Narrow vote to advance the nomination this afternoon. Live coverage when centers return on cspan2. House Democratic Caucus leaders talked to reporters about their goals during the current lameduck session in preparation for the next congress in january. Good morning everyone, thank you for your patience. Good to be back here in the United States capital. Weve had our first caucus meeting this morning, we did it virtually. Subsequent to the november elections, everyone was in good spirits. We welcomed our new members. Were excited about them and the opportunity to serve with people from throughout the north, south, east and west and other incredibly diverse plans that we have to the most Diverse Congress in the history of the republic. More women serving in congress than ever before, more africanamericans, more latinos, or asian americans, more members of the lgbt q community, to muslim americans. Women, two native american women serving in congress for the first time in history and our diversity will be strengthened by the new class upon its arrival. We also are buoyed by the fact thatour Long National nightmare is about to come to an end. On january 20 at noon. Because the most existential threat to our democracy, our values, our american way of life has been defeated decisively. He lost the popular vote, decisively. He lost the Electoral College votes, decisively. Joe biden has secured more votes than any other president ial candidate in the history of the republic. And when you look at first term president s have been defeated, it has been difficult to do. Joe biden has done it. And he has done it with one of the most decisive margins ever. President will remain in office for 64 days or so. We are hopeful that he will demonstrate some leadership in that interim time period because the covid19 pandemic has notgone away. Wasnt it the president who said all we hear about is covid, covid, covid. That was the president. Then he said it was going to go away on november 4. What is wrong with this guy . It has not gone away. Its gotten much worse. The pain, the suffering, the death has increased exponentially. Over the last several days. The last several weeks. And donald trump is in the Witness Protection Program , no one can find him. On that era is coming to an end. On january 20. And with that is on joe biden because hes going to bring in confidence, hes going to bring leadership, hes going to bring unity to the oval office. We dont have democratic problems or republican problems, we dont have progressive problems, moderate problems, centrist problems or conservative problems, we have american problems. Joe biden is committed to solving them. The House Democratic majority is committed to working president elect joe biden to Vice President elect harris to build back better for the people. An ideal to my distinguished vice chair, Catherine Clark from the commonwealth of massachusetts. Thank you so much mister chairman it and if i may take a moment of personal privilege not only were we able to greet our new members come together in this caucus call that it was my last official caucus call as vice chair of the caucus and i want to thank my colleagues that have just been incredibly served but a special thanks to you mister chairman for all your partnership , your friendship and for always taking the hard questions of this press conference first. So i am deeply, deeply grateful and i think that hakeem has put it well. We are back in session after a historical election where President Trump has lost in an Electoral College landslide and has won the popular vote. And one of the most heartening things about this is that it is a return to truth and to science. President elect biden has already put his task force together and we heard today on our call from doctor murphy and the numbers are not good. When we have over 11 million cases of covid19 in this country and we have, we are approaching a quarter of 1 million americans have lost theirlives. And untold numbers who have been lost their livelihood. But with president elect biden in the house Democratic Caucus, we know that we will have the tools and the powerful allies in the white house to be able to reduce these numbers. And this will be an end to an administration defined by chaos, misinformation and a pursuit of power that is above all else and above the wellbeing of the American People as we face this pandemic. In 64 days, progress is back on the table. And House Democratic majority is eager to get to work and make this critical agenda part of what we can accomplish for the American People. Because back at home, the statistics are startling. Too many families are facing hunger and homelessness. In one of my communities in massachusetts, the city of revere is providing 20 percent of its population with help with Food Assistance and we know that and undercount. We are seeing businesses and schools that have remained close at this virus continues to run rampant and we have stood since may for making sure that we are reaching out , that we are helping, providing the relief we need through the heroes act and now as we move into the vital months of 116 caucus, we are concerned not only that we have not seen it a relief package from Mitch Mcconnell and a willingness to come to the table but that relief is ing to expire. For unemployment, for pandemic unemployment assistance for gig workers. The eviction moratoriums, student loan forbearance. Small business debt relief. Never mind that in the heroes act, we have a Vaccine Distribution plan that remains on past by the senate , unsigned by this president. So our work is before us. But we have a new president that is going to join with House Democrats to be able to lead us forward, to get through thispandemic. To restore equality and truth and justice. And be able to not only rebuild our economy but make it more inclusive. And we are eager to get to work for the American People. Thank you catherine, its been an honor and a blessing and i know we will continue to serve and work closely together. Yesterday represented ilhan omar referred to a trump rally as a klan