| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Northwest, first black federal judge in 1978. | |
| This is generational success and wealth. | ||
| Ernie Towner broke barriers in sports and labor on behalf of his community, and it is appropriate that we recognize his life and legacy today. | ||
| Happy Black History Month, everyone. | ||
| I yield back, Madam Chair. | ||
| The Clause 12A of Rule 1, the chair declares the House in recess until noon today. | ||
| And so the House returns at noon Eastern today for legislative work. | ||
| Today, Republican lawmakers plan to debate and vote on their version of the 2025 budget blueprint that includes President Trump's agenda of cutting taxes and increasing border security and defense funding. | ||
| Members are also expected to begin debate on two bills to repeal the EPA's oil and gas emissions fee and to repeal the Energy Department's water heater rule. | ||
| As always, live coverage of the U.S. House is here on C-SPAN. | ||
| And we'll quickly now take you live to Capitol Hill, where House Democratic leaders are holding a briefing on their legislative agenda. | ||
| We join this in progress. | ||
| ...showing that Donald Trump is now at minus seven. | ||
| So less than one month, that's a swing of 13 points. | ||
| And why are Trump's numbers free-falling? | ||
|
unidentified
|
One reason is because Trumponomics sucks. | |
| His indiscriminate tariffs are increasing prices and increasing inflation. | ||
| Firing people who work on the bird flu or cutting funding to folks who work on the bird flu is going to increase egg prices. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And by the way, a lot of places you can't even get eggs. | |
| And nowhere is the harm of Trump Onomics more exemplified than the Republican budget. | ||
| This GOP budget is going to cut $880 billion of Medicaid to then fund huge tax cuts for the super wealthy and for billionaires. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And what does $880 billion of Medicaid look like? | |
| It means a shutting down of community health clinics, the shutting down of hospitals, the shutting down of nursing homes. | ||
| Approximately two-thirds of nursing home patients are paid for by Medicaid. | ||
| This is going to have a huge impact on the middle class, on the poor, also that billionaires can get even richer. | ||
| We're asking everyone to stand up and oppose this Republican budget betrayal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I'm so honored now to introduce the ranking member of our budget committee, the great Brendan Boyle from Philadelphia, home of the Super Bowl-winning Eagles. | |
| I did not pay Ted to introduce me in that way, but I appreciate it. | ||
| Brendan Boyle, Congressman proudly of Philadelphia, and also the ranking member of the budget committee. | ||
| Let's be clear: the Republican budget represents the Republican betrayal of the middle class. | ||
| It cuts at least $1.5 trillion, including at least $880 billion from Medicaid, in order to partially pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts, most of which go to the richest 1% of Americans. | ||
| It also increases the deficit and the national debt to the tune of $4 trillion. | ||
| Even a number of House Republicans have come out upon reading the bill and recognized this fact. | ||
| And by the way, this is from the same crowd that for the last four years did nothing but shed crocodile tears over the national debt. | ||
| So you can see why this is such a Republican betrayal of the middle class. | ||
| It betrays the very folks who voted for Donald Trump in order to bring down costs at the supermarket. | ||
| We haven't seen one second spent on that subject. | ||
| What we have seen is that yet again, the top priority for my Republican colleagues is to cut and slash government programs, most especially Medicaid, in order to finance tax cuts for the richest 1%. | ||
| And let's be clear about it, because there are some on the other side who are attempting to confuse people. | ||
| This absolutely guarantees Medicaid cuts that would amount to the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history, all to deliver tax cuts for the richest 1%. | ||
| With that, I'm happy to yield to a great budget committee member, my friend Veronica Escobar. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| Thank you, Vice Chair. | ||
| Thank you, Ranking Member Buenos Diaz. | ||
| It's my privilege to be here standing with great champions for hardworking American families. | ||
| I think it's really important for us to remember what happened last year. | ||
| Last year, the American people went to the polls and overwhelmingly told candidates and told incumbents: we want you to focus on the cost of living. | ||
| We want you to lower our everyday costs. | ||
| We want you to tackle inflation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Where are we today? | |
| We are seeing inflation increase. | ||
| We are seeing costs go up. | ||
| And the American people need our help. | ||
| This budget not only doesn't help hardworking Americans, this budget will devastate hardworking Americans in a way that is absolutely a betrayal of the middle class. | ||
| This budget will make Americans sicker, poorer, and this budget will make their lives more challenging. | ||
| You cannot make the kind of deep cuts that this budget resolution unlocks without harming the people who are depending on us to make their lives better. | ||
| And as my colleagues mentioned, in Medicaid alone, in the cuts that will have to happen as a result of this resolution, we are going to see Americans have their premiums, their Affordable Care Act premiums, double. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does that make their lives better? | |
