Fighting Back: “Democrats support a humane, comprehensive immigration system that honors the dignity and grace of all people.”

 
 

The Weekly Democratic Party Address was delivered by Congresswoman Veronica Escobar of Texas speaking about H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, which will protects DREAMers from the Republicans on the Supreme Court.

(In this week’s address, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar discussed the stakes of the Supreme Court case on the Trump Administration’s effort to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative and highlighted Democrats’ overwhelming passage of H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, which was sent to the Senate over 160 days ago. )

“Americans across the country know that for Dreamers, home is here, and support providing them with permanent protections and bringing relief and certainty to their lives.

“In Congress, House Democrats have delivered For The People and honored their will by overwhelmingly passing H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act — sent to the Senate over 160 days ago.

“This bill protects Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries by providing them with a pathway to citizenship.

“As the Supreme Court decides whether to uphold the rulings of courts across the country or be complicit in the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, House Democrats are urging Majority Leader McConnell to bring the American Dream and Promise Act to the Senate Floor immediately and work to fix our broken immigration system with humane, comprehensive immigration reform that honors the dignity and grace of all people.

(CSPAN link to Weekly Democratic Address: here)

Transcript: Congresswoman Veronica Escobar Delivers Weekly Democratic Address

“Hi, I’m Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and I represent El Paso, Texas, a safe and secure community on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“This week, thousands of Dreamers traveled to our nation’s capital to rally as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the termination of DACA and decide whether to uphold the highly successful DACA program or put nearly 700,000 Dreamers at risk of deportation.

“The DACA program, established in 2012 under a long tradition of administrative discretion, has empowered courageous young Dreamers to come out of the shadows and pursue their American Dream as students, as teachers, as doctors, servicemembers and entrepreneurs.

“Dreamers are American in every way except on paper. They are part of the rich and beautiful fabric of our nation and contribute to our economy and our country’s future.

“In my home state of Texas, the more than 109,000 DACA recipients and their families pay $750 million in federal taxes and more than $400 million in state and local taxes alone.

“Americans across the country know that for Dreamers, home is here, and support providing them with permanent protections and bringing relief and certainty to their lives.

“In Congress, House Democrats have delivered For The People and honored their will by overwhelmingly passing H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act — sent to the Senate over 160 days ago.

“This bill protects Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries by providing them with a pathway to citizenship.

“As the Supreme Court decides whether to uphold the rulings of courts across the country or be complicit in the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, House Democrats are urging Majority Leader McConnell to bring the American Dream and Promise Act to the Senate Floor immediately and work to fix our broken immigration system with humane, comprehensive immigration reform that honors the dignity and grace of all people.

“This summer, my community suffered firsthand the consequences of anti-immigrant sentiment when a terrorist confessed that he drove over 600 miles to ‘target Mexicans’ and immigrants. Enough is Enough.

“House Democrats denounce this type of hate and will continue supporting the courage of Dreamers and immigrants alike, and work to ensure that they continue to bless and enrich our nation with their patriotism and determination to succeed.

“We will never stop fighting For The People; to lower health care costs and prescription drug prices; to raise workers’ wages by rebuilding America; and to clean up corruption to make Washington work for you.”

Any bolding has been added.

~

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s weekly news conference from Thursday:

Transcript: Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference

Speaker Pelosi. Good morning, everyone.

Here we are with a week that started off with Veterans Day. A wonderful day. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Armistice Day, a day we now observe as Veterans Day. Every day is Veterans Day for us.

On Tuesday, we passed a packet of bills, nine bills, to improve the lives of our veterans, our heroes in uniform. Among the bills, we were very proud to pass the Deborah Sampson Act, which reduces barriers for women veterans to access V.A., including anti-harassment initiatives. This has a broad base of support and we are very proud to be passing it, the day after Veterans Day.

Monday night when I came into town, I went to the World War II Memorial, to see who was there and just to visit it again. I love going there. It’s so inspiring. And, I saw two – I was impressed particularly by two engravings on the wall. One that related to all veterans: President Truman said, ‘Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.’

How beautiful.

And then, particular to women, not necessarily in uniform, but women in the war effort, by Franklin Delano Roosevelt – President Roosevelt. He said, ‘Women have given their sons to the military services, they have stoked the furnaces and hurried the factory wheels. They have made the planes and welded the tanks, riveted the ships, and rolled the shells.’ That, in addition to serving in the military.

So, again, we honored the men and women in the war effort on [Tuesday] with our nine bills.

In terms of increasing paychecks, we are today – this week, today and tomorrow, considering the Export-Import Bank, which creates nearly two million American jobs in all 50 states – the last decade, it has created over two million jobs. It is very important legislation, there will be some – you – shouldn’t even be a partisan issue, and sometimes in the past, it has not been. There will be an attempt by some to say we shouldn’t, Ex-Im shouldn’t be doing any business with China.

And I modestly say that I take second place to no one in the Congress for over 30 years of fighting China on their trade policy, on their human rights policy, on their proliferation policy. But, to – and we – and there are restrictions in the legislation about government-owned industries and the rest of that.

