| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
10. Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies on his agency's budget request for the upcoming fiscal year. | |
| And Wednesday, the House Rules Committee is holding a late-night session. | ||
| They're set to debate and vote on the Republicans' tax and spending cuts proposal. | ||
| If approved by the Rules Committee, the bill would go to the House floor for a vote this week. | ||
| That starts at 1 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| You can also watch live coverage on the C-SPAN Now app or online at C-SPAN.org. | ||
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| House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries criticized the Republican budget legislation and addressed former President Biden's cancer diagnosis during a press conference on Capitol Hill. | ||
| He spoke for about 25 minutes. | ||
| Good afternoon, everyone. | ||
| Good afternoon. | ||
| This is a make or break week for the American people. | ||
| House Democrats will continue to strongly oppose the GOP tax scam, where Republicans are trying to jam this big, ugly bill down the throats of the American people, which will take away health care, impose the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, and hurt veterans, | ||
| hurt children, hurt seniors, hurt people with disabilities, result in hospitals closing, nursing homes shutting down. | ||
| And because of the fact that almost 14 million people will lose their ability to access health care, people will die. | ||
| House Republicans are trying to jam this reckless and extreme budget down the throats of the American people and hide what's in it, which is why, in an extraordinary way, they are holding a Rules Committee hearing to advance the bill at 1 a.m. in the morning. | ||
| If this legislation is designed to make life better for the American people, can someone explain to me why they would hold a hearing to advance the bill at 1 a.m. in the morning? | ||
| It's because the Republicans know that their efforts to take away health care from millions of Americans is deeply unpopular. | ||
| Republicans know that the effort to enact the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, which will literally take food from the mouths of children, veterans, and seniors, is deeply unpopular. | ||
| Republicans know they're providing their billionaire donors with a massive tax break for people like Elon Musk, and at the same time, exploding the deficit by trillions of dollars is deeply unpopular. | ||
| That's why Republicans are going to try to advance this bill in the dead of night at 1 a.m. in the morning. | ||
| Trump and House Republicans can run away from their extreme budget proposal. | ||
| We will never let them hide. | ||
| Questions? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, sir. | |
| Given the revelations with President Biden's cancer diagnosis and the release of the HERB reporting, why were Democrats not more open to talking about President Biden's age in 2024? | ||
| My thoughts and prayers have been extended to President Biden. | ||
| It's a painful moment for him and his family. | ||
| It's a very serious diagnosis. | ||
| My expectation that President Biden is going to meet this moment with the courage and resilience that he's consistently shown, it seems to me entirely inappropriate that at this moment in time, when President Biden is dealing with a serious and aggressive form of cancer, | ||
| there are Republicans who are peddling conspiracy theories and want us to look backward at a time when they actually are taking health care away from the American people. | ||
| No, as House Democrats, we're going to look forward. | ||
| They literally are trying to take health care away from millions of Americans at this very moment in the dead of night. | ||
| And Republicans want to fan the flames of conspiracy theories at this moment? | ||
| No, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| Two quick questions. | ||
| Just to follow up on President Biden. | ||
| Have you had a chance to speak with him at all since this diagnosis, or do you intend to? | ||
| And then, secondly, just on Medicaid, I know for many months now you've been warning about the implications of cutting Medicaid. | ||
| It seems there's some renewed discussions about FMAP and putting it back into the reconciliation bill. | ||
| What are your chief concerns if that happens? | ||
| I have not had the opportunity to speak to President Biden subsequent to the news of the diagnosis becoming public yesterday. | ||
| I do expect at some point in time I will speak directly to him to more directly communicate my thoughts and prayers and that of the House Democratic Caucus. | ||
| In terms of the Republican obsession with taking away health care from the American people, this is something that they've been trying to do for decades. | ||
| And the so-called Freedom Caucus are making demands to push the bill into a more extreme direction. | ||
| So the question is going to be, will the so-called moderate Republicans who have publicly claimed that they do not support efforts to end Medicaid as we know it and take away health care from the American people, will they push back against this extreme mega-Republican effort to make the budget even more damaging to the health, safety, and well-being of the American people? | ||
| We have warned from the very beginning that House Republicans are actually determined to end Medicaid as we know it. | ||
| And we continue to receive proof point after proof point after proof point. | ||
| And now the fact that the budget has been advanced to this stage is further evidence that despite all the claims that Democrats were not being level about what the Republicans' intentions are, the bill as it's currently written would enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. | ||
| That's the bill as it's currently written. | ||
| And Republicans are apparently planning to make it even more extreme. | ||
| The one thing I want to know, is Donald Trump promised to veto any bill that actually would take away Medicaid benefits from the American people. | ||
| If that in fact is the case, is he planning on saying to House Republicans tomorrow morning that he's going to veto the bill as it's currently written? | ||
| Or was he once again lying to the American people? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| Obviously, this week, Republicans are trying to get this through. | ||
