| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
the united states to deliver to the house representatives messages in writing pursuant to clause 13 of rule one the house stands adjourned until 9 a.m on monday april 14th 2025 Today, the House adopted the Senate revised version of the Republicans' 2025 budget plan. | |
| The final vote was 216 to 214. | ||
| It instructs House and Senate committees to craft legislation through the budget reconciliation process to enact President Trump's policy agenda. | ||
| The final bill is set to include tax cuts, domestic energy production, and border security provisions. | ||
| Also, the lower chamber passed legislation requiring in-person proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. | ||
| The House is now scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks for the Passover and Easter holidays. | ||
| Watch live coverage of the House when members return, here on C-SPAN. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke to reporters after House Republicans passed a budget resolution calling for $1.5 trillion in federal spending cuts. | ||
| He talks about the need to protect health care, nutrition assistance, and social security. | ||
| From Capitol Hill, this is about 25 minutes. | ||
| Heads up. | ||
| Heads up. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Here in the Capitol, the battle lines with respect to Democratic values and Republican values have once again been clearly drawn. | ||
| House and Senate Democrats are standing on the side of the American people, and we continue to be committed to building an economy that's affordable and that works for everyday Americans and drives down the high cost of living while protecting health care, nutritional assistance, and the social security of the American people. | ||
| Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans are doing everything they can to tank our economy, drive us toward a recession, and gut the health care of the American people by visiting upon them the largest Medicaid cut in history, | ||
| along with the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, all in service of enacting massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk. | ||
| It's a toxic scheme that they cannot hide from because it continues to be on full display on the House floor and on the Senate floor for the American people. | ||
| The budget resolution that passed the House today will set in motion some of the most extreme cuts to health care, nutritional assistance, and the things that matter to everyday Americans in our nation's nearly 250-year history. | ||
| It's a disgrace. | ||
| This is just the beginning. | ||
| And House Democrats are going to aggressively push back every day, every week, every month until we bury this reckless Republican budget resolution in the ground, never to rise again. | ||
| Questions? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Leader. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You came close today to defeating this. | ||
| You came close at the end of February to defeating the first version. | ||
| You came close to defeating the CR. | ||
| You came close to both Florida special elections. | ||
| Is that just the plight of the minority? | ||
|
unidentified
|
At what point will you pull an upset? | |
| In January, Donald Trump announced that the Office of Management and Budget was going to freeze spending all across the federal government, including freezing Medicaid spending. | ||
| In less than 48 hours, Donald Trump and the White House reversed themselves. | ||
| I've never seen that happen to an American president within his first 10 days in office, reversed himself. | ||
| That's not coming close. | ||
| That's losing. | ||
| Donald Trump has now announced tariffs on multiple occasions, said to the country that he was not going to back down, and in each and every instance, he backed down. | ||
| That's the administration and Donald Trump losing, not coming close, backing down. | ||
| They've lost special election after special election after special election. | ||
| You're citing two races in Florida that Donald Trump won by 30 and 37 points, respectively. | ||
| Did anyone reasonably expect that those races would be won by Democrats? | ||
| Of course not. | ||
| Why were they even close is the question. | ||
| But we're not citing the Florida special elections. | ||
| We're citing the special election in Iowa that they lost, in New York in February that they lost, in Pennsylvania, in a district that Donald Trump won by 15 points in a state Senate race that they lost, and a crushing defeat, a complete and total repudiation of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and right-wing conservatives in Wisconsin in a battleground state. | ||
| Is that close as per your question, or were those losses? | ||
| The answer is plainly clear. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Leader Dr. On your Medicaid messaging. | |
| It's our understanding that the Democrats have taken out a number of billboards in battleground districts and saying the Republicans want to cut Medicaid and the Republicans have sued and the advertising companies have taken those billboards down. | ||
| Wondering if you can comment on the Republicans' suits, first of all, and do you have the Democrats have a strategy for countering that so that your message doesn't get up? | ||
| Republicans can run from their proposal, which is the largest Medicaid cut in American history, but we will never allow them to hide. | ||
| The budget resolution that Republicans passed in February calls for $880 billion in cuts within the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which just so happens to have jurisdiction over Medicaid. | ||
| Earlier today, the House Republican leader, the Speaker, and the Senate Republican leader both confirmed that their goal was to visit upon the American people at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. | ||
| The Congressional Budget Office, non-partisan, has affirmed publicly that the only way to achieve that level of spending cut, $1.5 trillion, is to gut Medicaid along with supplemental nutritional assistance and a whole host of other things that will harm the American people. | ||
| Republicans have been ordered in the House not to hold town hall meetings because they are afraid to face the wrath of their own voters. | ||
| They can run, but they cannot hide. | ||
| And now that the committee process has been set in motion in connection with the budget resolution, they will have to spell out the very cuts to Medicaid and other programs that we have been making clear for weeks now they are determined to visit on the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| And yesterday during the rules committee hearing, GFP leaders inserted language that would prohibit the House from putting forward any legislation to claw back some of the tariff and trade policy authority that the president has been using to wedge this trade war. | ||