However, and, again, as critical as I am of China’s policies, by some accord, I am – they advertise me as the most hated person in China, something I take with great pride because of my fight for human rights in China, whether it’s Hong Kong, whether it’s Tibet, whether it’s Beijing or whether it’s the Uyghurs, the Muslims in education camps. Nonetheless, they should not use that as an excuse to not pass the Ex-Im Bank and I will speak to that on the Floor.

In the same token of globalization of the economy, we are moving positively in terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Again, it all comes down to enhancement – excuse me – enforcement. Enhancement, too, but enforcement. I do believe that if we can get this to the place it needs to be, which is imminent, that this can be a template for future trade agreements, a good template.

And then, again, in terms of economic – the financial well-being of America’s working families, we are working on H.R. 3, our legislation to lower prescription drug costs, and hopefully we will be bringing that to the Floor soon.

Next week, we will vote on a Continuing Resolution to fund the government. We passed our appropriations bills, making smart, strong investments in the health, education, economic security, and well-being of America’s families. Sadly, the GOP Senate has not done its job yet.

Soon, again, now another area in terms of legislation we’ll be bringing: the Voting Rights Advancement Act, H.R. 4. H.R. 3 is health care, reducing the cost of prescription drugs. H.R. 4 is the Voting Rights Act. We’re close to closure on that and certainly hope that that will be finished in this session of Congress.

So as I say, we legislate. We investigate, I’ll get to that in a moment. But, we litigate.

On the litigation front, yesterday, Congress and the rule of law had an important victory as the courts once again resoundingly reaffirmed Congress’s authority to conduct oversight of the executive branch on behalf of the American people.

Sadly, we have a President who does not believe in the separation of powers, says that Article II says he can do whatever he wants. It does not, and he cannot, without oversight from the Congress and with respect for legislation passed by the Congress.

And, so, as the court stated, ‘Contrary to the President’s arguments, the Committee possesses authority under both the House rules and the Constitution to issue the subpoena, and Mazars must comply.’ Mazars is the accounting firm that has the President’s records.

We will see how that goes, accommodations back and forth in the next few days, but according to the decision, they’re supposed to release the information in seven days. It may be that we extend an accommodation to them for longer, but that remains to be seen by the Committees and our lawyers.

On the investigation front, yesterday was a very somber, prayerful day. I thought it was a successful day for truth. Truth coming from the President’s men, people he appointed, a person that he appointed most recently, to the State Department.

Again, none of us has come to Congress to impeach a President. We’ve come here to do the work of the American people, to make the future better, for them to try to do so in the most bipartisan way possible, find our common ground where we can, stand our ground where we cannot.

But yesterday, you heard an appointee of the President speak in very unambiguous terms. A courageous public servant. The devastating testimony corroborated evidence of bribery uncovered in the inquiry and that the President abused power and violated his oath by threatening to withhold military aid and a White House meeting in exchange for an investigation into his political rival. Clear attempt of the President to give himself the advantage in the 2020 election. Doing so, as I said, to the President, ‘You jeopardize our national security, undermine our national security, jeopardizing integrity of our electoral system, violate your oath of office.’

I salute Chairman Schiff for the dignity and the statesmanship he brought and the Members of the Intelligence Committee, the Democrats, for showing great patriotism and professionalism with which they are conducting the proceedings. I’m very proud of them.

I said to the Members at the beginning of the day yesterday, when we take the oath to protect and defend the Constitution, we agree and we become custodians of the Constitution. The Constitution, the brilliance of our Founders to create a republic, a system of checks and balances, three co-equal branches of government, separation of powers, each a check and balance on the other. As custodians of the Constitution, we must be defenders of our democracy, because our democracy depends on that republic and not a monarchy – ‘Article II says I can do whatever I want.’

So, again, with respect to that responsibility, we go forward sadly, prayerfully, say with a heavy heart, because it’s not what we came here to do, but we must uphold our oath of office.

Questions?

Press questioning followed (see transcript)

~

Pelosi Statement on House Filing Amicus Brief in Lawsuit Against Trump’s Junk Insurance Plans

November 12, 2019
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on the filing today of the U.S. House of Representatives’ amicus brief in D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Association for Community Affiliated Plans v. U.S. Department of Treasury, to oppose the Trump Administration rule allowing the sale of so-called Short-Term Limited Duration Health Insurance Policies that do not protect people with pre-existing conditions and do not have to cover essential benefits:

“The Trump Administration continues to work to push families into disastrous junk plans that do not protect people with pre-existing conditions, fail to meet minimum standards of care and risk the financial security of millions of hard-working families.

“While the Trump Administration undermines protections for people with pre-existing conditions at every turn, House Democrats are fighting back in the courts and in the Congress to defend and strengthen these lifesaving protections. This summer, House Democrats passed H.R. 987, the Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act, sweeping legislation that includes provisions to block the Administration’s rule cynically expanding junk health insurance plans. Today, we have filed an amicus brief to add the full legal weight of the House of Representatives into the defense of the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

“Instead of cynically trying to dismantle lifesaving health care protections, the Trump Administration must follow the law.”

~