| Does that make things more affordable? | ||
| We are going to see families who have a loved one who is disabled lose their benefits. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does this make their lives better? | |
| Does this make the cost of living more affordable for them? | ||
| We are going to see families who have a loved one in a nursing home have to figure out the future for their elderly parent or grandparent because Medicaid cuts will impact them. | ||
| Will that make their lives better or more affordable? | ||
| When community hospitals close, when community clinics close, will that make people's lives better or more affordable? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely not. | |
| And there will also be an impact on local economies. | ||
| We have data that shows for every dollar spent on SNAP, that means $1.50. | ||
| That means it impacts the local economy by $1.50. | ||
| By removing the support that the American people look to us to guarantee, we are not just going to hurt everyday Americans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're going to hurt economies around the country at a time when Americans want us to do the opposite. | |
| Let every Republican considering voting in favor of this terrible budget explain to their constituents how this improves their lives or makes their lives better. | ||
| I'll tell you who it does, whose life it does improve. | ||
| Those billionaires who will be able to buy another yacht because of these tax cuts, another jet because of these tax cuts, another luxury home because of these tax cuts. | ||
| But go talk to Thomas Massey also about what this will do to the debt, and he'll tell you what it'll do to the debt. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I'll yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Veronica. | ||
| Questions? | ||
| Nick? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You guys are two weeks out of a government funding deadline. | |
| Do you feel like the spending cuts that are coming up in this budget, the continued Elon Musk Doge cuts, does that make it harder to come to an agreement? | ||
| Democrats are led by Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro in these conversations. | ||
| They continue each and every week that we're here. | ||
| Our appropriators and leaders who are guiding this decision or having these conversations. | ||
| I've talked before at this podium about trust being such an important part of the appropriations process. | ||
| The lack of trust that House Republicans are going to stand up to Donald Trump and Elon Musk is shaping some of these conversations. | ||
| I think that is fair to say. | ||
| But we stand ready to work to govern. | ||
| And if there is an ability to get to a solution, we trust that Rosa Deloro and our counterparts on the Senate side will get to a solution to fund government. | ||
| But this is on Republicans. | ||
| Republicans need to put up the votes if they are serious. | ||
| They campaigned on governing. | ||
| They campaigned that they could govern, that they could control the gavels and govern. | ||
| And we're clearly seeing that they don't want to govern. | ||
| All they want to do is just Dusty Johnson did today, is trying to point and shift blame on Democrats. | ||
| If Republicans don't want to govern, they just need to give us a couple votes, and we'll put Hakeem Jeffries in the speaker chair. | ||
| We'll put Brendan Boyle with the gavel and budget and Rosa DeLauro guiding the Appropriations Committee, and we'll deliver for the American public and do exactly what we said we would do. | ||
| Mariana, congratulations, by the way. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| So during the last term, we saw time and time again where Democrats did end up voting with Republicans with the government open, the name of responsible government. | ||
| We're obviously in a different position as you all watch what's going to happen today, whether one of them can even get their own votes on the budget resolution. | ||
| I know it's still a little hypothetical as to what a potential CR government shutdown prevention plan could look like. | ||
| However, are you all strongly considering potentially withholding your votes as Democrats if this budget resolution were to pass? | ||
| Look, the details matter on all of this. | ||
| We're talking about a budget resolution. | ||
| It's important that we don't conflate all of these things. | ||
| These are different proposals. | ||
| This is their strategy to enact tax cuts for billionaires at the expense of the working class. | ||
| That's what we're dealing with this week. | ||
| Obviously, in the days and weeks ahead, we also have to focus attention on funding government. | ||
| Democrats are at the table. | ||
| We are having conversations. | ||
| Republicans are the ones that walked away and said that they might need to consider a CR. | ||
| That was Republican leadership and the chairman of the committee who said that. | ||
| So that is their decision. | ||
| If they feel that is the path, then it is their opportunity to put up the votes in order to execute that plan. | ||
| If they are interested in collaborating with us and us putting up votes to fund government, then they have to work with us. | ||
| If they walk away, that is a signal that they have this on their own. | ||
| And what that means is that they have to put up the votes to do it. | ||
| We're not interested in putting up votes just because we're interested in funding government that protects vulnerable populations, protects our communities, makes investments in our national security and defense. | ||
| Those are the things that Democrats care about. | ||