| What's your response to that particular language, the fact that Republicans used the rule on the budget to do so? | ||
| Just what are your general comments on that? | ||
| House Republicans are afraid of an up or down vote in terms of pushing back against the Trump tariffs, which are a tax on the American people, the largest tax increase on the American people since 1968. | ||
| And if fully implemented, the Trump tariffs will cost the average American family at least $3,800 a year. | ||
| Why are Republicans afraid of an up or down vote to show the American people where they stand? | ||
| This is a consistent theme. | ||
| They are unwilling to defend their policies before the American people. | ||
| I politely requested that Speaker Johnson agree to a debate on the House floor, a colloquy, as it's formally known. | ||
| We have yet to hear back from him. | ||
| What are they afraid of in terms of communicating with the American people? | ||
| They spent a lot of time over the last several months trying to lecture America that they have some big mandate. | ||
| If you have a big mandate, put bills on the floor for an up or down vote and agree to debate us in an unrestrained fashion. | ||
| Show up, stand up, and defend your positions before the American people. | ||
| But they're running away from their position, running away from town hall meetings, running away from debates on the House floor, running away from putting bills on the floor for up or down votes. | ||
| But as voters have consistently shown in state after state after state, in special election after special election after special election, they can try to run from their positions. | ||
| They will never be able to hide from the American people, and they will be held accountable. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you, Leader. | ||
| I'm sorry I was late today. | ||
| It's okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Republicans are proposing new spending. | |
| You seem out of breath, you're all right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You best believe that I ran the year. | |
| Okay, I appreciate that. | ||
| I appreciate that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Republicans are born. | |
| Chad, you're in timeout corner right now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know, I need to go sit at the chat. | |
| Republicans are proposing new spending for border security funding in this forthcoming budget bill. | ||
| Is that something that your conference will support, that sort of security investment? | ||
| We have to look at the particulars. | ||
| We believe that we need to secure the border, make sure that it is safe and strong, that the rule of law, consistent with America as a country of a nation of laws, is fully and completely implemented at the border. | ||
| We believe we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it in a comprehensive and in a bipartisan way. | ||
| And we also believe that we must always defend dreamers, farm workers, and law-abiding immigrant families and protect them from aggressive overreach by the Trump administration. | ||
| Those are the principles that we have consistently articulated publicly and privately to our Republican colleagues as it relates to finding some common ground on the immigration issue. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| Thank you, Leader. | ||
| A lot of your colleagues are going to go out to Republican town halls this recess. | ||
| What is your schedule like and what are you planning to do the next two weeks when the House is out? | ||
| Well, I'll be actively participating in the Safe Social Security, a day of action that we are going to have on Tuesday on the Medicaid Matters Day of Action that we're having on Thursday. | ||
| And then, you know, in the week of action that we are going to have across the country and beyond with respect to the cost of living issue. | ||
| Now, at some point, I'll more publicly disclose what my schedule is going to be during the second week. | ||
| I expect to be mostly in the district and throughout New York State during Holy Week next week. | ||
| But certainly over the next few weeks, I will be on the road in a variety of different districts in blue states and in red states and in purple states across the country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So there are some reports and some chatter about Republicans in the tax portion of this bill actually raising the rates for the highest income earners. | |
| If they were to do that, does that scramble Democrats' message of being the party for working class people and the kind of billionaire versus working class message that you guys are using? | ||
| Speaker Johnson and House Republican leaders have made clear that there's no legitimacy to the notion that Republicans are going to raise rates on their billionaire donors. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| You mentioned earlier you challenged the speaker to a debate. | ||
| You've done press events with us virtually every day this week, if not every day. | ||
| Have you seen a need to make yourself more visible or more aggressive as a Democratic messenger, particularly after some of the early steps in this Congress? | ||
| I think we're going to continue to be called upon every day, every week, every month, to aggressively push back on the reckless Republican agenda and articulate our affirmative vision for building an affordable economy that makes life better for everyday Americans. | ||
| And Donald Trump and House Republicans are going to continue to try to flood the zone with outrageous things. | ||
| And it's going to be important on all of us, as we've seen repeatedly by members of the House Democratic caucus, to meet the moment, as Stephen Horsford did yesterday, as John Larson has previously done, as a variety of members are consistently doing over and over and over and over again. | ||
| And I'm proud of the House Democratic caucus. | ||
| But we know that our work is just beginning in terms of the type of engagement that will be required to end this national nightmare being visited upon the American people by Donald Trump and compliant House Republicans and get to a place where we can bring the American dream to life for every single American in this country. | ||
| Traditionally, there's been, as I directly communicated to the Speaker, a colloquy that was held by the House majority leader, whoever that may be at the time, and the House minority whip. | ||
| That was done every week. | ||
| A colloquy. | ||
| Eric Cantor did it. | ||
| Stenny Hoyer did it. | ||
