House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds her weekly news conference 4/28/22 Transcript

Nancy Pelosi: (00:00) ... majority in the Congress. And then she went over to the Senate side, and we take great pride and proprietary interest in her leadership there. And of course Chuck. But Chuck has been here on a number of... The distinguished majority leader has been here on a number of occasions, and we have taken pride in his service in the House as well. So in that spirit of friendship and respect for our values and our service in the Congress, welcome. Welcome. Chuck Schumer: (00:37) Thank you. Nancy Pelosi: (00:38) I'm pleased to be here with Chairman Pallone, the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee. And again, both of us pleased to be with the two leader and senator, as the House and the Senate announce our plans to bring forward legislation to lower prices at the pump for the American people. The House and the Senate have been hard at work for weeks to address the burden. There's so many suggestions that people have, and we're starting down this path to address the rising gas prices. We call it the Putin price hike, and Putin has something to do with, Ukraine has something to do with supply and therefore cost. But there is an ongoing challenge to us that the American people understand very clearly. Nancy Pelosi: (01:27) And that is that big oil has profiteered in this, have exploited the marketplace. This past year, what the report is, they've made over $200 billion in profits. You talked about that on the floor of the Senate yesterday. I'm sure you will here, today. But they are hoarding the windfall while keeping prices high for people at the pump. And this time of war at any time, there's no excuse for big oil companies to profiteer, to price gouge, or exploit families. That is why Democrats are moving forward with forceful action that will stop and hold accountable oil and gas companies for profiteering and manipulating markets. This is a top priority for all of us. Nancy Pelosi: (02:20) The House and Senate are putting together our bills, led by Mr. Pallone in the House and Chairwoman Cantwell in the Senate. We are confident that what we pass will be signed by the president, we think, and will be strong, tough, and effective. We are laser focused on lowering cost at the pump and across the board, not just at a pump. To that end, we're continuing our conversations to lower food prices. Yesterday, the Agriculture Committee held a hearing to hold meat packing conglomerates accountable for unfair practices that hurt ranchers and push up prices. Here's the thing. There are many aspects to this, but the price of gas and the price of oil have an impact on the price of many other things, including the price of food. Nancy Pelosi: (03:15) So lowering cost at the pump, lowering cost the kitchen table, that's what Democrats are about. And again, we are getting down this path with very serious legislation, that is for now recognizing COVID and what that has done to supply, Ukraine, what that has done to supply. But recognizing there is an ongoing exploitation and manipulation that is unfair to America's working families. And so as we address the current challenge, we want it to have benefits on the ongoing. With that, I'm very pleased to welcome the distinguished majority leader of the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer: (03:54) Thank you, Speaker Pelosi. And it's always a pleasure to be back here at the House, since I'm so well remembered. And pleasure to be here, of course, with our great leader of the commerce committee, who has such brilliant insights into these issues of manipulation, Senator Cantwell. And my dear friend who I served in the House with and who's risen to great heights and done great things, Congressman Pallone. Now. Nancy Pelosi: (04:24) This is Take Your Children to Work Day, and we have a veteran photographer with us who's been here before, right? Speaker 1: (04:33) Yeah. Nancy Pelosi: (04:33) Back again. Chuck Schumer: (04:34) Well, thank you. Welcome. I heard my three year old saying "Don't fence me in" on video this morning. And he said, "I'm Gene Autry." You ever heard of him? No. Chuck Schumer: (04:50) So folks, Democrats are focused like a laser on developing and passing legislation to lower costs and improve American's daily lives. It is our top priority, and higher gas prices is the place where Americans feel it the most. We're pushing for legislation to lower the cost of putting food on the table, keep the cost of insulin affordable, help relieve supply chain crisis, increase competition through antitrust enforcement, all areas where Congress can take action to help the American people reduce prices. But passing legislation to fight higher gas prices at the pump is at the very top of our list. The American people didn't send us here to just point fingers of blame at each other. That seems to be what our colleagues on the other side of the aisle do, they don't have any constructive suggestions. They want us to get something done. Chuck Schumer: (05:50) So today we're outlining just some of the ways Democrats House and Senate coming together can address the pain families are feeling at the pump. Americans know that Russia's unprovoked, vicious, nasty bitter invasion of Ukraine has contributed to higher prices at the pump. They know that COVID related supply issues have caused shortages at a time when demand is skyrocket. These conditions have put consumers over a barrel and make them vulnerable to market manipulation and price gouging. Big oil companies are using both these issues, price gouging, market manipulation, to cash in. As I've mentioned before and as Nancy has said, I've have been talking about this on the floor, oil companies last year made record profits on these tragedies, almost like vultures. We have the Ukraine tragedy, we have the COVID tragedy, and do they try to make things better? No. They come in and make record profits. Chuck Schumer: (06:54) And what are they doing with those profits? This is what outrages me. Stock buybacks that don't improve a thing, that don't do anything positive. It makes the CEOs feel very good, because they've raised the stock price without doing anything to change how productive the company is, by their terms, by our terms, or by any other terms. That money that went into stock buybacks should be going to reduce prices. And if we had a free market economy, not an oligopoly, not a place where manipulation and gouging could be the norm, we'd find that. But that's why we need some real tough legislation. That's why we need some real oversight. The price is going up and up and up. And what are the big oil companies doing? They're not improving production to lower costs. They're not paying their employees more. They're not reducing prices to help our country. Instead, they're helping their CEOs and their biggest wealthy shareholders. It's outrageous. Chuck Schumer: (08:02) It's time for the FTC to roll up its sleeves and drill down on what's going on at the big oil companies. And very soon the Senate will confirm Alvaro Bedoya and return the FTC to full strength. And we know from her testimony and her discussions with us, that Chairman Khan wants to focus on this issue. We want to give her more tools in addition to the tools she has to do it. Congress must do more to beef up the FTCs ability to crack down on potential gas price manipulation and price gouging. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Cantwell and Energy and Commerce Chair Pallone are leading the charge to come up with legislation to fight against the bad actors who may be using COVID and Ukraine to jack up prices on consumers and pad their profits. And I plan to put that legislation for a vote on the floor of the Senate. Democrats. Democrats are taking action to... Chuck Schumer: (09:03) ... Democrats are taking action to help Americans. Our Republican colleagues only lift a finger, point blame, try to seek political advantage, but get nothing done. But when the bills hit the floor, Republicans will face a dilemma. Which side are they on, of the consumer and lowering gas prices, or on the side of big oil? We'll soon find out. Democrats are committed to working on this and we're going to continue working with our House colleagues to bring legislation that can bring prices down across the board. Congressman Pallone. Frank Pallone: (09:37) Great. Thank you Leader Schumer and our speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and my colleague, Senator Cantwell, Chairwoman Cantwell. We're here today because big oil is ripping off the American people and the Energy and Commerce Committee had a hearing just before Easter and Passover with some of the largest oil company executives in the world. And the takeaway was clear, and that is that big oil is choosing to keep production low so that their own profits stay high. And what's happening is American consumers are paying the price while these companies, as Senator Schumer said, just continue to make record profits. Frank Pallone: (10:17) So during our hearing, we asked the oil companies to do the right thing and take action to offset the market pressures that had been created by Russia's invasion of the Ukraine. But it was clear that that wasn't going to happen. They're going to keep the prices artificially high. In fact, I wanted to mention, I don't know if you're supposed to mention articles from other news publication, but there was an article in the New York Times just a couple days ago that made it absolutely clear that the oil companies simply will not increase production. The production has only increased about 1 or 2% in the last few months and it's way down from what it was before the COVID pandemic. Frank Pallone: (11:04) And OPEC, of course, the cartel, is working with the oil companies, according to that article, worldwide to keep production low and prices high. So they're just profiteering, if you will, from this international turmoil, which is fueled really by dictators, right? In other words, we always say that we want to move away from fossil fuels if possible in the future because