| If Republicans don't want to partner with us, then clearly they must have a strategy to fund this on their own, using their own votes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| I'm going to let you off the hook, and I've got a question for the vice chairman. | ||
| Oh, this is perfect. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is an amazing start to the morning. | |
| The only bet on at the podium this week, I want to get your reaction to, number one, President Trump referring to President Zelensky as a dictator. | ||
| The House Appropriations Committee, Democrats have put out some information saying that up to almost 6,000 veterans have been fired through the Doge efforts. | ||
| Just want to get your reaction to some of the foreign policy, some of the impact of the Trump administration's efforts towards veterans. | ||
| What are your thoughts, given not just your position as vice chair of the caucus, but as a veteran who worked to protect this nation? | ||
| Thank you for that question. | ||
| Donald Trump acts like he is scared of Putin. | ||
| I don't know why that is. | ||
| It is highly disturbing. | ||
| But from Trump's comments in the past, where he said he would trust Putin over our own intelligence officials, when Trump basically went to Helsinki and you could tell from his body language, he basically bowed down to Putin, to now Trump just saying things that are completely false. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Zelensky is not a dictator. | |
| Ukraine did not start the war. | ||
| Russia invaded Ukraine not once, but twice. | ||
| They invaded Crimea in 2014. | ||
| And when the world didn't do very much, they invaded again in 2022. | ||
| And as a veteran, it is just completely outrageous to see Trump's misinformation and his comments about Russia and about Putin. | ||
| And then the indiscriminate firing of employees at the V8 and many agencies of folks who happen to be veterans, that is highly disturbing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the problem is when you have Doge go in and just start doing these random firings, they have no context for what they're doing. | |
| You can't just look at some algorithm and have any idea, well, what does this person actually do at this agency that is very important for the American people, such as, oh, keeping our nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities safe. | ||
| They randomly fired all those people and then had to unfire them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is the stupid chaos of Doge and of the Trump administration. | |
| And that, by the way, is having an effect on the economy. | ||
| It's causing businesses not wanting to invest. | ||
| It's causing people not want to do anything. | ||
| And so we really want to make sure that as Democrats, we stand firm and stand up against all this chaos. | ||
| One more. | ||
| What's your message to the American people who are concerned about the UN resolution yesterday when the United States voted with Belarus, Hungary, Syria, and not the other members of the G7? | ||
| All six G7 nations other than the United States voted to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine. | ||
| The United States didn't. | ||
| Does that also give you pause? | ||
| That was a shameful day for America. | ||
| We used to fight the axis of evil. | ||
| Now Trump apparently wants to join the axis of evil. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Chairman Aguilar. | |
| You guys have emphasized the tax cuts for the rich that would come with this Republican budget proposal, but the TCJA also has tax cuts for most Americans as well. | ||
| What would you say to constituents of yours who might be worried that they could see a tax increase after this year? | ||
| I've had a lot of conversations with constituents of mine. | ||
| Many of them face tax increases as a result of the prior tax cut because we're in California, because the state and local deduction was eliminated or instituted at the $10,000 number. | ||
| It affected a lot of middle-class families in San Bernardino County who saw their tax bill rise. | ||
| So when I tell them I'm opposing this effort, they're supportive of it because they remember what it was like pre-2017 and they saw all the news that there would be tax cuts affecting small businesses, families, and individuals. | ||
| Many families in California didn't see the benefit of that. | ||
| So the Trump tax cut is not very popular in San Bernardino County. | ||
| I welcome you to come walk the streets and hang out with me a little bit there if you want to see it in person. | ||
| Cassie? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Chairman, I wanted to ask you about wildfire funding. | |
| We saw Governor Newsom sent his $40 billion request late Friday to Congress. | ||
| First, your reaction to the ask, and second, what is your message to Republicans who are still saying there should be contingencies placed on receiving this aid? | ||
| We're aware of the ask. | ||
| We saw the letter from the governor. | ||
| With respect to Republicans, I think it would be absolutely shameful and un-American to treat this disaster unlike other disasters. | ||
| We did not add conditions to North Carolina. | ||
| We have never added conditions to Louisiana or to Florida. | ||
| Californians, Pennsylvanians, Texans, we support each other. | ||
| We're all Americans, and when we suffer through a natural disaster, the expectation from our constituents is that as Americans, we're there with each other. | ||
| So to add conditions that have never been done before to this is shameful. | ||
| And I hope House Republicans speak against this proposal. | ||
| And our expectation and hope is that this works through the normal process, just like we have in the past. | ||
