Speaker 1 (00:00):
… is happy about the direction that our country is headed, which is actually disappointing. For example, yesterday at the National Prayer Service, the bishop was extreme in her views, extremely out of line and out of touch, and what she did was uncalled for. Perhaps we should pray for her. Why should anyone block or be opposed to President Trump's agenda? The American people expect us to deliver on the mandate in which they've given us. The days of negativity are over. That's why President Trump and House Republicans have already started to keep our promises. Promises to secure the border and unleash American energy and drain the swamp. Promises made, promises kept. Together, we will make America great again. President Trump started this. On day one, he signed 41 executive orders on his very first day in office. House Republicans will continue to deliver more wins for America. President Trump is even taking, get this, unfiltered questions from you all, the press. I think he's been more available in his first 24 to 48 hours than President Biden was maybe his whole presidency.
(01:35)
It's time for a change and you better get used to it because America is back. Trump is back and we are happy about it. And Democrats don't know what to do. For years they've campaigned on the opposite of our agenda. Now President Trump is more popular than ever and they're searching for their message. Well, my message to them is that it's not too late to join us in restoring America and American prosperity. This week we will give them another opportunity to do just that. An opportunity to fix our forests and prevent future tragedies. We will give them an opportunity to advocate for born alive babies. I hope they join us, instead of voting against women like they did last week. I will share with you America is watching and America is excited and happy about what they see. They know that our best days are ahead. And now I will turn it over from the gentleman from Colorado, Jeff Hurd.
Jeff Hurd (02:56):
Good morning everyone. I'm Jeff Hurd and I have the honor of representing Colorado's third Congressional district. I want to thank Chairman McLean for inviting me today and also Chairman Westerman in the Natural Resources Committee for his leadership on the Fix Our Forests Act. This is a critical piece of legislation. There are 11 national forests in the state of Colorado, six of them are in my district. The Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960, that's a little bit of a mouthful, requires our national forests to be managed for multiple uses including outdoor recreation, timber management. For decades though, federal bureaucrats beholden to misguided environmentalists have brought responsible timber management to a halt. They've effectively turned our national forests into national parks.
(03:42)
This mismanagement has fueled catastrophic wildfires and set the stage for disasters just like what we've seen in California. Now, the Fix Our Forests Act will change that. It lets the Forest Service do its job, restore forest health, increase resiliency to wildfires and also to protect our communities and I am proud to support it. This bill is common sense and it's necessary. We're going to pass it in the House, work with the Senate and get it to President Trump's desk as soon as possible. Together we're going to fight to ensure that communities never faced another preventable wildfire disaster again. Thank you. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Majority Whip Emmer.
Tom Emmer (04:25):
I think our conference chair led off with this, promises made and promises kept. That has been the theme since President Trump's triumphant return to the White House on Monday. In one day, president Trump did more for the American people than Joe Biden did in four years, some of us would argue more than he did for the American public in 50 years. From shutting down the woke DEI bureaucracy that poisoned every aspect of the last administration to ending the CBP One app scam that helped facilitate the worst border invasion our country has ever seen, to rolling back policies that crippled America's energy dominance and our national security in the process and so much more.
(05:10)
One thing is clear, the golden age of America is upon us and President Trump will stop at nothing to reverse the damage done by the failed Biden-Harris administration, nor should he. It's exactly what he campaigned on. And 77 million Americans gave him an overwhelming mandate to put America first. House Republicans are united and ready to work with the greatest president of our lifetimes and our Republican colleagues in the Senate to get the job done. Failure is not an option and we're excited by the historic opportunity in front of us to make America great again. And with that, I turn it over to our majority leader, Steve Scalise.
Steve Scalise (05:56):
Thank you, Whip. It is morning in America again. It's an exciting time. Monday was just a special day where America celebrated the inauguration of President Donald Trump coming back as the now 47th President of the United States. And you already see a different focus, a sharper focus in President Trump. We've, and I'm sure the speaker will touch on this, we got to meet with the President in the White House yesterday for a good amount of time to talk about the agenda, to talk about the things we're going to do to help fight for those American people who have been struggling for years under the weight of the failures of the Biden-Harris agenda. It's not just talk, it's action that's being taken, not just through the executive actions that you heard our conference chair Lisa McLean talk about, but actual legislation. Today we're going to send to President Trump's desk, his very first bill to sign into law, the Laken Riley Act.