the fossil fuels are controlled by dictators, Putin and so many others around the world. But in the meantime, if we're going to lower prices, we have to have more production. Frank Pallone: (11:43) So without the oil companies taking action, Congress has to step in and that's exactly what we're doing. We have legislation that we're working on between the House between Senator Cantwell's committee and my committee. Not to get into this specifics, but basically it would give the FTC and the state AGs increased authority, including civil penalty authority to go after oil companies and retailers that are gouging their customers. And it would cover both wholesale and retail sales. Now, of course, the oil company said at our hearing, "Oh, this isn't our fault, this is the retailers fault." But that's simply garbage because the reality is they set the wholesale price and that's what the retailers buy in order to sell gas at the pump. Frank Pallone: (12:28) So the bottom line, what we're saying today is that we're tired of the corporate greed. We're going to step in. We're going to do what's right for the American consumers, and we're going to work together in the House and the Senate to accomplish this. And I have to go to a hearing, appropriately with Senator Granholm of our energy subcommittee, to talk about some of this, but I really appreciate the fact that our Democratic leadership is taking the initiative on this and working with our two committees. And now, I'll bring up Senator Cantwell. Maria Cantwell: (13:03) Thank you. Chuck Schumer: (13:03) Thanks Frank. Maria Cantwell: (13:06) Well, thank you. Speaker Pelosi, it's great to be over here in the House. Thank you for your tremendous leadership. We're always admiring of it. It's great to be here with Leader Schumer who has really had a keen focus on these price issues for some time now. Always appreciate his leadership. And Chairman Pallone who we've been working with on so many issues, our R&D competitiveness, privacy, and now this issue. Elevated pump prices are driving inflation. They're wreaking havoc on American Households and their budget, and they're threatening our post pandemic recovery and our global competitiveness. Maria Cantwell: (13:46) In the state of Washington, many of my constituents are paying $4.50 a gallon. And that means that average Washington drivers will be forced to shell out $750 more to fill up this year than they did in 2021. It's even worse for west coast truckers who are facing diesel costs as high as $6.60 a gallon, and that is driving up the price of every good that is delivered because of those transportation costs. According to a witness that testified before the Senate Commerce Committee, unwarranted pump prices are costing Californians $500 million, a half a billion dollars a month more than the previous month because of the high cost. Maria Cantwell: (14:36) So in order to make sure that we are focusing on these consumers, we want to do everything we can to make sure that we're protecting them. Right now, we see that consumers are spending... That they're cutting back on products and services by one third because of those high costs. But as my colleagues have already said, the soaring oil profits that the oil company has seen is likely to top over $125 billion in profits this year. And so far, they have given $40 billion in stock buybacks to boost shareholders. So not only did oil companies already receive $35 billion in tax breaks for incentives to drill the Trump tax plan and the Republican 2017 tax bill, created a new tax giveaway of $85 billion to oil companies. Maria Cantwell: (15:39) And what are they spending the money on? As you can see from my colleagues, they talked about the shareholders issues. They're also spending millions of dollars on lobbyists to block any progress on clean energy or climate policy. This is why we are drafting legislation that will protect consumers and make transportation fuel markets more fair and transparent. Legislation can shine a bright light on the gaping hole in the fuel market that is after the oil is refined, which is driving up prices. Maria Cantwell: (16:11) We know that energy markets can be manipulated. We saw that after Enron with electricity and natural gas. Congress acted and gave new authority to basically oversee those markets. Since that authority went in place in 2007, the overseers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has seen over a billion dollars in fines and penalties against people who have manipulated those markets. Maria Cantwell: (16:42) We know after the derivative market brought down our whole economy, Congress also gave parallel authority to the Commodities Future Trading Commission to make sure that those future energy markets were also properly policed. Today, they've collected over $4.5 billion in fines. So it's safe to say that shining a bright light on dark energy markets is a very high priority now. We need to make sure that there is a policeman on the beat, and that is why we are working on legislation with our colleagues here in the House to make sure