Determined to bring people together, because he respects all points of view, and as he has said, i ran as a democrat, i will govern as president for all of the people whether they voted for me or not. I am so officially pleased with andoutcome that is imminent also personally delighted because of the quality and caliber of leadership that joe biden will provide. This morning, it is clear that the biden harris ticket will bidenharris ticket will win the white house. His election is historic propelled by the biggest vote error ever in the history of our country, 78. 3 million and counting americans, the most votes ever received by any president ial ticket in history. President elect biden has a strong mandate to lead and will have a strong Democratic House with him and Many Democrats in the senate. This has been a life or death fight for the fate of our democracy, as he says, the soul of our country. We do not win every we did not win every battle in the house, but we did with the war. Seats, 30 oron 40 31 in districts where trump had won before. They were trump districts. In preparation for the 2020 election, i said to people, you have to help us. They say, oh, you have won. Withn in trump districts trump not on the ballot. In the next election, he will be on the ballot and that makes winning those districts a steeper climb. I am pleased that we have went overwhelmingly won those districts, not all of them. Not all of them, but next time, he wont be on the ballot. One of the reasons we were able to win so many seats was because of leadership of our members. Not,of them won, a few did all of them excellent. I hope that some of them will reconsider, will consider going at it again. As you all know, the right to vote is a sacred right in our country. Castg that vote counted as is the foundation of our democracy. We must be patient. I assented people, be calm. I have said to people, be calm, be confident, be patient. The votes are tallying in the races are called. We look forward to continued victories in house races, and we look forward to progress for the people, which was our agenda and continues to be for the people, Lower Health Care cost, bigger paychecks by Building Infrastructure in america in a hr1, which will be the first on the ballot in january. While we prepare for the new Biden Administration, we must also move swiftly for a new Coronavirus Relief bill. We want the republicans to come back to the table, the white house and leadership or whatever. For two days in a row, over 100,000 cases were reported. Over 9. 5 early in people infected. Nearly a quarter of a Million Deaths and tens of millions on unemployment. Again, i call on the administration to come back to the table. Togress has committed passing an appropriations bill. This is the core of our work in the lameduck. Pandemicont have a killing hundreds of thousands of people and infecting millions and making people food insecure, housing insecure, and the rest. Our responsibility to keep the government open to have an omnibus bill and we intend to do that. We want to be able to do so in a thathat gives confidence we will have the government open and continue to be rather than having cr. Instead of crushing the virus, it appears that the Trump Administration will use its final moments in office a desperate last step to destroy every possible protection for American Health and wellbeing. ,o many people have said to me what damage do you think trump will do between losing the election and the inauguration of joe biden . Maybe you didnt phrase it thats way. We knew he would be up to mischief. Tryinge and apart from to destroy the credibility of our elections which we criticize other nations for doing and enemies foreign and domestic make an assault on our elections. On the policyt, side which is why we are here, people ask that question. What will he try to do it is harmful . Week, we had suspicions of it but didnt speak publicly until they went public. The Trump Administration put forward a radical new rule that would make regulations on the fda and other Health Agencies automatically sunset unless the agencies undertake a cumbersome timeconsuming process to renew them. This is a time when we need full fda in thef the development and approval of vaccines. This is an opportunity cost, but it is a reflection of their disdain for science and governance. They have been messing with the whole process in the fda trying to diminish the importance of the trials that are necessary to approve efficacy and safety of a vaccine. Seeksmeduck trump rule to paralyze government in generations of lifesaving protections and try to burden a new president elected by the American People. Was tomp administration seek this legislation rule beyond hhs to other agencies as well. People have been asking what can he do . Clean air, clean water, food safety. This is a dream of the radical right wing. First they started undermining the Civil Service and now they are trying to say unless we regulations, these they will be sunsetted. We believe that regulations should be subject to review. That is part of the process. But there is a way to do it. Is not to first zero in on the fda at a time when we are trying to achieve a vaccine for the people. Work of the energy and Commerce Committee and that is why i am so glad and honored by the presence of the distinguished chair of the energy and Commerce Committee. I refer you to the National Register of november 4. Election, theyhe put this destructive rule in the congressional record. More from our distinguished chair. Thank you mr. Colon for coming have this conversation that is important to the health and wellbeing of the American People. At a time of the pandemic when the fda should be focusing on a vaccine and not on a Heritage Foundation agenda. Thank you, madam speaker and let me say iq, like all democrats and americans, it is a very happy day because we do believe it is quite clear that joe biden and Kamala Harris will be our next president and Vice President. We cannot help but be happy about that as the speaker is and i am. Speakero commend the for stressing so much that we have to crush the virus which she has been saying for so many months. The last time i was here with her, we talked about the need for Robust National testing, tracing, and