(06:57)
And I think it's significant that you look at the contrast between last Congress where we passed the same bill and Chuck Schumer made it clear that in a Democrat senate they had no desire to stand up for women who were assaulted by people here illegally. Joe Biden would not have signed that bill. But now with John Thune, you have the same House majority, but you now have a willing partner in the Senate that actually wants to confront real problems facing families so that you don't have more Laken Rileys, you don't have more murders of innocent people because of an open border. President Trump's already taken action to start reversing that open border. We're working now in the budget reconciliation process to address those problems, to secure America's border, to produce more energy in America so you can lower costs for families when they go to the pump, when they pay their energy bill and it's pretty darn cold.
(07:55)
Even in Louisiana, we got 10 inches of snow yesterday in New Orleans. It's pretty surreal to see that there's more snow there than here in DC. But there is a new sense of optimism and I think you're going to see it from a lot of us. And you go through all the swing states, you go through the campaign, there were many specific things talked about. We talked about what we would do if we got the trifecta, the House, Senate, and White House. And people wonder sometimes, "Will they actually follow through on that?" And what's encouraging is that now we're actually following through on the promises that were made.
(08:33)
It's going to be really good policies for families who were struggling. Help is now on the way. Help is here. Help is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for all those families who have been screaming, crying out for Washington to answer the problems that they're facing and that help is now going to start delivering results for those families. It's going to be a very exciting time. It's going to be a busy time for our Congress as we work through all of the bills that we're doing this week, next week and the weeks beyond with budget reconciliation. But it's what we said we would do. When the American people gave us that mandate, they expected us to do this work for them and we're going to deliver. And the man leading that charge is the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
Mike Johnson (09:24):
Thank you, Mr. Leader. Welcome to you all. This is really a good time. You heard it said by my colleagues here, so many great moments from Monday from the inauguration of the new president. As President Trump has said, America's decline is over and the new golden age has begun. We're all excited to be a big part of that. As was mentioned, we had a great meeting at the White House yesterday. Spent few hours over there. First met with the President and the Vice President JD Vance. And as an aside, let me just say how moving it was. As we gathered in the hold room to go in, president Trump came to visit us. Leader Thune was there as well and our chiefs of staff and we were standing there talking to JD, the vice president. The President walked in, greeted us and he said, "Hey, let's go take the meeting into the Oval Office."
(10:07)
Well, they're still unpacking boxes. The new team is moving in and all the picture frames are empty and all of that, but thankfully because we do the transition of power so well in America, the Oval Office was all set up and it looked fantastic. As we were walking down the hallway, JD mentioned just in passing, "I've never stepped foot in the Oval Office before." It's remarkable. And I said, "Brother, I got to film this." So I just posted on social media a while ago, videoed that. And it was a really historic moment. The president walks us in and the new vice president walks in and he stands there and we all look at the grandeur of the place. Only in America can a young man from humble circumstances from Appalachia rise to be the vice president and step into the Oval Office for the first time with that title.
(10:56)
It's really something. We live in a great country. Everybody feels this. Everybody feels the excitement of the moment, the excitement of being in a great country. The atmosphere in Washington has changed. I think the whole press corps probably notices that as well. And there's a lot of anxious anticipation, a lot of excitement about what we're going to do and the House Republicans are ready to deliver. What came out of the meetings of the White House yesterday was that we're going to do this in a bicameral manner. You're going to have the Senate Republicans and the House Republicans working together to advance the America First agenda and we will deliver. Now the President's wasting no time either, as you saw, has been mentioned, the executive orders just in the past two days, just a couple of highlights. Some was mentioned.
