Mr. Jeffries for working closely with the caucus to be able to pull off that organizational meeting entirely virtually, given the dynamics of the pandemic and the extreme Public Health crisis that we continue to confront. We were able to convene with full participation from every Single Member of the House Democratic caucus and the incoming memberselect. We are unified in our sense of purpose, to go out, to work closely with joe biden and Kamala Harris to fight for the people. To make life better for working families, middle class folks, senior citizens, young people, veterans, those who aspire to be part of the middle class, the poor, the sick, the afflicted, the least, the lost and the left behind. Thats what House Democrats do. The House Democratic caucus elected nancy pelosi as our speaker designee for the 117th congress. Steny hoyer as our majority leader for the 117th congress. Jim clyburn as our majority whip for the 117th congress. And Katherine Clark as our assistant speaker for the 117th congress. Additional leadership elections will take place tomorrow. It is now my distinct honor and privilege to introduce speaker nancy pelosi, a voice for the voiceless, a defender of the disenfranchised, a legendary legislator, a notorious negotiator, and a powerful, profound, prophetic, principled public servant, speaker nancy pelosi. Mr. Clyburn tell it like it is. Ms. Pelosi i thank so much, mr. Chairman, for your kind words. I always accept any compliments on behalf of the House Democratic caucus because they enable any of what we do to be possible by those in favor say aye courage by their courage, their integrity, and just a beautiful vision for a better america. I want to congratulate you, mr. Chairman, on your election, reelection as chair. I want to congratulate steny yer on his reelection and mr. Clyburn as House Democratic leader, House Democratic whip, mr. Clyburn, and a new member of the leadership, the newest member of the shes been a member of the leadership, as vice chair of the caucus, now she is assistant speaker, Katherine Clark of massachusetts. It was a beautifully contested race, a good i think members were pleased. And thats what i want to talk about. I wish that you could have seen the ominations and acceptance speeches because then you could have seen the common thread, the unity of our caucus. The values and vision, the knowledge of our subject, the Strategic Thinking you hear me talk about that all the time. But all of it connected to the hopes and aspirations of americas working families. That is what unifies us. So im very honored. Im actually i was kind of emotional earlier because of some of the things that were said in nomination. But also listening to the other nominations as well as to not only the vision, but the depth of commitment, the values of our caucus. So im thrilled, im excited, and i cant wait to be working with a new president of the united states, joe biden, and Kamala Harris. Im sure we all share that view and now im pleased to yield to the distinguished House Democratic leader, mr. Hoyer. Mr. Hoyer thank you very much, madam speaker. And congratulations to you on your overwhelming renomination to be the speaker of the house by the democratic caucus, which was based upon your performance over the years and leading us so effectively. I am very honored, of course, to be reelected as majority leader of the democratic party, majority leader of the house of representatives. 117th congress will have the leadership you see in front of you on our side of the aisle. As well as some others to be elected next week. Or excuse me, tomorrow. It will be a Leadership Team that i think will be as successful, frankly, as i think the Leadership Team in the 116th congress was. We had a very, very successful term in the 116th congress, as leadership. The product that we produced did not pass the senate for the most part and thats to the detriment of the American People. To their health care, to their jobs, their wages, and the assistance they needed in confronting covid19, whether it was on the health side or the economic side. Were not through the 116th congress yet, however. And i am very hopeful, with the speakers leadership, and hopefully with the cooperation of senator mcconnell and others, that we will pass a covid19 relief bill prior to december 11. I am very hopeful that we will pass an omnibus that will appropriate for all of the government to stay in operation without any kind of pause, without any kind of shutdown. So i am honored to have been reelected as majority leader. Im honored to serve with two people that ive known for a very, very long time. I mentioned in my opening speech that nancy and i worked in senator brewsters office together in 1964. Seeing how each one of us has attained the age of 52, thats extraordinary experience. And ive known jim clyburn since the early 1960s, when we were active not only in the civil rights movement, jim much more than i, but also in the Young Democrats together. So weve worked together for a very long time. Hakeem jeffries, as a younger member, but a dynamic member. One of the best speakers in the country. And a person who has brought great unity to our caucus. And great work ethic to our caucus. It means he overworks us, but he keeps us focused. Katherine clark has been in the leadership. Shes got a different hat on, but shes going to be in the room with the leadership, raising the kind of issues that are critical to the American People. Congratulations to you on your election. So i am pleased to look to the 117th congress. But im focused on