treatment which is in the heroes act and which she kept insisting on as she negotiated with the white house. She realizes as most of us do that we are never going to get the economy back on foot, we are not going to create jobs and we are never going to make this country strong again unless we compress the virus. Keeps insisting that that is so crucial. Numbers,ntioned, the the virus continues to spread. Yesterday, more than 116,000 americans contracted covid19. It was a oneday record since the pandemic again. When she says this has to be crushed, its because its getting worse. We have to address it. , my role is to get into more specifics about what the Trump Administration is doing, what President Trump is doing in this lameduck in these last few months is exactly the opposite. Withr than trying to help the scientists, with the Health Experts, with those career servants who have been helping us try to come up with a response to this virus, he is trying to undermine it all. He is trying to make it more difficult for us to crash the virus. He is making it more difficult for the Health Experts to speak out and to be there at all. To help with this effort. That is so unfortunate. He is moving in the opposite direction of what the speaker and most people say we need in order to crush the virus. I wanted to talk a little bit about these two things that the speaker mentioned. Number one is an executive order threatening the Civil Service employees. A lot of the people helping us within hhs and other agencies are career Civil Servants. He issued this effort to fire career Civil Servants on october 21. This executive order. This includes people at the fda, cdc at the speaker mentioned. It says that over the next month or so, the president and his administration could put out a new schedule classifying career Civil Servants someone like dr. NonCivil Service employees who can be fired. You remember at one of his rallies, he suggested that he might fire dr. Fauci after the election. Dr. Fauci is an example of the type of person who could be fired under this executive order and possibly replaced by people like dr. Atlas who are not qualified. To do with this virus effectively because of their lack of background or their policies. All of this before he leaves office on january 19. Some said is he really going to fire these people . Thatt know, but the fact this is in place is a threat. In other words, its either im going to fire them or him want to threaten them with the fact that if speak out and do things contrary to what i want to do regard to covid19, they will know they might lose their job, and lose their Civil Service job. It is really basically the same thing. The other thing the speaker mentioned is this rule change that was put in place issued a proposed rule. Earlyld be finalized by december. Something likeis 20 500 regulations within health and human services. We may see it with other things. Has beengulation around for more than 10 years, then you have a time to justify it, otherwise it expires and sunsets. These are all regulations that , approvalfood safety of drugs which has been such a controversy because he has always been trying to approve the drugs that we know the scientists think are not effective. Beyond that, it diverts resources. The staff who are working to crush the virus, if they have to be diverted to justify and spend their time dealing with these regulations they would not want to sunset, it is also a question of staff time it takes away from our ability to deal with the virus. Time closes december 4 and he could start this process to undermine not only the regulations but others that might become 10 years old later during the joe Biden Administration. We are trying to emphasize why is this president doing these things that undermine our ability to crush the virus rather than working with the speaker and trying to put together a plan like heroes act that would make a difference and effectively crush the virus . I want to conclude by saying this. We need the scientists and the public Health Experts. We need to scale up the testing, contact tracing, treatment. This will be a dark winter. It doesnt make any sense for the president to use the short time he still has left to undermine the National Response. It is also an insult to the Civil Servants. One of the things we are going are going to spend our time in energy and commerce and the other committees trying to shore up these agencies like hhs, cdc, fda that he is trying to dismantle for the last four years. Morale is low, but i want everyone who works in these agencies to know that he is democrats, Speaker Pelosi, joe biden our next president , we are on their side. We are committed to crushing the virus. We are going to support the public servants. We are going to work with the Biden Administration to undo the damage and ensure that Civil Service protections remain in place and we have a National Response to the virus. I want tolosi commend you for the testing, tracing, treatment etc. That is in the heroes act that was a product of your committee under your leadership as well as working with scientists about what is necessary to crush the virus so we can put our children safely back in school, open up our economy, thats what we need to do. We need to do it safely. Further to a couple of points you made, in terms of the Civil Service, Civil Service is a very important part of democracy. It takes the politics out of the performance of Civil Servants. It is about Public Service being a noble calling. If those Civil Servants are directed by political appointees to make certain scientific decisions or else they will lose their jobs, that undermines the purpose of safety and efficacy in terms of the fda but also the health and wellbeing of the American People. I want to commend the head of one of the centers at the fda for an important oped he had about a week ago talking about how the scientists were going to stick with the plan to do this in a way that gives people confidence in the vaccines that would come forward because a vaccine is only effective as its merit but also how people will take it. The vaccine is a big hope for us, but it is not the only way for us to stop the spread of the virus. It is an essential way for us to curtail the