the Build Back Better Act.

But how is this transformational if you're having to cut things like paid leave, if you're having to...

(CROSSTALK)

PELOSI: If you have to do what?

QUESTION: I said, how is it transformational if you're having to cut things like paid leave, these major climate programs? And what are the plans going forward to try to deal with some of those...

(CROSSTALK)

PELOSI: Well, thank you so much for your question. It is transformative, and it is historic.

And it's -- the issues that it addresses -- and it's not issues. These are values. These are values and the resources that are allocated there. I'm still fighting for paid leave. I frankly have a hard time debating it because I don't understand why we don't -- wouldn't have that.

But, nonetheless, let us not undermine that we have nearly a trillion dollars in universal pre-K, child care, child tax credit, home health care and the rest. So, one program, as important as it is, does not subtract from the rest of it. Again, we still want that. We have it, we passed it in the Department of Defense bill -- a former Department of Defense bill, which has paid family -- not family -- just family leave, not medical, family leave for federal Department of Defense employees and the civilian work force associated with that.

So we already have -- have gone down that path very nicely. In fact, Senator Manchin said some very good things when he voted for that bill which had that in there.

But how can I say that this is not -- how can I say that this is transformative? Because it is. Because it is. Because children in 12 states, families in 12 states will now have access to the Affordable Care Act. Millions of people added to that. That's very important. Because we will have a half-trillion dollars to save the planet. And that's a jobs issue.

Well, it's a health issue first of all, clean air, clean water, addressing the asthma issues and all the rest and the environmental injustice of it all. It's a health issue, it's a jobs issue, new green technologies, have America be preeminent in the world in those technologies.

It's a national security issue, as our security experts tell us, the conflict that could arise from competition for habitat and resources because of rising sea levels and all of the other consequences of the climate crisis.

And it is a values issue for us to honor our responsibility to future generations to pass this planet on in a responsible way. And the fuse is growing shorter on the time frame for us to do that. Matters are getting worse. And we are not going to make matters worse. We're going to pass this legislation.

And, as I say that, we have to -- what this legislation will do is to help the president meet his goals, the goals of America for how we reduce emissions and pollution and the rest, and not only how we do that, meet and beat the goals of the Paris accord, but also how we help other countries do so.

The poorest nations in the world have contributed the least to the emissions challenge that we face. And we need to share technology and other resources with them, so that they can meet their goals as well.

So, then the third part, I talked about the care piece of it, the health care piece in this. This is quite remarkable. And if you took any one piece of it, it would be transformative and historic. Taken together, it's quite a spectacular vision that President Biden has put forth.

I salute him for it. And when I tried to, shall we say, make a case for this or that, he said: You don't have to tell me. I wrote it. I know the particulars.

And that was what was so demonstrated this morning, his meticulous attention to detail, his encyclopedic knowledge of everything that was in the bill. We're really blessed with his leadership.

And when he goes to these meetings with the G20 now, and then to meet His Holiness, the pope, and to go to Glasgow, we want him to go as strong as possible.

I -- and when I had my meeting with

[14:30:00]