- 5/6/2025
House Democratic leadership held their weekly press briefing on Tuesday.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning. So grateful to be joined today by DPCC Chair Debbie Dingell and Co-Chair Lori Trahan.
00:09Both of those members, and of course Vice Chair Ted Lieu, both of those members are on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
00:17And as we all know, House Republicans are running scared this week because they plan to take away health care for millions of Americans
00:25while rewarding billionaires with tax giveaways, and these members will speak specifically to that.
00:34Most endangered members on the other side of the aisle have already voted to cut Medicaid by $880 billion,
00:42and Speaker Johnson is scrambling now to give them cover.
00:46And his most extreme members, by the way, those are the ones that he owes having the gavel to,
00:52are going to revolt if Medicaid cuts aren't as harmful to working families as possible.
01:00All of this is taking place against the backdrop of an economy that is in a free fall.
01:07We're heading toward a recession, a supply chain crisis that will resort in more price hikes,
01:14and all of this is because of Donald Trump's policies.
01:17He lied to the American people when he said he'd lower costs on day one,
01:22and he lied to them over the weekend when he said that he won't cut Medicaid.
01:27Trump's lies are going to cost people their jobs, their livelihoods, potentially their homes,
01:32and he could care less because his billionaire friends and family get rich.
01:38House Republicans should use this time, this free week that they have,
01:42to vote on policy that matters for everyday Americans.
01:46But instead, they should be talking about turning off tariffs that are reckless and dangerous.
01:54But instead, we're talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
02:00A slap in the face to hardworking Americans who want their leaders to bring down the cost of living,
02:06the cost that they face each and every day in child care, in health care, in gas, groceries, rent.
02:14Those are things that the American public cares about,
02:16and those are the things that House Republicans are ignoring each and every day.
02:21With that, I turn it over to Vice Chair Ted Lieu.
02:25Thank you, Chairman Aguilar.
02:27Honored to be here with DPCC Chair Dingo and Co-Chair Trehan.
02:31You may have seen recent reports showing that 19 billion passwords were hacked and put online.
02:39So my public service announcement for today is change your password.
02:43Unless you're Pete Hexeth, because you have no concept of operational security,
02:48Pete Hexeth texted advance information on combat operations to random people more than once on a signal application.
02:56And we know from recent reporting that the signal app that the Trump administration was using was a modified version done by telemessage.
03:05We know at least Mike Waltz was using that.
03:07Maybe that's one reason he was fired by Donald Trump.
03:10I urge reporters to ask Pete Hexeth if he also was using the modified signal application that was hacked.
03:17Now I'd like to talk about Medicaid.
03:18So we know that Republicans voted already through the budget resolution to cut $880 billion from Medicaid.
03:27Now they're talking about imposing red tape requirements.
03:30I want you to understand what that means.
03:32That means every Medicaid recipient would have to fill out immense amounts of paperwork.
03:36They try to do this in Alabama and Georgia and end up achieving no-cost savings.
03:42And Medicaid is so important to America.
03:45Two-thirds of patients in nursing homes are funded through Medicaid.
03:49In addition, people get lifesaving health care through Medicaid.
03:54And what happens if people don't get health care through Medicaid?
03:57Well, guess what?
03:58They're still going to get health care by walking into the emergency room and getting treated that way, which is even more expensive.
04:05If you make cuts of Medicaid, it's going to close down hospitals, including rural hospitals.
04:09So we urge Republicans to vote no on the dramatic Medicaid cuts.
04:16And now it's my great honor to introduce DPCC Chair Debbie Dingo.
04:21We came in the freshman class together.
04:23She's done a fantastic job as chair of the DPCC and look forward to her remarks.
04:30Thank you, Ted.
04:31And Pete was in our class, too.
04:33It was a great class.
04:34I want to thank Pete and Ted for bringing us together this morning.
04:38And as Pete said at the beginning, in addition to my role as DPCC Chair, I'm also a member of the Energy Commerce Committee, which is ground zero for the Medicaid cuts that you were seeing the Republicans talk about.
04:54I want to be really clear with you.
04:56I've spent a lot of time at home and in a lot of town hall meetings and a lot of rallies and in grocery stores and in union halls.
05:04Donald Trump's economic policies are making life harder for everyday Americans.
05:10Costs are increasing and every family is feeling the squeeze.
05:15And House Republicans are making things worse.
05:18Their budget cuts for Medicaid by nearly $900 billion is the largest Medicaid cut in history.
05:26The impact would be devastating in every corner of this country.
05:30And I know, believe me, the Democrats and Republicans are hearing about these cuts from constituents who are terrified about what it means for them.
05:41People like Katie in my district, whose son Nathan is six years old.
05:47Nathan was born premature and has required more than 15 procedures on his airway to help him breathe.
05:54As she told me, some of those procedures have cost $20,000 or more.