further spread. Again, i thank you for your leadership in that regard and. He idea that you referenced january 19 is the day they want this all done by. Can it be undone . Yes. It takes a great deal of time and effort to undo which took a lot of time and effort to make matters worse in terms of approvals etc. At the fda. I am pleased to take questions. Reporter you opened by talking about the big win that joe biden might have. In that same environment, you will end up losing seats off your majority. What does that tell you about what the American People want . Speaker pelosi we lost a few seats. We won the seats in trump district. He wasnt on the ballot, he is now. With the democrats with congress across the country helped contribute to the joe biden success. We are very proud to be part of that mandate. Have i rather while i the utmost respect for the members whose districts were almost insurmountable with trump on the ballot, i do believe that we will be with biden in the a democraticnd congress and hopefully a democratic senate, we will see in january we will be able to do great things for the American People. We lost some battles, but we have the gavel. Dont see any policy or corrective methods from the American People . Speaker pelosi i do think we should always be evaluating and respecting what the people have to say. And i have said this , theand over again, income disparities in income in america must be addressed and everybody must be at the table. That is something that frank has worked on from the perspective of new jersey and his committee. We have to go to that place. People are concerned about the threat to their jobs from tech knology, from trade, from other people newcomers to our country. We have to show them this is not a zerosum game. Success here is not taking away from your success there. I see this as her tremendous opportunity where people are respectful of peoples opinions, the diversity of opinion, and again some members had some concerns about what happened in their district but most of the people expressed concerns. Most of them one. We had an opportunity spreading across a wide net. I was disappointed we wouldnt we didnt win some to seats in texas but we are paving the way. We held the house. That was our goal. If we could win more, that would be good. We are still in the hunt on a number of seats. We could have this conversation next week with some numbers. Now, safely the gavel is in the hands of the democrats. Momentarilyprospect if not happening while we are here of president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris. Address ow do you with a more narrow majority, how do you address this is something i asked you last week the philosophical differences in the caucus when going to be more to the left and from a governing standpoint if youre going to get something done regardless of the cr, that legislation has to be in the middle. How do you sort that out Speaker Pelosi it is not both ends of our caucus. I would not want to lead in a caucus that is a rubberstamp lockstep caucus. Thats called republicans. We are the democratic party, and we have several exuberance is in our midst and that is representative of the district that people come to congress to serve. We respect that. Is unifying principle americas working families. Everybody is there to make progress for americas working families. In terms of the children, our children are children our children, their health, their education, the Economic Security of their families, a safe, healthy environment in which they can thrive including from gun violence and a world of peace in which they can reach their fulfillment. About the Kitchen Table issues, nobody is more attuned to that or connected to americas working families and joe biden as president of the United States. You will see as we build consensus, we dont govern from on high, we build consensus. I didnt say unanimity, i said consensus. I see it as an opportunity. Have saidnd i publicly, i represent San Francisco probably. Proudly. Someone who would be wonderful in my district are just not winning issues and other places in the country that we have to win. That doesnt mean we curb our enthusiasm for our boldest progressive agenda, it does mean that if we are going to win in other places in the country, Common Ground with respectful of what works in my district for me, but also respectful for how it works for members in their district. Frank has a variety of points of view in new jersey. You could use new jersey as an example of what the speaker is saying. Membersour frontline who over the last two election cycles, took back republican districts for democrats. These were republican districts. You look at the performance, they lead republican by 26 . Over the last election cycles, we captured them. Seen himked to have lose . Sure. That would have been a net gain and it may still happen. I take pride in the fact that we were able to keep these forefront liners that took republican seats over the last two cycles to a democratic majority. I stand here today with the speaker. Joe biden is going to be president. We retained our majority, we have elected using new jersey again and these members and districts that were for truck in the past donald trump in the past, we are proud of our success and we have more opportunity now because we have the white house as well as the house and maybe the senate depending on whats happening in georgia. Reporter [indiscernible] Speaker Pelosi welcome to my world. [laughter] we always have a beautiful dynamism in our caucus. People, i would say we have a healthy difference of opinion within our caucus but not to be problematic in how we legislate. What is the winning message outside . The message is the message that unifies us. A message for americas working families. Reporter the previous four president s entered their first year with their party fully in control of congress. The house and the senate. How much do you have to trim thatthe ambition knowing at best its a 5050 senate and something the republicans are favored in georgia and you still have majority leader mcconnell . Speaker pelosi how many times have you heard me quote macon . Public sentiment is anything. That is what i think is going to save the date. Want children to go to school