| If they can, and we get closer to July, that's obviously the debt ceiling deadline. | ||
| Have you put any thought into what Democrats would want from Republicans in order to avert the debt ceiling crisis if they can't use this as the vehicle to do that? | ||
| We have not because Republicans have to date determined that they want to go it alone. | ||
| Go it alone as it relates to trying to meet the needs of the American people, which has resulted in this one big, ugly bill that they now want to jam down the throats of the American people in the dead of night. | ||
| And that they apparently have concluded they want to go it alone in terms of making sure that the debt ceiling is lifted. | ||
| Good luck because they haven't had a single conversation with Democrats to try to protect the full faith and credit of the United States of America. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| Today, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the lifting of a 2016 emergency order for water testing in Flint, Michigan. | ||
| It returns testing to the normal state standards. | ||
| First, what's your reaction to this, both in terms of how far Flint has come, but also what work there still have to do in Flint and other areas across the country? | ||
| Significant progress has been made in Flint, Michigan, thanks to leadership from the governor and great leadership from the former representative from that area, Dan Kildie, who made it his congressional mission to help get the situation turned around. | ||
| There still is work to be done, and that's being led in part by Representative McDonald Rivet. | ||
| And it appears that the action taken by the EPA administrator will unnecessarily and harmfully turn back the clock. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Leader. | ||
| On Friday, Florida A ⁇ M University named Marva Johnson to be their next president despite backlash over her political ties to Trump and her lack of academic experience. | ||
| Critics view this as part of Project 2025's trend of trying to take over boards and undermine HBCUs. | ||
| You've mentioned that Republicans lied about Project 2025. | ||
| Do you view the takeover of HBCUs as part of that campaign to undermine HBCUs? | ||
| And as someone who's supportive of HBCUs, what's your message to students out there who are concerned about the leadership that are being installed at these institutions? | ||
| Well, this particular individual appears deeply unqualified and unprepared to carry out the mission of Florida A ⁇ M University. | ||
| And it's my suspicion that she will not last long at the institution. | ||
| She will be a failure. | ||
| And we are not going to allow the Trump administration to take over historically black colleges and universities across the country to whitewash our history and to try to indoctrinate the young people of America with their extreme and failing ideology. | ||
| Republicans and far-right extremists are failing. | ||
| They're failing as it relates to the economy. | ||
| They're failing as it relates to races that are taking place all across the country. | ||
| They're failing in courts. | ||
| And we're not going to let them take their failed track record, one disaster after the next, and allow them to pretend as if they've got some capacity or expertise to, of all things, be leading our historically black colleges and universities. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| You've now worked with Speaker Mike Johnson for about twice as long as Kevin McCarthy was speaker. | ||
| I'm just curious how you would characterize your relationship with the speaker at this point and how often you guys actually do get a chance to talk or meet with him. | ||
| It's a forward-looking, candid, and communicative relationship. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just wonder if I could get your reaction to this reported $5 million settlement between the Trump administration and the family of Ashley Babbitt. | |
| The Chief of Police of the United States Capitol Police Force clearly and plainly said, and I support, the position that the settlement was a slap in the face to the hardworking, courageous, and brave men and women of the United States Police Force. | ||
| It was totally done without any communication to the chief of the Capitol Police or his lawyers and appears solely the result of a political determination that Donald Trump and Republicans are going to try to whitewash what happened on January 6th. | ||
| This settlement is just an extension of what they've previously done, which is to pardon violent felons who violently attacked the Capitol on January 6th, including police officers, and now have all been pardoned and sent back to communities across the country where in some cases they're re-engaging in criminal activity. | ||
| Donald Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans are not going to be able to erase what happened on January 6th, no matter how hard they try. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Peter Guffers, thank you. | |
| I wanted to ask you about the discussions going on with SALT right now. | ||
| Obviously, you still have a fair amount of New York Republicans who are not budging when it comes to discussions on SALT, but you have Republicans from other states that are saying otherwise. | ||
| One of the more heated conversations we saw was between Congressman Tom Swazi and Congresswoman Beth Van Dyne during one of the hearings where she said Texas isn't affected by SALT. | ||
| And Swazi kept asking her over and over again, well, what about the people of New York? | ||
| Tell me about your thoughts on Republicans who want to keep the SALT cap where it is, but then they say that taxpayers shouldn't get a break for choosing to live in a high-tax state. | ||
| Do you agree with that, or do you think it's fair for Republicans from other states to say something like this? | ||
| States like New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and Illinois and California are donor states. | ||
| We regularly send billions of dollars more to the federal government than we get back in return. | ||
| We are donor states. | ||
| So we're not going to be lectured by people who are actually in what has sometimes been referred to as taker states, who actually receive more money every year from the federal government than they send in terms of taxpayer dollars as to what is fair and what is right. | ||
| It's actually not fair that you have many states in this country who subsidize other states. | ||
