House Democratic leaders hold a press briefing to decry the CR after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) backed it.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon.
00:08House Democrats remain strongly opposed to the partisan Republican spending bill
00:16that will hurt families, hurt veterans, hurt seniors, and hurt the American people.
00:22It is a false choice that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and House Republicans have been presenting
00:32between their reckless and partisan spending bill and a government shutdown.
00:40Why are we here right now in terms of the moment that is in front of us?
00:52It's because Donald Trump and House Republicans decided to walk away from the negotiating table
01:00when there were bipartisan conversations ongoing between House Democrats, House Republicans,
01:08Senate Democrats, and Senate Republicans in a manner consistent with the Bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act
01:16that was passed in May of 2023.
01:22Donald Trump ordered House Republicans to walk away from the negotiating table.
01:28At the end of February, House Republicans then passed a partisan and reckless bill
01:36that cuts funding for healthcare, cuts funding for veterans, and cuts funding for nutritional assistance
01:44to children and families.
01:48It's an unacceptable, unconscionable, and un-American spending bill.
01:54That's why House Democrats remain strongly opposed.
02:00Donald Trump orders them to walk away from the negotiating table.
02:04Step one. Step two, House Republicans pass a partisan and reckless spending bill.
02:14And then step three, House Republicans get out of town.
02:20Where are they at right now? House Democrats are here.
02:24We're ready to pass a four-week spending bill that keeps the government open
02:32and will allow the House and the Senate to negotiate an actual agreement that meets the needs of the American people.
02:44But we do not support a bill that is designed to hurt the American people
02:54that Donald Trump and far-right extremist Republicans are trying to jam down the throats of everyday Americans.
03:02And I yield to our distinguished whip, Catherine Clark.
03:06Thank you so much, Mr. Leader. Proud to stand here with you and Chairman Aguilar.
03:12What we saw is a GOP that campaigned on a promise to the American people
03:18that they would lower their costs, they would make their families safer.
03:22And in the last seven weeks, we've seen them do just the opposite.
03:26They've slashed Medicaid. They've taken away veterans' benefits.
03:34They are attacking the funding for our public schools.
03:38They are out there saying elimination of Social Security and Medicare is the only way to balance our budget.
03:46And we have been clear with this process that led us to this vote today
03:52that we would join them in any CR, in any spending plan that protected Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
04:04veterans' benefits, feed hungry kids in this country, and keep our schools open.
04:10But that's not what they did. And when they put forward this bill,
04:16not only is it bad on the four corners of it, but we saw House GOP member after House GOP member come out and say in public,
04:25I wasn't sure about signing on to this until I met with the Trump administration
04:30and they told me this is their vehicle for further dismantling the services that people who work for a living depend on in this country.
04:41And that's why we're unified in our opposition.
04:45And we are not going to buy into this false binary decision that it's a parade of bad choices.
04:54We know that already. We know what this administration and their enablers in the GOP and Congress are doing to the American people.
05:03Shutdowns are terrible, but so is this dismantling and this scheme to take deserving taxpayers' money and give it to the billionaire class.
05:16Each and every step of this is part of that scheme against everyday Americans who are waving their hands at this administration and saying,
05:28live up to what you told us you would do. You are betraying us.
05:33There is a reason the House GOP said let's cancel town halls, because they don't want to face the voters. They are betrayed.
05:43So we're saying at this moment, come back to the table. Come back and negotiate.
05:49We've never had a shutdown where one party controls the White House, the House, and the Senate.
05:55That has never happened for a reason.
05:58And so this is a very unprecedented situation and an unprecedented disaster for the people who sent us here.
06:08If we do not do everything in our power to fight back and say, come back to the table, make a plan that is centered around the American people.
06:18And I am proud to join in this fight with my friend from California, Chairman Pete Aguilar.
06:25I thank Whit Clark and Leader Jeffries for their continued leadership of House Democrats who have been very clear what side we're on.
06:35Leader Jeffries has been consistent in saying we will always stand up for the American people.
06:41They are asking us to fight back against this slashing attempt to get Medicaid, cut Social Security, eliminate the Department of Education,
06:52all so the billionaire class can pay less in taxes.
06:57This is a fight we're having today and tomorrow and next week and as long as we were here in Congress.
07:05Our constituents are worried about how they're going to pay the bills, how they're going to buy a home, how they're going to send their kids to college.
07:13They are seeing their prices go up and these Republican policies tank the stock market.
07:19They're not following the beltway news of who's up and who's down, but they are very attuned to the Republican recession and that it could cost them their health care and their job.
07:31And they know when their elected officials are willing to fight for them.
07:37They know when someone is looking out for their own pocketbook or they're looking out for their own self-interest.
07:46That's why House Democrats will continue this fight and will continue everything we have done to center this around the American people.
07:56And we'll continue to do that under the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries.