rally. We know many of Donald Trumps rallies have resulted in violence, hatred and spewed by none other than the president himself, i personally have often referred to as rallies as make America Great again. I cant comment on ilhan omars remarks but i dont know the context in which those words were said. Some protests in washington turned violent, we were very critical of the president and condemned some of those proud boys, those rightwing groups. Weve not heard as much outcry against some of the violence there, have democrats been silent and should President Biden do more to condemn. [inaudible] i think the Vice President elect has done a tremendous job during the campaign to make it hurt. Loading and writing are not peaceful protesting. We support peaceful protesting and we condemn all forms of violence, no matter where it originates. The problem that we confront is that the hater in chief has not done that. The place footsie with white supremacists, with the proud boys, the boogaloo boys, the good old boys, the jim crow boys and the outofcontrol boys area all the time. But again, a Long National nightmare is ending on january 20 and so we feel good aboutwhere we are. We will have a president who will bring us together, not one who constantly tears us apart. [inaudible] im going to yield to catherine to but joe biden has been incredibly clear and every time ive seen him speak he has said hes going to be a president foreveryone. Those who voted for him and those who voted against. Weve never heard the current occupant of the white house to get anything of that nature. Never. And hes ending up his fourth year. Joe biden has every single time i heard him speak over the last few weeks so i think our country is going to be in good hands. Theres been no movement on covid relief since the election, are we likely to see elements of a relief bill in terms of spending bills at the end of the year and one big covid bill passed . We remain committed to get over the finish line in terms of the relief package. Trust the virus, find direct relief, Everyday Americans who are struggling and provide the economy, its our hope that we can reach that agreement over the next few weeks. That is our intention. But Speaker Pelosi is working incredibly hard in thatregard , jim clyburn the entirety of the caucus are working incredibly hard in that regard. We hope that we can find a partr in Mitch Mcconnell to do just that. Simultaneously, its my understanding that a lot o progress has been made with respect to the needs to fully fund the government in the current fiscal year. It remains to be seen whether there will be crossover negotiation. But the president i think has been erected to Speaker Pelosi but let me yield catherine wasalso a distinguished member of the committee. We completed our appropriations bill back in the summer and we are now hearing from Mitch Mcconnell. That he too is willing to begin the process. They are behind we will continue to work with them to make sure theyre given a shutdown and we have never left the negotiating table when we passed the heroes act. We understand what is at stake for the American People. It cannot just be a relief package or for reliefs sake. We cannot leave out the territories. State and local governments. We have to make sure that this is a package that will deliver aid where we need it. But it is a negotiation and our concern is twofold. We are addressing this pandemic that is raging. It has never been higher since it first came to this country. And so we have to make sure that we are being targeted. We are getting this aide out and that we are also addressing the litany of relief and aid that came through the cares act that is expiring at the end of december. We remain at the table area that we certainly hope donald trump will turn his focus back from his loss and on to the American People. It will be a first but this is his time to answer the needs of this country. And that we will have Mitch Mcconnell come to the negotiating table after an absence of months since going back to may. So were going to keep working. We know whats at stake. We know we cannot afford to not help people who are in such crisis and hurting and have suffered such loss across this country. Obviously your welcoming new members but i also wonder having this conversation with other members, is there a sense that of what you guys need to do over the next few years under your new generation of leadership. Elections will begin to take place this week, starting with the caucus chair of elections by tradition which the vice chair will preside over and then whoever is elected caucus chair will preside over the election for the speaker designee, nancy pelosi. And of course any majority leader jim clyburn majority with and the race for assistance speaker. We expect those races will take place tomorrow and then the other consent races will likely occur on thursday including four caucus vice chair as well as the dpc c, democratic policy and Communications Committee as a five term and under leadership representative where they are newer members running so i think theres a tremendous mix of experience, nancy pelosi is a legendary speaker. One of the best whos ever done it ever. In the history of the republic. She certainly has my strong support and she certainly has strong support as well and were looking forward to Getting Started in the hundred 17th congress cut theres so much work that needs to be done. Whatever happens in the future is going to happen but for the trump era weve just been all trying to get through tomorrow and now were trying to get through anyway 20th and it will be a new day in america. You said before that black americans had been left out, you cited the g. I. Bill. Can you talk about the reparations, im curious what would be the priority for your caucus. [inaudible] thats a question i think german bath and whoever is elected as the chair those elections will take place in a few weeks. We will discuss the caucuses but we want to provide relief to Everyday Americans who are struggling with all of the pain and suffering and death. And at the same