that the FTC has every tool in its capacity to shine that bright light into these dark energy markets. Maria Cantwell: (17:26) They have some authority now, but they need more tools. They need the tools to follow the information just as FERC and CFTC have done. They need a dedicated team of experts to make sure that they're monitoring those markets and looking out for any suspicious behavior, and they need fines and penalties that will bring about corrective action. One of the witnesses at our Senate Commerce hearing just recently said on this issue, "Transparency is the simplest and cheapest way to lower energy prices." So that's what we're going to be fighting for. So I thank... Maria Cantwell: (18:03) ... prices. So that's what we're going to be fighting for. So I thank Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, and Chairman Pallone for prioritizing this issue. It's time we move forward on this critical legislation. Nancy Pelosi: (18:14) Thank you very much, Madam Chair, Mr. Leader. Our distinguished guests have agreed to be available for on this subject. We'll start with that. Yes, ma'am? Speaker 3: (18:24) Madam Speaker, Leader and Senator Cantwell, can you just tell us where things stand with respect to the federal gas tax holiday? Is this part of this legislative package? Are you planning to move forward with that? Where do things stand? Nancy Pelosi: (18:37) What we're putting forth is what we talked about today. There is some interest, there had been some interest in the holiday. The pros of it are that it's good PR, you're asking about it. The cons are that there's no guarantee that the reduction in the federal tax that would be passed on to the consumer. We have no evidence to think that the oil companies would pass that on to the consumer. Nancy Pelosi: (19:07) At the same time, it has to be covered. We have to pay for it because the money would come out of the Highway Trust Fund and we can't have that shortfall there, so we'd have to pay for it. So the question is, is it worth having to go get money to cover the shortfall in the Trust Fund in order to give a break to the big oil companies? Chuck Schumer: (19:32) If you ask the American people in all the survey data, what is causing the increase in gas prices? Number one is market manipulation and big oil not giving a break. That is what we're focusing on. Speaker 2: (19:44) Senator Schumer. Chuck Schumer: (19:46) Yeah. Speaker 2: (19:46) The Senate Judiciary Committee is led to markup NOPEC legislation that would allow the US government to sue OPEC from manipulating energy prices, is that something that you would bring to the floor in your effort to bring down [crosstalk 00:19:59] Chuck Schumer: (19:58) Well, I'll have to see the Judiciary Committee's legislation. Obviously OPEC is a problem, but the number one problem where we have the best effect, the quickest effect, and the most focus is what we're talking about today, gouging manipulation. That's number one and that's what we're focusing on today. Nancy Pelosi: (20:18) Garrett? Garrett: (20:20) I think the other side of the aisle would say, you think about what Chairman Pallone just said, "So much of oil and gas is produced authoritarian nations, places we can't control, it's unsafe circumstances." Why not encourage more domestic energy production as another solution in your- Chuck Schumer: (20:36) Well, here's the bottom line. They're not even using the money for domestic energy production. They're using it for stock buybacks. They're using it to make their shares go up. They're using it for other things. Nancy Pelosi: (20:46) And these are their problems. Chuck Schumer: (20:47) We wouldn't be here if the oil companies were using it to make the American consumers' price cheaper, they're not doing it. Maria Cantwell: (20:55) The key issue here is why you need transparency and more enforcement. The tighter the markets, the tighter the supply, the more chances for manipulation. So when you have this condition, if you have a lot of supply, you don't have that problem. Now it's important to have a policeman on the beat. So our colleagues need to answer the question, are they for transparency or are they not? Chuck Schumer: (21:18) [crosstalk 00:21:18] The bottom line is if you look at what we're doing here, we're shining a light. Nancy Pelosi: (21:23) Thanks Maria. Chuck Schumer: (21:24) Bye-bye Maria. They're busy, they're committee chairman, we can hang around. We're doing two things. We're shining a spotlight. We're picking up the hood and shining a spotlight on how these corporations price and function. And then we're giving the authorities, the FTC and others, the tools to fix what was wrong once they found it, plain and simple. And that is the number one issue facing the high price in oil company and you ask the public, they agree. They say COVID and price gouging. Nancy Pelosi: (22:01) Yes. Speaker 4: (22:01) Madam Speaker, Mr. Leader, everyone knows this, this is a factor in gas prices, but the energy department itself said, "This is a fraction," the area you're talking about, "that determines