safely. The public wants a big jobs bill. I dont care if you are in San Francisco, michigan, alabama, wherever. People want jobs. Talk about the health and wellbeing of the American People, job security is an important factor of health for this people. With an forward infrastructure bill, that is usually not partisan. Were going to blanket the moving america forward. We have a great deal in common between those two agendas and when we did for the people in 2018, we werent looking for a cost of lower the prescriptions come with the president said he was going to do that he was going to negotiate like crazy to lower the cost of prescriptions by having negotiation. Andidnt, but he said that that was Common Ground. He said he wanted to build the infrastructure of america. Every conversation i had with him starting with congratulating him then after that every conversation before he was president and for the months after, i want to build infrastructure. Until it came time to make the tough decisions about paying for and then he stomped out of the room. Hade were two arias that he espoused in the campaign. We were looking for the most impactful initiatives to affect people at their Kitchen Table issues. The cost of health care etc. Preserving the preexisting condition that if it, he never did anything about that. The republicans have taken a lot of time saying how much they support the preexisting conditions. Thats see what the court does. Franks purview as well. Again, if you listen to what the Republican Leadership says in the house and senate, they say they want everybody to have Health Insurance. They say we are going to repeal the aca but were still going to make sure we have Health Insurance but i dont believe that because the aca is the most effective way to accomplish it. Whether the courts undermine the aca or certainly the president has, there is a recognition with both sides of the aisle that we need to have close to 100 or however close we can get of americans covered. I think there are opportunities to work with them to deal with this. Hopefully the court doesnt repeal the aca because that would be hugely tragic for the country. It is certainly possible to work with them on a number of these Health Issues and we will. Now, we have the forehand because we have president. We will have to come closer they will have to come closer to what we want then what President Trump wanted. I dont even know what he wanted. Speaker pelosi this is where we go from here. We want to unify joe biden as the great unifier. Where are the issues where we can find as much Common Ground as possible . If we are talking to her supporters in the labor movement, jobs. People, jobs. Everything in between, jobs jobs jobs. Its a four letter word. That is where we should be focusing on the health, jobs, education for our children. We have to show with our initiatives for example, the timetable that our planet is on. The climate issue is a big issue for us. It is also a jobs issue. We can create good paying, green jobs. We can be preeminent in the world and technologies as we advance it as a health issue of clean air, clean water is a National Security issue to protect the habitat and resources and prevent migration that causes unrest as well as a moral issue. We have to have everybody at the table so that people are not afraid of the future because it is inevitable. We will have to address the climate crisis. The technology has an inevitability to it. We have to address what it means when you are having precision farming and robots on the Assembly Line and the rest. We are a global economy. We want to be because we want markets for our products. People are intimidated by that and we want to make sure that again, it is not a zerosum game. No, how do we go down this path together . I see everything as an opportunity and that opportunity is greatly enhanced joe biden and his vision for our country. His knowledge of the issues, his strategic inking about how to get it done and his connection hearttoheart with the Kitchen Table concerns of americas working families. Reporter does the alexion trained change your strategy . No it doesnt appeal to me at all, they still have not agreed to crush the virus. If you dont crush the virus, we are still going to have to be dealing with the consequences of the virus. That is why we have said the three pillars of the bill. Crush the virus, honor our heroes. Over one Million People have lost their jobs in state and local teachers and people in education because of the funds that have been used to address the virus and lost revenue because of the virus. That wet anything should be looking at. It wasnt the right thing to do before. By the way, while they refused to sign up for the Testing Initiative which is what science says we need and they refused to give an earned income tax credit to poor families to keep them out of poverty, working for where 8 million more people have gone into poverty as the covid money has run out, they still insist on having 150 billion for the wealthiest tax break for the wealthiest people in our country. There is a difference between democrats and republicans. We have a responsibility to find Common Ground. Cant,ur ground where we but make it clear to the American People what the choice is because public sentiment is everything. It cannot weigh in unless people know. For us, the fact that we have the president of the United States to speak to the American People in these terms is such an advantage for us to be able to Work Together in a bipartisan way rather than the republicans mischaracterizing what were trying to do in the congress. I see it as an opportunity. Joe biden has a bigger mandate then John F Kennedy and others and it is exciting for the country because he respects every Single Person in our country. Certainly every Single Person who voted. We have challenges that need to futured because of the which is inevitable in all that it contains but we want people to know that the decisions start the Kitchen Table not at the corporate boardroom and trickle down. Thank you very much. Wrapping up with how Speaker Pelosi and congressman frank pallone. Looking now at the house race results. Democrats have won 208 seats. Republicans have 193 and already four races have yet to be called