06:01And without Medicaid, there's no way that Katie and her family would be able to meet Nathan's complex medical needs.
06:10When I was at Michigan, just on the way to visit a doctor, a woman started crying in the elevator with her child in a wheelchair.
06:19And said, what will I do if I can't bring my child here, if they cut me?
06:24Seventy-five percent of the children at Children's Hospital in Detroit are on Medicaid.
06:30And seniors said to me, are they going to kick my husband out on the street from a nursing home?
06:36That's the stories that people are telling us.
06:39Medicaid's a lifeline.
06:41It keeps children healthy.
06:43It helps parents work.
06:44And it cares for seniors in nursing homes.
06:48The American people cannot afford Medicaid cuts, especially as the economy is being crashed around them by President Trump.
06:56House Democrats are fighting to stop this Republican budget and save Medicaid.
07:01We have been active across the country with hundreds of local events, raising the human stories, having people understand these aren't numbers.
07:10It's human lives.
07:13And more importantly, we're raising more stories in every community so people know who it's going to be impacting.
07:21And that's what we're going to continue to do until this Republican budget is defeated.
07:27So with that, let me yield to my DPCC co-chair and fellow Energy and Commerce Committee member, Lori Treja.
07:33Well, thank you, Chair Dingell, and thank you to Chair Aguilar and Vice Chair Liu for hosting us this morning.
07:43Republicans in Congress are locked in a debate this week about everything that you need to know of their priorities.
07:51They're trying to decide how to pay for massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors, and they've narrowed it down to two options.
07:58Kick millions of Americans off of their health care by slashing Medicaid or take food off the table for working families by gutting nutritional assistance.
08:08And let's be honest, Donald Trump doesn't care which one they choose, as long as they send what he calls a big, beautiful bill to the White House.
08:15But there's nothing beautiful about ripping health care away from millions of Americans.
08:21Medicaid is a lifeline.
08:23It's prenatal care for moms.
08:25It's nursing home care for seniors.
08:27It's the support for kids with disabilities that they need to thrive in school.
08:32Republicans aren't doing this to fix the economy or to reduce the deficit or to get rid of fraud, waste and abuse.
08:39They're doing it so Elon Musk can buy another private jet.
08:42Meanwhile, families are already making impossible choices every day.
08:46Do I pay for medicine or do I buy groceries?
08:50Do I take my child to the doctor or do I pay my utility bills?
08:54And now Republicans want to make those choices even harder.
08:58Well, House Democrats have a message for our colleagues across the aisle.
09:01If you're going to gut Medicaid so your billionaire buddies can get a tax cut that's bigger than what most teachers make in their lifetimes,
09:10we're going to make it as painful as possible.
09:11We're going to fight back and we're going to go to your districts and explain what you're doing.
09:17And we're going to help your constituents vote you out next November.
09:21That's our focus.
09:22That's our fight.
09:23And that's our promise.
09:27Thank you, Lori.
09:28Questions?
09:29Anyone wants to go first?
09:34Cassie?
09:34I'll go first.
09:36Two quick questions for you and the vice chair, more California focus.
09:39I'm wondering first your reaction to the president's suggestion of this foreign film tariff and what that might look like.
09:47And also your reaction to these reports coming out of the Senate side that Republicans are considering going around the Senate parliamentarian and holding a vote on this vehicle, California vehicle initiative that came out of the House Republicans.
10:02I'll take that piece first.
10:05It would be unprecedented for Senate Republicans to turn away the position of the parliamentarian.
10:13It's very clear, and the GAO report on that spells it out, that this is not subject, what waivers are not subject to CRAs.
10:25What in our world, these are lots of acronyms here, but in our world, the Senate parliamentarian has ruled that it does not have privilege to come to the Senate.
10:35If Senate Republicans want to blow up that process, they will do so, but it will be at a cost.
10:44And so we would encourage our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to respect the bipartisan nature, the nonpartisan nature of the parliamentarians who help guide these operations here.
10:57With respect to foreign film piece, this is just another, you know, I wasn't sure where you were going with this question, whether this is foreign films or whether this is Alcatraz, right?
11:08This is just nonsensical, like what he sends out late night tweets as a matter of policy or just nonsensical.
11:17There are things that we can do to increase production for the film industry to film in the United States.
11:27We should be looking at those ideas and strategies, not reckless tariffs that will cost people jobs and raise costs for Americans.
11:37That's exactly what, that's consistent with what this president has been proposing time and time again is his public policy solutions.
11:44Great.
11:45Regarding Donald Trump's random tariff imposition now on movies, I just want to say in a California state legislature, I was a co-author of their film and TV tax credit.
11:58I think that is the way to go because that doesn't actually increase costs on movies.
12:03A tariff on movies, foreign movies would increase costs on movies and no one in Hollywood was asking for 100% tariff.