(11:32)
Listen to this list. He ended catch and release. He shut down the ridiculous CBP One app. He began restoring American energy dominance already, restored merit-based hiring for the federal government and eliminated DEI initiatives, ended the radical gender ideology madness and revoked the security clearances of the former intelligence officials who signed the bogus and discredited letter about Hunter Biden's laptop. President Trump truly has, as Whip Emmer said, he's done more in the last 48 hours for the American people than Joe Biden did in four years. And this is just the beginning of much more to come. Two notes real quick about legislation this week. We mentioned the Fix Our Forests Act. Case in point, the reason this is so important is because we see what happened in California, the lack of leadership there. Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom having mismanaged virtually every aspect of that in preparation, they did not prepare their state or the city or the county for what was to come.
(12:32)
There was 117 million gallon reservoir right outside Pacific Palisades that was left empty for over a year. They did not manage the forest as they were supposed to and they let forest debris pile up near homes in at-risk areas. All of this was known. They assumed the risk because they advanced their radical political agenda and now people are paying a heavy price for that. We think that needs to be taken into account going forward. But the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act will do what the governor of California would not do, and that is restore the health of our forests and make communities more resilient to wildfires. This is again, a return to common sense and that's the theme that President Trump will be echoing over and over and we will as well. Speaking of that, a matter of common sense and a matter of just basic human dignity, morality, and ethics, we'll be voting at the end of this week on the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act.
(13:23)
Here's the question, don't let anybody distract you from what the question is. If a child is born alive during an attempted abortion and is crying and struggling to breathe on the operating table, should the doctor try to keep that child alive? Or should the doctor deny that crying newborn child medical care and let the child die? Who could answer that question with the latter response? We're going to give them a chance. It's basic humanity. 210 Democrats voted against that bill in the 118th Congress and we're going to pose that question to them again to see if they'll do the right thing. I certainly hope so. I hope Democrats stand with common sense. I hope they vote for the bill. I hope they stand with basic human dignity. If they don't, you'll need to ask them why they don't believe that those innocent lives deserve to be protected. That's going to be a tough one. With that, I'll take your questions.
Chad (14:15):
Mr. Speaker.
Mike Johnson (14:15):
Chad.
Chad (14:16):
Good morning. I know everybody's talking about unity but you know that this will come down to specifics, and there's going to be a night in March or April where there's a bunch of people back in your office [inaudible 00:14:26] to call the chair. What are those speed bumps going to be? What do you anticipate in some of those speed bumps? Is it SALT, is it going to be regional differences?
Mike Johnson (14:35):
Look, there's a lot of issues with reconciliation and government funding that we're working through. These are healthy family discussions, not just inside the House Republican Conference, but between the House and Senate Republicans. And that dialogue's going very well. The discussions are going very well. People have have really deep principles here, and I do as well. We're deeply concerned. Our team is the fiscal responsibility team, and we are worried about the nation's national debt, the unprecedented levels. We're worried about running deficits every year. And we have an opportunity to address that and fix it, and reconciliation is the mechanism by which we can do it most efficiently and effectively. So having gotten this once-in-a-generation opportunity with a unified government, there's a lot of anticipation about what will be in that bill and there's a lot of discussion, healthy debate right now inside to make it the best possible legislation that we can.
(15:27)
So some of those issues you touched on are the things that we're having discussions with Whip Emmer's having, I don't know, maybe the 20th listening session, work-through session in his office this afternoon. We just stood with all the House Republicans. I encourage every member to go and participate in these. I've hosted them, the leaders hosted them. We have conference chairs engaged and we have leaders of the caucuses on the inside of the conference. This is exactly how the Founding Fathers anticipated the process would work. They wanted legislators with good faith, citizen legislators to come to Washington DC and bring their principles and bring their preferences and come to the table and work it out amongst themselves. It is a healthy thing. We're excited about it and it's going very, very well. So stay tuned for the details. They're coming. Manu, front row.
Manu (16:08):
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Republicans have long said you guys back the blue. How do you justifiably say that when Trump just pardoned in a bunch of violent January 6th rioters who attacked Capitol Police? And if those rioters come to the Capitol, will you welcome them back here?
