House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pushed back against a question posed by a reporter after she suggested the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation package is “a culmination” of her service in Congress.
During her Thursday press briefing, Pelosi explained, “I just told members of my leadership that the reconciliation bill was a culmination of my service in Congress cause it was about the children.”
She stressed, “We will have a reconciliation bill, that’s for sure.”
Watch part of Pelosi’s press briefing below:
"I just told members of my leadership that the reconciliation bill was a culmination of my service in Congress cause it was about the children," Speaker Pelosi says. "We will have a reconciliation bill, that's for sure." pic.twitter.com/JaQADJdb4M
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 30, 2021
Founder of Punchbowl News, Jake Sherman, went on to ask Pelosi, “You said this is the culmination of your time in Congress. Are you trying to — culmination means the end of an experience.”
She joked with Sherman, “Get out of here. Get out of here.”
Sherman replied, “You said it, not me.”
Pelosi explained, “Yeah, no, but of course, the Affordable Care Act was remarkable and I take some proprietary interest on that. But in terms of finally seeing a time where we can think in a large way about our children, our people with disabilities, our moms.”
Reflecting on her experience of being a mother with five children, Pelosi continued, “When I was young and was raising my children, people don’t know, this is a challenging job. Even one child or two. I didn’t even wash my face some days. In fact, I liked it that way, but the fact is, is that we have to, if we’re going to be really building back better, we have to give women the opportunity to work in the workplace, and that’s about childcare, home health care, universal pre-K, family medical leave.”
Watch more of her comments below:
.@JakeSherman: "You said this is the culmination of your time in Congress. Are you trying to — culmination means the end of an experience."
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 30, 2021
.@SpeakerPelosi: "Get out of here…So this is, it's so much and that's why I said that, yeah." pic.twitter.com/E0GfyFfGuk
Acknowledging most developed countries have those things, the House speaker said, “We will. And that is, each one of those is something we fought over the years for. And now it’s coming together in a way that is transformative. Not incremental but transformative to what we’re doing on the infrastructure side of things. They go together very well.”
CBS News reports the bill has no support from Republicans and must be passed using budget reconciliation. The process allows the bill to pass with 50 votes rather than the required 60 votes.
All eyes are on Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) when it comes to the fate of the bill. Manchin reiterated his opposition to the spending package in a statement on Wednesday.
The Hill points out Sinema has met with the president several times over the last few weeks. White House officials also met with her on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, as the outlet reports.