the 116th congress. We need to get work done for the American People. They need right now. And now i want to yield to the person who counts the votes, but much more than that, he gives us inspiration as a cause as a caucus, he gives us experience, he gives us history, he gives us a sense of purpose and of vision. The majority whip in this congress, the majority whip in the next congress, jim clyburn of south carolina. Mr. Clyburn thank you very much, mr. Leader, madam speaker, thank you so much for your leadership and your continued service to this great country. Katherine, welcome to this particular table and thank you for your leadership. Mr. Chairman, i often talk about the war that i have with myself over issues like running things. Nd i used to always say that the terms efficient and effective are always at war with each other. The more efficiency you have, sometimes the less effective or runs less efficiently. Thats a rule. I want to say to you, mr. Chairman, your leading this morning was an exception to that rule. I dont think ive ever seen efficiency and effectiveness so closely aligned with each other. Congratulations for that. Steny, thank you for your continued friendship, as he mentioned. With us it goes back a long, long time. And ive enjoyed working here with you. To be the whip and have the benefit of the experience of the speaker who once served as whip, the leader who once served as whip, as they go to bed praying for me pretty often. [laughter] and i thank them for their prayers. Said when i accepted this reelection this morning that lyndon johnson, who started his career as a Public School teacher in a Little School down in texas talked about standing before a classroom and watching who you know have an uncertain future. Thats the way i started my career. And i cannot tell you what it does to you to stand before a classroom and see a kid that , u know has not had breakfast trying to learn. Thats the kind of challenge that we have today. How vid19 has exposed serious that challenge is. We must in this Congress Respond to the dreams and aspirations of the children and their families and i am hopeful that we can Work Together within our caucus and reaching out across the aisle to get done what needs to be done for the American People. This is a very important lets just say journey toward as more perfect union. And im pleased to be a part of this leadership and im looking forward to us getting some things done for the American People and its my great pleasure to now yield to the assistant speaker for the 117th congress, Katherine Clark. Ms. Clark thank you so much, mr. Whip. D to speaker nancy pelosi, just so grateful to your leadership, your mentorship and your friendship and to steny hoyer, our majority leader, an incredible inspiration, someone who keeps our caucus so together. To you, mr. Clyburn, we owe you our democratic republic and we are so grateful for everything you do for this caucus. And to my partner, chairman hakeem jeffries, it has been a pleasure to serve with you as your vice chair and i am honored and humbled by the election today. And to join the Leadership Team in this new role as assistant speaker. And i can tell you this about our caucus. We are the guardians of peoples hopes and aspirations. And we are going to be the unified engine for change. We are going to see and help the American People with the pain theyre suffering, through the loss of life and livelihood from this pandemic, and the racial and economic injustices that they are facing. This caucus is ready to serve. Ready to lead. And i am humbled and grateful for everyone on this Leadership Team and to the caucus for my election to it. Thank you. And i yield back to our hairman. Mr. Jeffries thank you, madam speaker assistant speaker madam assistant speaker. We have time for a question or two reporter i wanted to ask the speaker. Can you talk about how you plan to unify the caucus after the election and [indiscernible] narrower majority now. How could youen do you plan to govern moving forward . How can you ensure that you can pass legislation with just a few vote margin. Ms. Pelosi i thank you for your question but i thank my colleagues for their leadership and remarks. E thing we all agree on in our caucus and this leadership and who will be elected tomorrow is that elections are about the future. Its about the future. We can talk about our founders and the inspiration they are, we honor them, we can talk about our relationships and how they serve us well in our leadership roles. But the fact is its all looking forward. Looking to the future. And our caucus is unified in that respect. Looking to the future for americas working families. For the people, we will Lower Health Care costs by lowering the cost of prescription drugs, preserving the preexisting condition benefits. For the people we will increase paychecks by Building Infrastructure and agreeing resill in a green and resilient way and for the people we will have cleaner government. So we have had a tremendous amount of unity. The fact is, to have fewer members but the white house, but the white house is a source of were sad to have lost the members we have. Were ready to go again, were preparing for that, we have been preparing for that. Some of our colleagues are ready to go again. Some are thinking about it. So we just see the next election right on the horizon. But i want to remind because i tried to win the house when i wasnt in the leadership and then when i was, when the republicans had a six or sevenvote majority. People forget that. Like in 2004 you look