gas prices." How much do you think this could end up saving consumers? And how long would this take it? Chuck Schumer: (22:17) [crosstalk 00:22:17] $200 billion in profits last year. Speaker 4: (22:20) Right. Chuck Schumer: (22:20) $40 billion in buybacks, my calculations have it more. If all that went to the consumer, that'd be a lot of money. Speaker 4: (22:27) But how much and when? Chuck Schumer: (22:28) That's why we're passing this legislation [crosstalk 00:22:29] Nancy Pelosi: (22:28) And let me just say this. This is about making change for now and for the future. If you want to talk about this, that or the other tactic, that is for the moment, which may or may not even have a benefit, that's not what this is about. This is about looking. Nancy Pelosi: (22:46) Now, I want to tell you when we've been engaged in negotiations with the other side on budget issues for a long time, and when we were trying to find $200 billion for a budget agreement, when President Obama was president, I said in the meeting at the White House, "Why don't we take $38 billion? Why don't we take the $38 billion that are there as an incentive to drill when the companies were making hundreds of billions of dollars in profits?" I'm not talking growth, I'm talking net. "They're making hundreds of billion dollars in profit. They do need an incentive to drill from the taxpayer, $38 billion." Do you know what the Republican response was? Hold onto your hat that you don't have on. They said, "Why would we take $38 billion from the oil companies when we can just cut Pell Grants to that extent?" It's a difference of values, understand that. And we- Chuck Schumer: (23:49) If you look at the giving of oil, gas, and coal, a huge percentage of the campaign committees, the Republican Senate, maybe the House too, comes from those three industries. And they're removable. We asked our Republican colleagues in the Senate a few years ago, "Do you believe global warming is real? Do you believe it's caused by human activity? Do you believe Congress should do something about it?" Only five or six would say, "Yes." Nancy Pelosi: (24:14) Yeah. And by the way, one of the things they were trying to do with this was to undo the initiatives that we want to put forth, to save the planet from the climate crisis. And so what you want to reverse that? And I'll say this when we have in the Senate and in the House legislation to have a cleaner government, that the legislation. In that legislation, it shines a bright light on big dark money and says, "We have to get rid of that." Nancy Pelosi: (24:48) The one thing that the Republicans care the most about we're talking about voter suppression, we're talking about nullification of elections, we're talking about empowering the grassroots, we're talking about commission redistricting, taking away partisan redistricting. The one thing they worry about most is that their big gun money. Chuck Schumer: (25:10) Dark money. Nancy Pelosi: (25:10) Their dark gun money, their dark fossil fuel money, their gun, pharmaceutical money, their dark, all of that would be affected by that legislation. So there is a direct connection between this money and public policy and the air that our children breathe, and the price that their families pay at the pump, which as Senator Cantwell said, Madam Chair said, "It has an impact on the cost of everything else." Chuck Schumer: (25:39) We've got to go. Bye everybody. Nancy Pelosi: (25:39) Okay. Speaker 4: (25:39) Given- Nancy Pelosi: (25:39) Thank you, Mr. Leader. Speaker 4: (25:39) Given the fact that you have said, or Schumer has said, that some of the Republicans are immovable on these issues- Nancy Pelosi: (25:47) That are what? Speaker 4: (25:47) Are immovable on these issues. Nancy Pelosi: (25:49) Yeah. Speaker 4: (25:50) How do you expect to actually pass this legislation and how does this fit [crosstalk 00:25:54] Nancy Pelosi: (25:53) Public opinion. How many times have you heard me say, "Lincoln said, 'Public sentiment is everything. With it you can do almost anything, without it practically nothing.'" The American people know. Nancy Pelosi: (26:04) Here we have a necessity. The necessity to travel, to go to work, to take kids to school, to bring people to meet their medical, whatever it is, it's a necessity to have access to transportation. And what do we do? Have an exploitation of the consumer who definitely has the need. Doesn't have many other choices and will hope that the American people weigh in because we see this so clearly. Nancy Pelosi: (26:42) And I'm on constant Zooms around the country, or visits to the extent possible of COVID around the country. People want to know why we are not doing something about the exploitation of big oil in terms of its impact on America's working families. I'm very excited about this [inaudible 00:27:04] Nancy Pelosi: (27:03) ... Is working families. I'm very excited about this possibility. So let's see how the public weighs in and let's hope that our Republican colleagues, enough of them, will come down on the side of their constituents and the consumers