| Kevin McCarthy did it. | ||
| For a time, Steve Scalise participated in it when he was the House minority whip. | ||
| For some reason, last Congress and into this Congress, they've stopped the practice, which I pointed out to Speaker Johnson, who I regularly communicate with privately and then, of course, publicly. | ||
| And it's part of a pattern of trying to hide their extreme policies from the American people. | ||
| And so a logical next step, if Leader Scalise refuses to do it, because whip Catherine Clark is ready, willing, and able every week to do it, then perhaps those of my Republican colleagues who are interested in tradition in the House that we actually step into the breach that has been created at a time of great uncertainty for the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
If I can just follow up briefly, has your approach changed at all since the CR fight when there were a lot of complaints, at least outside this building, about how Democratic leaders were approaching the moment? | |
| Our approach certainly hasn't changed because, as far as I can tell, were there any complaints about the approach that House Democrats took as it relates to the continuing resolution fight? | ||
| It's a question I'm asking. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think there were complaints that party leaders were not necessarily aggressive enough overall or maybe not creative. | |
| That House Democratic leaders were not aggressive and strongly opposing the reckless Republican spending bill that we were very clear would hurt families, hurt children, hurt seniors, hurt everyday Americans. | ||
| I think the chronology around your question is off and the substance is off because what we did here in the House was very clear and how the public responded to it was also very clear. | ||
| In fact, what's been interesting is I think Donald Trump himself made the observation a few days ago: the one thing House Democrats apparently do better than Republicans is stick together on votes. | ||
| That's the opposition making that observation. | ||
| So I think the facts speak for themselves. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| Sorry, right there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I have a question. | |
| I have a bunch of you together. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sorry. | |
| Just spread out more. | ||
| A question on the equities markets. | ||
| You know, the president says this is a good time to buy. | ||
| Then he goes out and announces surprise tariff change. | ||
| Do you think there's anything illegal or possibly violating ethics laws that's going on in the administration? | ||
| And are you going to try to investigate that? | ||
| We need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation that is unfolding before the American people, including what if any advanced knowledge did members of the House Republican Conference have of Trump's decision to pause the reckless tariffs that he put into place. | ||
| There are several members of Congress who will be aggressively demanding answers and transparency, particularly as it relates to stock purchase decisions that may have occurred over the last few days. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| As a follow-up to that question, are there any avenues that Democrats can explore to force an investigation of the House, or are you all essentially handcuffed by being in the minority? | ||
| There will be several avenues that we will be able to pursue, and we'll do so aggressively and, in fact, because of current congressional rules. | ||
| We know that members of the House of Representatives will have to disclose any stock trades that they've made 30 days from the date of those trades or potentially no later than 45 days. | ||
| And so the reality is people are going to have to pay the piper in terms of disclosure. | ||
| And so our point is you might as well get it out into the public domain now because it's coming later and there's nothing that you can do about it. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The DCCC rolled out a pretty ambitious list of targets for 2026, including some districts that I think weren't on anybody's radar. | |
| I'm wondering how you're going to reassure frontliners and also potentially incumbents who are facing primary challenges that they're going to get the resources they need to run their races. | ||
| We're going to raise the resources necessary as we did in the last Congress. | ||
| The DCCC has consistently outraised the Republican National Campaign Committee, notwithstanding the fact that House Republicans are in the majority. | ||
| That was the case in the last Congress. | ||
| That will be the case in this Congress, as already demonstrated by the January and February numbers. | ||
| We will continue to make clear that in terms of spending priorities, that our frontline members are first amongst equals because you cannot achieve addition, and we only need to flip three seats in order to take back the majority, but you cannot achieve addition if you allow subtraction to take place. | ||
| So we're committed to making sure that every single frontline member returns to the House of Representatives after the November 2026 election. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you still believe there should be litigation in Texas over filling the late Sylvester Turner's seat now that a special election has been scheduled? | |
| We're taking a hard look at it to determine Determine what is the rationale for delaying the special election by approximately eight months, given that the Honorable Sylvester Turner passed away on March 5th. | ||
| Last question, thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's unclear whether House Republicans will be able to suspend the debt limit on their own, and the X date is coming up in August or September, according to CBO. | |
| If Democratic votes are needed to suspend the debt limit, what are some policy concessions that you would want, or would you be asking for something like that? | ||
| We'll continue to make clear that we are not going to provide a blank check to Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans to enact massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk while at the same time using that blank check to try to slash health care programs like Medicaid and literally take food out of the mouths of children by enacting the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history. | ||
| Those are the top lines. | ||
| We've been very clear, public, and transparent about it. | ||
| And the ball is now in the court of the Republicans who claim some big mandate when we know that it does not exist. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | |
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