08:05Has Senator Schumer, in your mind, acquiesced to Trump?
08:10That's a question that is best addressed by the Senate. The vote hasn't taken place yet and the House Democratic position is very clear.
08:21We strongly oppose any efforts to cut the health care of the American people, veterans benefits and nutritional assistance, all of which are in the partisan Republican bill.
08:37We're going to continue to support Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits and public schools while Donald Trump and House Republicans try to take a chainsaw to these important priorities of the American people.
08:53We'll see what happens over in the Senate. There are still undecided and undeclared senators and we anxiously await that vote.
09:05Is it time for new leadership in the Senate?
09:11Mr. Leader, first, can you clarify, are you encouraging your Senate colleagues to vote no on cloture, not just the bill itself?
09:17We've been very clear. We strongly oppose the reckless Republican spending bill. Period. Full stop.
09:26Our position, repeatedly articulated this week, speaks for itself.
09:32Has Senator Schumer talked to you before making his announcement? Can you tell us what he told you and what you said back then?
09:40He and I have had repeated and private conversations throughout the week and those conversations will remain private.
09:46Leader Jeffries, have you lost confidence?
09:51On the Senate side, they have a much more difficult path than you do on the House side. You guys could all remain united and the bill would still pass.
10:01If Democrats stay united against this, the government will shut down. What would you have expected Schumer to do?
10:08This is not about one individual. This is about the American people. That's our view.
10:14We made a decision based on the four corners of this bill. It will hurt everyday Americans, in our opinion.
10:22As Donald Trump and House Republicans have been doing for the last several weeks.
10:28Donald Trump promised to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America. In fact, to lower grocery costs on day one.
10:38Costs aren't going down, they're going up. Inflation is going up. You know what's going down? The stock market is going down.
10:45Consumer confidence is going down. Consumer spending is going down.
10:50Republicans are crashing the economy in real time and driving America toward a recession.
10:56That's what we're concerned about. Not individuals. Not individuals. The American people.
11:04But is a shutdown worse? Is a shutdown worse than the bill?
11:09I think the problem here is that's a false question. That's a false choice.
11:13Schumer said it wasn't.
11:14But this is the House position. That we need to go back to the negotiating table.
11:21Which they walked away from. They walked away from it.
11:25And it's why you see both the Senate and the House Chairs of Appropriations saying,
11:3130 days. Give us 30 days to put the American people's voices back in this process.
11:38And when you're in the minority, you only have a few real points where you can use the powers that you have,
11:46the procedural moves that you have, to do the right thing by people who are terrified of where this country is going
11:55and where it's going to leave them and their families.
11:58So back to the negotiating table? Why is that some wild-eyed idea?
12:04It's like, let's come back together.
12:07If you're serious about cutting costs, protecting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, our schools, our veterans,
12:14come back to the table and work that out.
12:17The choice of having a shutdown when you're the party that runs everything is preposterous.
12:25It's just outrageous. They're even trying to say somehow that's the choice Democrats are making.
12:31You run everything, but what you're trying to do is scam the American people out of their money
12:37and the services they paid for and they deserve.
12:42So, you know, let's be realistic about what this fight is.
12:46We are simply saying, go back to the negotiating table.
12:50It's not about a shutdown versus a particular spending bill.
12:54It's are we going to center around the American people and do what's right for them, or are we not?
13:04In all these fun D.C. words, closure, continuing resolution,
13:09what the American people need to know is that House Democrats are willing to work in a bipartisan way
13:16to keep government open for 30 days.
13:19That's all we want. That's our solution.
13:22It's not perfect. It doesn't solve all of our problems.
13:26But it centers the debate around the American people.
13:29It pauses what would be a reckless shutdown at the hands of Donald Trump.
13:35And it says, let's keep negotiating. Let's work on our funding bills.
13:39Let's give Rosa DeLauro and Tom Cole and Patty Murray and Susan Collins some time to work on these spending bills.
13:48And then let's come back, and let's see what the next couple weeks hold.
13:51But we have to pass funding bills in a bipartisan process.
13:56It's a three-page bill, probably. It's not 99 pages that cuts the veterans' care that they deserve.
14:03It's a couple-page bill. We can put that on the floor. We can get that done.
14:07We can pass it. We can go home. We can talk to our constituents about this.
14:11And we can center this around the American people.
14:15It sounds like this message was sent to the Senate, received, and then they decided yesterday, for whatever reason,
14:22maybe they didn't have the votes, Leader Schumer decided to walk away from that and go with the GOP plan.
14:28There are some colleagues of yours here in the House that feel betrayed.
14:32Is that what you're feeling right now?
14:35The vote hasn't happened. There are undecided and undeclared Democratic senators
14:43who are evaluating what is the right thing to do for the American people.