at do we have those well make them known to you. So they make it look like this is historic. No, they had a small majority. Now, we dont know what our outcome will be. re still in new york iowa, new york, iowa and california. So well see what that comes out to. But having the majority, having the holding the house and winning the white house is time, it is opportunity for us to Work Together with the president and having a has is a unifying a unifying impact as well. Especially when hes a unifier like joe biden. So im excited about the prospect. And sometimes when theres a smaller number of people smaller number, people see the urgency of listening to each other, respecting each others voice because we all have to go down the path mostly together. Reporter madam speaker, my question is for you ms. Pelosi excuse me. Unless any of our other colleagues mr. Hoyer we have been united, we are united and well be ited [indiscernible] ms. Pelosi im excited about it, yeah. Reporter there was a lot of discussion about possibly you putting in place some kind of term limits for this Leadership Team. Im curious if you anticipate this coming congress would be your last as speaker . Ms. Pelosi let me just say that when that conversation took place, there was a move to put limits on the leadership and the chairs of committees. They never brought they said they were going to do it, they didnt do it. But i said then what i said then was whether it passes or not, i will abide by those limits that are there. Reporter is that a [indiscernible] kind of thing here . Ms. Pelosi no, its not. Its the statement that i made. [laughter] its the statement that i made. And we are listen. If my husband is listening, dont let me have to be more specific than that, because we never expected to have another term now. I consider this a gift and i cant wait to be working with joe biden and preparing us for our transition into the future. So i dont want to undermine any leverage i may have, but i made the statement. Mr. Leader . Mr. Chairman, anybody . Youre presiding so i didnt want to call on people. Mr. Jeffries let me simply say, were focused on the future and all that needs to happen and the speaker was ected with unbridled enthusiasm. Ms. Pelosi without any of those people who voted for me saying, is this your last term. But nonetheless mr. Jeffries last question . Ms. Pelosi last question. Reporter i know leader hoyer touched on that you guys do have a lot to get done before the end of the 116th congress. I wanted to know, when you guys are looking at a potential covid relief bill, government funding, could you put those two things together or do you anticipate that youre talks with secretary money chn and leader mcconnell will start up soon . Ms. Pelosi let me say this, because i appreciate your question. I see in one of the local metropolitan journal journals that we postponed doing a bill until after the election. Not at all. Our bill passed in the middle of may. Since then people have died because the republicans in the house and senate would not sign up to crush the virus. Would not honor our heroes. Would not respect the needs of americas working families. So we have been there since the middle of november now, for a long time. And so when they said, oh, they were just trying to wait until after the election, no, we werent. Because every day people are dying and we need this to happen. So were hoping, Chuck Schumer and i, you probably saw the letter we sent to mcconnell to say, weve got to get this done. And this article said, i should settle for a smaller deal. It wasnt a smaller deal. It was a dole that did not have a deal that did not have crushing the virus, adequately honoring our heroes, adequately deterioration the needs of americas working families, there was no question of dollars, it was a question of what it would be spent on. While they hesitated to do anything for earned income tax credit, child tax credit, to prevent port, they didnt hesitate to give 150 billion in tax breaks to the richest people in america. So we have our difference of opinion. That over a think quarter of a Million People dying, over 11 million infected, that at least now with the prospects, the promise of a vaccine, they might want to implement some of the things that take us down that path. I dont know that any of it will be a part of we it will pass an omnibus, we dont want a c. R. Were on a good path to do that. I would hope that they would want to do something similar with the coronavirus. Thank you. Mr. Jeffries take care, everyone. Thank you. Reporter you have heard back from your letter . Reporter are you concerned about coronavirus in the capitol . Mr. Hoyer we all are, yeah. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] the u. S. House is currently in recess but members plan to return at about 5 00 p. M. Eastern today to work out the details about a meeting with the senate over the Defense Authorization bill, which sets defense policy and programs for 2021. Both votes and speeches will take place later. Follow the house live on cspan. Until then, part of todays washington journal. Continues. Host joining us now is john lawrence, visiting professor at the university of california Washington Center and the former chief of staff to then congresswoman nancy pelosi from 2005 to 2013. Now she is the speaker of the house. John lawrence, when did you begin your time with the speaker . When did you end and describe your relationship with her. Guest 1975 to 2013. The last eight years from 2005 to 201
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