| But the Small Business Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, they need these additional resources to serve our communities who have been through a disaster. | ||
| Vice Chair Liu's constituents, and I know he's had staff members affected directly, so I'd like him to say something too. | ||
| But we cannot condition aid based on red states and blue states. | ||
| That's not who we are. | ||
| If you were an American and you go through a natural disaster and tragedy, we need to be there for you. | ||
| That is our responsibility and obligation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. | |
| One of their fires was in the area of El Tadena. | ||
| I encourage people to go look that up, where Altadena is. | ||
| It's completely inland. | ||
| One of the Trump administration's conditions on aid is to eliminate the California Coastal Commission. | ||
| What does an inland city like Altadena have to do with the Coastal Commission? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| This is a completely ludicrous condition they're trying to put on, and they're leveraging the pain and suffering of disaster victims to extract their pet policy preferences. | ||
| It would be like Democrats saying, we're not going to vote for hurricane relief for Florida if there's a future hurricane because we want to randomly eliminate some commission in Florida. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's just completely absurd. | |
| The Trump administration should be ashamed of themselves for trying to use the pain and suffering of Americans to get random conditions through. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're not going to stand for it. | |
| Last but question. | ||
| A few minutes ago, House Republican leadership was in here saying that Medicaid is not mentioned in the bill and that Democrats are fear-mongering by bringing up Medicaid cuts. | ||
| What is your rebuttal to that? | ||
| You know, clearly, I'm going to yield to Ranking Member Boyle as well here, but clearly we've hit a nerve. | ||
| The math just doesn't add up. | ||
| They did not say where the $880 billion of cuts from the Energy and Commerce Committee that this document directs. | ||
| They did not say where those cuts come from. | ||
| They did not say that Medicaid, they could not tell you that Medicaid cuts were excluded because they know they have to address Medicaid. | ||
| They have to cut Medicaid in order to make their math work. | ||
| It is unfortunate, but we've heard a variety of excuses from them in the past 72 hours. | ||
| This is a procedural vote. | ||
| This doesn't say Medicaid. | ||
| They aren't sure because their conference is so divided. | ||
| They're utilizing every strategy they can to try to get their members to support this bill. | ||
| We won't stand for it. | ||
| We stand with our communities, hundreds of thousands in each of our districts who benefit from Medicaid, get their health care delivered by Medicaid. | ||
| We're going to listen to our constituents, and we encourage our colleagues to do the same. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ranking Member Boyle. | |
| Yes, I've heard a number of my Republican colleagues say that it's incredibly disingenuous, and here's why. | ||
| You know, occasionally I will be at the kitchen table helping my daughters in the fifth grade with her math, and her teacher is big on show your work. | ||
| So I will follow that advice and show my work now in terms of why they have to cut Medicaid in their own instructions. | ||
| Their resolution calls for at least, as a floor, $880 billion to be cut by what is under the purview of the Energy and Commerce Committee. | ||
| If the Energy and Commerce Committee said we don't want to cut Medicaid, instead we will cut literally everything else we possibly can, 100%, that only gets you about halfway to the $880 billion. | ||
| So by definition, they have to, as a minimum, cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid. | ||
| And I remind everyone again, I keep stressing the word at least, because in that 12-hour markup we held last Thursday in budget committee, at the 12th hour, the House Freedom Caucus got a big win. | ||
| I'll give them credit. | ||
| They were able to get in an amendment that raised the total cuts from $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. | ||
| So when we talk about $880 billion, that is the absolute minimum in order to satisfy that amendment that was added. | ||
| So it's pretty clear who is driving the bus on the other side. | ||
| It is the most extreme members of the House Republican Conference. | ||
| And the math is quite clear. | ||
| There will be hundreds of billions of dollars to Medicaid and their budget resolution, the largest in American history. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As House Democratic leaders wrap up here, Julie Serkin of NBC News posted that after House Republicans huddled behind closed doors this morning, Speaker Johnson still has a math problem for his budget resolution. | |
| Representative Sparts tells me she is a no. | ||
| Representative Davidson, a no. | ||
| Representative Massey, also a no. | ||
| A handful of others are leaning no, conservatives and moderates. | ||
| And Jake Sherman sending out this news from the House Republican Leaders Press Conference that ended just a short time ago. | ||
| Speaker Mike Johnson saying there may be a vote tonight. | ||
| There may not be. | ||
| Budget vote could slip, Johnson says. | ||
| You can continue to watch our coverage of the U.S. House today here on C-SPAN when members gavel back in, beginning at noon Eastern. | ||
| The U.S. House returns at noon Eastern today for legislative business. |