14:49We've made that decision as House Democrats, and we're going to stick by that decision
14:54because we believe we are on the side of the American people.
14:57Mr. Luther, House Democrats—
14:59Yes, Leader Jeffries, when it comes to FY26, looking to September,
15:03some Democrats have expressed concerns that seeing how the process had played out this week
15:08will set a tone for the upcoming fiscal year.
15:10Do you share those concerns, and what have you learned from this process for the next fiscal year?
15:14Our general view is that we do not want to shut down the government.
15:20But we are not afraid of a government funding showdown.
15:27And we will win that showdown because we stand on the side of the American people.
15:35What's the difference between a shutdown and a showdown to you?
15:38Next question.
15:39To follow up, though, you talk about the problem with saying, oh, this isn't just one individual.
15:45But still, doesn't this still send a message to Americans, the fact that it's the leader of the Senate,
15:50Democrats, who has already said he's making this decision,
15:54and you already have 66 of your House colleagues sending him a letter
15:58saying that they're not approving of this?
16:00When I travel the country, the American people are concerned about if their kids get sick,
16:07can they go see a doctor?
16:10And we have a problem with the fact that Republicans are cutting health care in this partisan spending bill.
16:18There are veterans in this country who want to know that after serving this country,
16:22sacrificing, putting their lives on the line,
16:28that their country will be there for them in the way that they were there for America.
16:35There are mothers and fathers who are struggling to make ends meet.
16:39They are working hard. They are playing by the rules.
16:44But they're not sure whether they can put food on the table day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month.
16:51And the Republicans in this bill, just like they're cutting veterans' benefits,
16:55are cutting nutritional assistance to children and families.
16:59That's what we have a problem with.
17:04The Republicans are hurting the American people.
17:07That's why House Democrats are strongly opposed to this bill.
17:11Leader Jeffries, Senator Chuck Schumer is from your state.
17:15He clearly has a different view of this than you.
17:18He is not saying let's go back to the negotiating table.
17:21He's saying let's take this vote.
17:22So have you lost confidence in him, the fact that you guys see this so differently?
17:27Next question.
17:29I want to go back to my colleague's question.
17:31Can you clarify what you mean by showdown versus shutdown, that you guys are ready for a showdown but not a shutdown?
17:37What is a showdown versus what may occur if the Senate takes this vote?
17:42Listen, it speaks for itself.
17:44Let's be clear about the party who shuts down the government.
17:48It's not Democrats. It's Republicans.
17:51The 1990s, House Republicans led by Newt Gingrich shut down the government twice because they wanted to cut Medicaid.
18:05Democrats rejected that position.
18:08And Republicans were forced to reopen the government and engage in an unconditional surrender.
18:17In 2013, my first year in the Congress, House Republicans, the Tea Party, Ted Cruz, they shut the government down 14 days in October
18:32because they wanted President Obama and Democrats to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
18:38They told us my way and the highway.
18:42We showed them the highway.
18:44And after 14 days, Republicans engaged in an unconditional surrender and the Affordable Care Act is alive and well.
18:57And all of us were here.
19:00And in various forms of leadership, during the 35-day government shutdown, it started in December of 2018
19:10and it carried all the way into February or so of 2019.
19:19In that shutdown, Donald Trump closed the government because he wanted Democrats to divert taxpayer dollars,
19:30billions of taxpayer dollars, to pay for his medieval border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for.
19:40And he wanted to take American taxpayer dollars away from defense and national security.
19:46We told him to get lost.
19:49And after 35 days, Republicans engaged in an unconditional surrender.
19:55What I'm saying speaks for itself.
19:58Check the history.
20:01We're on the right side of the American people.
20:04We don't want to shut the government down.
20:06They do.
20:08But we're not afraid of a showdown.
20:11Mr. Leader, House Democrats have been united in their opposition against this continuing resolution.
20:18But that's a different position that we're hearing from Senate leadership.
20:22How does this not play into those accusations that Democrats are not unified?
20:28House Democrats remain very unified.
20:30Let me yield to Catherine Clarke and Pete Aguinaldo.
20:33But what about the party itself?
20:35I mean, we're hearing two different messages.
20:38You asked the question, can we answer it?
20:39Yeah, absolutely.
20:41Yeah, I think what we've seen time and time again is that we have come together.
20:46Listen, we're here on behalf of House Democrats.
20:49And we know who we have to fight for.
20:52We are in a crisis that has been happening in the last seven weeks.
20:59We have seen Doge and Elon Musk going into our most secure data banks,
21:05right going through people's health care information, social security information.
21:10We don't know what they're doing with that.
21:13We are taking them to court over 100 lawsuits.
21:16And we are winning on behalf of the American people.
21:19But it doesn't stop their chainsaws.
21:22They're going right through everything the American people need to be successful.
21:27They're telling us they'll eliminate social security.