| New York subsidizes other states. | ||
| And so to provide some measure of relief through the state and local tax deduction, I think is a modest step toward balancing the revenues that come in and the revenues that come out. | ||
| The people of New York are fine with continuing to be a donor state, but it is unfair to cap the state and local tax deduction at $10,000. | ||
| And if my Republican colleagues were really interested in providing relief to middle-class taxpayers that they represent, then they would simply say and make clear that this budget should remain silent on the state and local tax deduction because by doing nothing, the cap disappears effective December 31st of this year. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| Congressman Al Green said Friday that he would force a vote on his articles of impeachment against President Trump. | ||
| Where do you stand on that impeachment effort? | ||
| I haven't had a conversation with Congressman Green about it, but I look forward to that discussion. | ||
| Can you just characterize in your view what the impact, at least of the bill as it stands right now, would be in your district and in your home state, particularly in the context of some of these battleground districts that you're going to be litigating in a year and a half? | ||
| There are people who will lose their health care coverage across the state of New York and beyond, approximately 14 million in this country. | ||
| Tens of millions of others are going to pay higher copays, premiums, and deductibles because of the significant role that Medicaid plays in the health care ecosystem across this country. | ||
| And if you're effectively in Medicaid as we know it, it will also have an impact that is damaging on people who don't rely on Medicaid for their health insurance, but are part of the same health care ecosystem. | ||
| Hospitals are going to close, nursing homes are going to shut down, community health clinics will shutter their doors, and people are going to die when their health care is taken away from them, all because Republicans want to provide a massive tax break to their billionaire donors like Elon Musk. | ||
| That's the fundamental question that is before the Congress and the House of Representatives this week. | ||
| Democrats are going to stand on the side of the American people, their health care, their nutritional assistance, their access to higher education, stand on the side of veterans and everyday Americans and people with disabilities and our children and seniors. | ||
| And Republicans are continuing to stand on the side of their billionaire donors. | ||
| And House Republicans in particular Are once again shamefully bending the knee and serving as nothing more than a rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda. | ||
| That's why he's coming up to the Hill tomorrow to give them their marching orders. | ||
| As if House Republicans work for Donald Trump, JD Vance, or Elon Musk. | ||
| You don't. | ||
| You work for the American people. | ||
| And all we need are four House Republicans to stand up and do the right thing and push back against this one big, ugly bill, and we could actually save the health care of the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you plan to speak with President Trump at all during this process or tomorrow when he comes up here? | |
| I have no current plans to talk to President Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You've been very clear about your concerns. | |
| I think week after week about reconciliation legislation. | ||
| Now, as we're heading toward the final stretch here, potentially of vote this week, can you talk a little bit about Democrat strategy and your strategy to push back in the time that's left? | ||
| Well, every single House Democrat will continue to be strongly opposed to the Republican effort to rip health care away from the American people as part of their scheme connected to the GOP tax scam to provide massive breaks to their billionaire donors like Elon Musk. | ||
| We have held town hall meetings in Democratic districts and town hall meetings in Republican districts. | ||
| There have been speeches and rallies and marches and sit-ins and telephone town hall meetings and press conferences, all of which will continue in different ways throughout this week and beyond. | ||
| Whatever happens in the House this week doesn't necessarily signal the end of the process unless Republicans decide finally to walk away from it. | ||
| And every single House Republican that chooses to vote for this reckless budget that will hurt the people they represent is going to be held accountable this week, next week, this month, next month, this year, next year. | ||
| And so I would caution my Republican colleagues to be very careful about how you proceed legislatively in terms of the votes you're being asked to take that clearly do not serve the best interests of the people we all are privileged to represent here in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Last question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Leader. | |
| Republicans are using the package to prevent state Medicaid funding going to non-citizens. | ||
| The governors of Minnesota and California have in different ways been cutting that off. | ||
| Are they wrong to do that? | ||
| Are Democrats opposed to cutting off state Medicaid programs that go to non-citizens? | ||
| What's interesting is that Republicans have tried to make this a talking point when, as far as I can tell, the overwhelming majority of people who are going to be hurt by their efforts to take away Medicaid and as a result will lose their health care are American citizens. | ||
| That's the overwhelming majority of the 13.7 million people who are going to lose their health care because of Republican efforts to provide Elon Musk and their billionaire donors with a massive tax break. | ||
| That's what's unacceptable. | ||
| That's what's unconscionable. | ||
| And that is what is un-American. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies on his department's 2026 budget request. | |
| He'll also likely face questions on the situation in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, and the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. | ||
| Watch the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing live starting at 10 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3. | ||
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