instead of big oil. Speaker 5: (27:16) Madam Speaker, it's been almost 100 days since you came out in favor of staffer unions... [crosstalk 00:27:21] Nancy Pelosi: (27:20) I'm talking about this subject now. Do we have any further questions about this? Chad? Chad: (27:32) Do you think that the public is blaming Democrats or will continue to blame Democrats... [crosstalk 00:27:34] Nancy Pelosi: (27:33) No, I don't think the public is blaming Democrats. I think they're blaming the oil companies. They will blame all of us if we don't do something about the fossil fuel industry. Chad: (27:45) But they won't take that out on your side in the midterms even if you pass this bill and prices don't get back to normal. The perception is that [crosstalk 00:27:46]... Nancy Pelosi: (27:46) Why would we say that? I don't think what you're saying is making very much sense, frankly. In all fairness, we're friends. Candor is part of our friendship. The Republicans are standing in the way. The Republicans are standing in the... Let's hope they don't. If the Republicans stand in the way of us freeing the consumer of the stranglehold of big oil, you think they're going to blame that on the Democrats? You think that? You think that? Okay. Yes, sir? Speaker 6: (28:19) What is your timeframe for moving this legislation? Nancy Pelosi: (28:19) The Senate is ready. Speaker 6: (28:24) [inaudible 00:28:24]. Nancy Pelosi: (28:24) Yeah, the Senate is very much, pretty much done. Congress, madam chair, on the manipulation piece of it, that's pretty ready. Ours has a little more to be done in the course of the next week. We have a committee work week next week and we would hope to have all this done pretty soon. Speaker 6: (28:44) Would it be beyond the market manipulation? Nancy Pelosi: (28:49) Excuse me? Speaker 6: (28:49) Would it be beyond the market manipulation piece? Would you have provisions in there that would go beyond the market manipulation language? Nancy Pelosi: (28:53) We have the market manipulation bill and then we will have the Pallone Bill, which will have other aspects of the exploitation of the worker in that. And they're pretty much done but again, they want to see where the Senate was on theirs so that we could be complimentary to all of that. So again, it's price gouging is something that people feel very exploited by and we don't want this to be a... We want it to be as constructive as possible and just set the record straight. We have to transform how people are respected and how we respect the workforce that is there in our oil industry and fossil fuel industry. We're not saying that they're doing anything wrong but we do think that the management of those companies is... Nancy Pelosi: (30:05) Anecdotally people hear these investment calls and they hear them say why they think they're going to have big profits. It isn't that they're going to have big profits because they're being fair to the consumer. It's because they are not going to be fair to. And there are a lot of consumers and some money from a lot of people make big profits for them to do their buyback. Increase in corporate pay in the rest of that. It's not just confined to the oil industry. The food industry has some of this as well. And we'll deal with that as our committee is ready because we're trying to be as careful as possible, as focused as possible, to make the biggest difference as possible for that kitchen table. That powerful table in our country that is where people make their decisions about, how much they can spend on food, how they can spend on rent, car payments, credit card bills, the education of their children, their own retirement and the rest. Nancy Pelosi: (31:18) That is the heart of the matter for us and the price of oil has a very big impact on that place. You had a question about the thing. Yeah, we're working on it. That'll come up soon. Yeah. Speaker 7: (31:30) Is just congressman's Levin's resolution, is it going to get any action on [inaudible 00:31:36]? Nancy Pelosi: (31:36) Well, it has to be adjusted and that's what they're working on. It has just a technicality and... Speaker 7: (31:42) Congressman Levin said that there is no technicality. Nancy Pelosi: (31:44) Well, I'm telling you that there is. Okay? Speaker 7: (31:46) Thank you. Nancy Pelosi: (31:48) One technicality, you call this a technicality or not; is the bill would be about the House and the Senate. We can only act upon the House. If he doesn't think the Senate is a technicality then, okay. But that is the technicality and welcome to our... Where did he go? He was here as a little boy, now he's gotten tall. There he is. Welcome. Welcome. Any other children to work here today? Speaker 7: (32:18) All of us. Nancy Pelosi: (32:22) I thought I saw a little girl earlier. She may have gone into other venues. This may have exhausted her interest here. Welcome. Thank you and nice to see you. Twice as tall as before. That's the way it happened. Thank you all very much. Chad: (32:37) Thank you. Speaker 8: (32:37) Mrs. Speaker, any comment on the McCarthy audio recordings. McCarthy recordings?