21:30They've already voted in the House to devastate Medicaid.
21:37You cannot take Medicaid away and not close nursing homes in this country.
21:43Take away health insurance from children.
21:47Close rural hospitals first, but other hospitals won't follow.
21:53And you can't do that to Medicaid and not soar the cost of health insurance
21:58and health care in this country for everybody else
22:01and put an undue pressure on Medicare.
22:04So what we're saying is you have to choose a side right now.
22:09We have to fight for our country, for our national security,
22:14and most of all for the security of families at home.
22:17And we are united in that.
22:19And this parlor game here about, you know, most American people, they can't name us.
22:26They don't know who Chuck Schumer is.
22:30But they do know what this administration and Elon Musk and the GOP are planning for them.
22:37And it's why you're seeing this uproar in town halls.
22:41It's why you are seeing in very, very Republican parts of this country
22:46veterans expressing their frustration and their outrage
22:50that they've cut 7,000 of them from jobs,
22:54that they have a spokesperson for the White House that says,
22:57well, those veterans weren't fit to work.
23:01But your party is not on the same page here.
23:04Schumer is arguing that a shutdown would be more catastrophic
23:07because the White House would choose which federal agencies remain open
23:11and would thus get more power to vote.
23:13Our party is united on this front, that we will stand with the American people.
23:19And we are having a disagreement here.
23:22But this is what unites us.
23:26It's that we're going to continue to work for those people who work for a living,
23:31who are looking at their budgets, their family budgets.
23:35They're not sure they're going to make it,
23:37and they're not sure of their place in the future.
23:39And as they see their retirement, their Social Security all being threatened,
23:44when they can't afford child care and eggs and the basics,
23:48and they certainly don't know how their kids or they can afford to buy a house,
23:54those are the issues that we are saying come back to the table and work on.
24:01I had the privilege of presiding over the House Democratic caucus retreat
24:06with Clark, Leader Jeffries, and Vice Chair Liu over the last few days.
24:12And to a person, House Democrats knew the task at hand.
24:18We knew we had to talk about the 2024 election, and we did.
24:22We knew we had to talk about how we defend against Elon Musk, Donald Trump,
24:27and House Republicans coming after their health care.
24:30And we knew we had to talk about an affirmative agenda to lower the costs that people face.
24:36We did that.
24:37And to a person, House Democrats understand what is in front of us.
24:41We know that this is about the American people.
24:45Now, I don't expect our Senate colleagues to lose a lot of sleep
24:49or to think a lot about how House Democrats feel.
24:53What we're asking them to keep in mind is how do the American people feel?
24:58How will the American people feel when Donald Trump and Elon Musk have more authority
25:05and ability to comb through agencies, to fire veterans, to cut benefits?
25:12How will the American people feel, and is that a vote you're comfortable owning?
25:17I think that's the question that the Senate has.
25:21We are comfortable as House Democrats that we are standing for the American people in this moment
25:29against this Republican assault on working-class families.
25:35Mr. Leader, you have dodged multiple times questions about whether you have confidence right now in Chuck Schumer.
25:43Can I just, to clarify here, none of you are willing to say at this point that you have confidence in Chuck Schumer as leader?
25:50You keep engaging in these parlor games because you want to take the focus off the American people.
25:58What we're saying is we look forward to continuing to work with our Senate colleagues,
26:03all of them, in opposition to the extremism that's being unleashed on the American people.
26:10But the focus right now is on everyday Americans, on children, on families, on veterans,
26:18on the people that we are fighting for who Donald Trump and House Republicans are intentionally trying to hurt
26:28in a moment where Donald Trump and that whole crew, they are tanking the economy in real time,
26:37failing to deliver on their promises to make life better for the American people.
26:42And, in fact, things are getting worse.
26:45While Donald Trump's poll numbers aren't going up, they're going down, just like the stock market.
26:51You're asking that because real people are protesting.
26:56There are 11 people that were arrested today outside of Schumer's office.
26:59That's the only – we're not playing any tricks.
27:02Yeah, I travel the country.
27:04I represent a district in Brooklyn.
27:07I'll be in that district in a few days.
27:09I'll be in church on Sunday.
27:12I'll be having events on Monday.
27:15We have a Medicaid Day of Action on Tuesday.
27:17I look forward to reporting back to all of you when I've had conversations with those very everyday Americans
27:25that you're talking about, that Pete's privileged to represent in the Inland Empire,
27:30that Catherine's privileged to represent in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
27:33and that I'm privileged to represent in Brooklyn.
27:37But I know what they say to me about what matters to them,
27:44the fact that they have been struggling to get ahead in an America that's the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
27:53It's not acceptable that far too many people are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck,
28:00can't get ahead, and can barely get by.
28:02That's not acceptable.
28:05And that's why House Democrats are taking a stand.