time make sure that we are providing relief to those americans have been disproportionately and adversely impacted by the covid19 pendant. Thats the africanamerican community, the latino community, thats every day americans in Rural America and those are many in immigrant communities. So i think from the standpoint of covid19, our immediate concern, we want to provide relief to everyone but of course, the data should drive in part with resources though because covid19 pandemic is not over for any of us until its over for all of us react with respect to the history, weve been grappling with an ideal to catherine, weve been grappling with systemic racism and i have been in the soil of this country for long years. We come a long way in america. We still have a long way to go this is the greatest country in the history of the world. But we are still working through some challenges and when you trace the history, our resident historian the great jim clyburn, savior of our democracy, jim clyburn will tell you that there have been big moments of transition where we are trying to deal with pain that the American People are dealing with. The record speaks for itself in terms of the newdeal. And the g. I. Bill as it relates to who is explicitly included and who was explicitly excluded. The record speaks for itself. Hopefully we are at a different time in america. I believe we are. And i would we look forward to working with democrats and republicans for all americans. I want to underscore that our focus is going to be on those Kitchen Table issues. That effective affect Everyday Americans. We want to work on the issues that people talk about around their tables and that they worry about when theyre trying to fall asleep. Will they be able to provide for their family,have a good job , have their healthcare needs. If someone is going to get sick in their family from this pandemic. The basic issues are the ones that we have to deliver for the American People. And tying that to the previous questions about the negotiations and not leaving people behind, this pandemic has revealed inequities that we knew were there. But it has brought them into stark relief and one of them is Health Care Disparities for people of color in this country. And one of our parts of the heroes act was making sure that we are collecting data so that can wipe there were so many more disproportionate deaths and illnesses in our communities of color. So that we cannot only make sure that healthcare is not a privilege but were breaking down those barriers of access for people of color. We have to look at every single policy for its racial implications and be active antiracist in every single thing we do for the American People. Final questions. Sounds like youre still at a stalemate, is there any concrete evidence or anyone making phone calls to each other or changing their offers and. My understanding is Speaker Pelosi has talked to Mitch Mcconnell but of course those are conversations that the speaker can discuss at the appropriate time but based on the reports i received there is a feeling that is a pathway to getting something done. We will need Senate Republicans are near ships do and some of Mitch Mcconnells book statements may actually provide a pathway to arriving at a meaningful agreement and were not interested in a cosmetic press release. The American People are suffering in a once in a century pandemic and this requires a once in a century congressional response which means it has to be sustained continuing and meaningful until the pandemic is over and we passed the heroes act not once but twice and hopefully we will find Common Ground with arson or publicans in the next few days prior to departing for the holidays and i see another hand and so we will take you and then we will end and i have one less question. Related to covid relief, is the position right now among democrats still twopoint to trillion and there was some before the election to go lower than that and some want to go higher now that the numbers are going up. Is your position still twopoint to . From the standpoint of the last piece of legislation that we enacted is a twopoint to trillion dollar intervention that is public offer and that is where we are at but of course intervening negotiations taking place and it is my understanding that secretary mnuchin had come up to 1. 9. I believe we held at 2. 2 because a lot of what needs to happen depends on how the money is allocated and so as far as im concerned past the heroes act a second time on october 1 the contained twopoint to trillion and that is our caucus wide statement and is what we need to think should happen but we are open to finding Common Ground. [inaudible question] you are running out of time and the pandemic is getting worse, at what point do you go something small is better than nothing at all because all you have had since euros is nothing at all. At what point is there you cross the line and just anything is better than where you are right now . That depends on what that anything turns out to be. The details matter and we cant give 500 billion to a slush fund that secretary mnuchin would be free to disseminate at his own discretion based on no evidence, no data and no science that can be handed out as a friends and family plan for donald trump and his boys on the way out the door. This is a serious situation that we are confronting. The legislative details matter and that is what is being worked out. We have to provide another round of direct stimulus payments to the American People and of 1200 per adult, 500 per child. We need to provide billions of dollars in assistance for tenants struggling to pay their rent and homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgage. We need to provide. We leave this but you can find it online at cspan. Org and take you live now to capitol hill Senate Republicans make remarks. As the leader pointed out, the news on the vaccine this week is great news and a tribute to operation warp speed and we now have, not one, but to potential vaccines out there with perhaps more to come in so it is a great account was meant