Mike Johnson (16:22):
So look, everybody can describe this however they want. The President has the pardon and commutation authority. It's his decision. I think what was made clear all along is that peaceful protests and people who engage in that should never be punished. There was a weaponization of the Justice Department. There was a weaponization of the events, the prosecutions that happened after January 6th. It was a terrible time and a terrible chapter in America's history. The president's made his decision. I don't second guess those. And yes, it's my ethos, my worldview. We believe in redemption. We believe in second chances. If you would argue that those people didn't pay a heavy penalty having been incarcerated and all of that, that's up to you. But the President's made a decision, we move forward. There are better days ahead of us. That's what we're excited about. We're not looking backwards or looking forward. Yes, second row.
Manu (17:12):
[inaudible 00:17:14].
Speaker 8 (17:15):
Mr. Speaker, among the many executive orders that President Trump has sent out, there's some that [inaudible 00:17:20] blocking all foreign aid, for example, at least temporarily and also blocking all refugees. At this moment there are some Republicans who said [inaudible 00:17:29] have gone too far. Refugees from Afghanistan, for example, now who were ready to travel have been told they can't travel. Do you think that President Trump should consider opening some doors, especially for different kinds of refugees [inaudible 00:17:42]?
Mike Johnson (17:41):
Well, what the President is trying to do right now is a reset, and I don't second guess his decisions on that. He's using his executive authority because desperate times call for desperate measures. Now, our role as an Article I branch of the government is to look through legislatively, which of these things will we codify? What do we need to address? Obviously the wide open border has created an indescribable human catastrophe for us that we will be dealing with for decades. The president is very serious about addressing that. And guess what? So are the American people. Look at the New York Times poll from just two or three days ago. 87% of Americans say that we should deport illegal aliens who are criminals and dangerous to American citizens. This is again, common sense. So I think the people are behind the President and his agenda and his priorities, and he's going to make those decisions and we are going to do our part and we are going to work together very closely to address all of it. Yes, sir. Second row.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
Do you have any plans, Mr. Speaker, to potentially have a Congressional action on the pardons that President Biden issued over the last couple days?
Mike Johnson (18:40):
It was shocking. It was shocking. What President Biden did on the way out, pardoning his family for more than a decade of whatever activity, any nonviolent offenses. It was breathtaking to us. I don't think anything like that's ever been anticipated. And by the way, go look at the tape. Four years ago when it was just implied that President Trump might do something similar, they were apoplectic. Joe Biden himself, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, roll the tape. They all said that would be crazy and unconscionable. And now they're cheering it along. To us, it is disgusting. To us, it probably proves the point, the suspicion that… They call it the Biden crime family. If they weren't the crime family, why do they need pardons? Look, there's a lot of attention that's going to be paid to this and I think that is appropriate and we will be looking at it as well. Yeah third back row. Yes, sir. Back in the corner. Yes, sir. Yeah.
Speaker 10 (19:32):
So as you guys mentioned, President Trump signed a bunch of executive orders earlier this week. Are Republicans going to be interested in trying to codify those?
Mike Johnson (19:42):
Yes, you're going to see our legislative agenda roll out. We're laser focused right now on appropriations and the reconciliation process, but we've got two years here… Actually, we're going to have four years because we're going to grow the majority in the midterm election in 2026. So you'll see all of this. We are working very closely in close coordination with the White House because this is an America First agenda that takes both of those branches of government to work in tandem. And so what he's doing is kickstarting what will ultimately be our legislative agenda. And you're going to begin to see that. The Laken Riley Act is a perfect example. The President will have that on his desk for signature, and that's the first of many bills that will be addressing all these great problems. So look for that. There'll be a lot of activity in the days ahead. Thank you y'all for being here.
Speaker 11 (20:25):
Mr. President Trump to speak at the issues conference next week?
Mike Johnson (20:32):
He will. Yes, the end of next week we will be down in Florida at Doral, at his club. He's going to come and address the public there and we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 12 (21:01):
Thanks, man. [inaudible 00:20:57]. I was standing out getting rank and file for a half hour. That was the worst.
Speaker 13 (21:04):
Hello, Scotty.
Scott (21:14):
I'm just checking to see whose it is.
Speaker 13 (21:17):
Oh, it's somebody…
Scott (21:18):
It's somebody's notes.