12:11Donald Trump didn't appear to have talked to anyone about the 100% tariff on foreign movies.
12:15It just seems like another random idea that he put out there with no thought about how it would actually be implemented because if it was implemented, it would increase consumer costs on movies.
12:25Also, it would just make some movies really far less interesting, right?
12:28So if All Quiet on the Western Front had to be, you know, renamed All Quiet on the U.S. side of the Canadian border, much less interesting movie.
12:37So there's just no thought behind what Donald Trump is doing with his indiscriminate tariffs.
12:42It's pretty consistent through line.
12:46Nick.
12:47I want to ask about ranking members.
12:51Do you have any sense of when you might call an election for the position that might soon be vacated by Connolly or perhaps for the Agriculture Committee?
13:00There's currently no vacancies for any ranking member positions.
13:04If there is a vacancy, the vice chair and I will call an election in accordance with House Democratic Caucus rules.
13:12But there is no vacancy at this point.
13:14I said that last week, and that remains the case.
13:18Michael and Mika.
13:20House Financial Services Democrats walked out of a crypto hearing,
13:26and they're holding their own shadow hearing to spotlight Trump's ties to the crypto industry.
13:33As you all continue to make your economic case for the American people,
13:36cryptocurrency continues to be an emerging issue that matters for a lot of Americans.
13:41Does bypassing bipartisan opportunities to debate the issue,
13:46does that risk undermining your message on, you know,
13:49working with Republicans to find common ground on these issues that all Americans care about?
13:54Crypto really isn't a partisan issue, but it seems to be becoming that way with a lot of the rancor that's happening on both sides of the Capitol.
14:04We want bipartisan solutions, but we have also said, you know,
14:08the focus should be on how we drive down costs that Americans face.
14:13That should be our focus, our goal, our North Star.
14:15And we should, if Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump were serious about lowering costs for folks,
14:21we wouldn't be, we wouldn't have the schedule that they have in front of us.
14:24That needs to be our focus, not in raising costs that for people who want to go to the movie theaters,
14:31not in kicking people off of health care coverage.
14:34That's not the appropriate place that we should be spending our time.
14:38There are bipartisan solutions, but what, what clouds the water oftentimes,
14:43especially on this case, is the president and his family seeking to enrich themselves
14:48through meme coins, stable coin, the crypto world.
14:55There are bipartisan solutions that Democrats are willing to embrace with respect to regulating this industry in a fair way.
15:04But we don't want that to mean that the president now has a new line of business,
15:10a new book of business for him and his family to profit off of.
15:13So that's, I think, what the Agriculture Committee Democrats and the Financial Service Committee Democrats are looking at
15:20and weighing as they make these decisions.
15:23Anybody else?
15:24If members want us to visit, we try to accommodate and visit.
15:49I appreciate Whip Clark making the time to go to Indianapolis.
15:53I know she and Lori also spent part of the weekend at Molly McGovern's funeral.
16:00Being there for one another as part of our Democratic family is so incredibly important in this time for the McGovern family.
16:08So in between all of that, the fact that, you know, Whip Clark, you know, made time for Andre Carson in Indianapolis is great,
16:18and we appreciate that.
16:20You know, I'm not as popular.
16:21The vice chair and I aren't as popular as other members of the leadership team.
16:24But when they ask, we will try to make a trip and accommodate and be helpful.
16:30Look, we are a Democratic caucus family.
16:33And just as we have done in the past few years, if members want us to travel and to be seen and to help them town halls, events, political matters,
16:45we want to ensure our members succeed, and we want to be there for one another.
16:50And so that continues to be kind of a guiding force of this leadership team.
16:58The Texas Democratic Party is considering a resolution to condemn Henry Cuellar for a number of votes where he was one or two of the Democrats for a Republican bill,
17:08saying he has disregard for the values of the Texas Democratic Party, speaking of number protection.
17:13One, do you oppose Texas Democrats condemning him for those reasons?
17:17Two, does Henry Cuellar have disregard for the values of the Democratic Party?
17:20Henry Cuellar is a great member of the Democratic caucus.
17:25I serve with him on the Appropriations Committee.
17:28He's a thoughtful public servant who always has the interests of South Texas and Laredo on his mind.
17:36He's always talking about international trade and the importance that that brings to the U.S. and Texas economies.
17:43And so I'll let the Texas Democrats do what they need to do.
17:46I'm not a voter in that election, but Henry's contributions are vast and many within this caucus.
17:54Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
17:56Tomorrow the Doge subcommittee is holding a hearing on men and women's sports.
18:03You're understanding what does men and women's sports have to do with government efficiency?
18:08And then secondly, how should Democrats approach the issue of transgender participation in sports,
18:15given that it's not an issue that's necessarily split on party lines?
18:19You know, one, I have no idea what the Doge Committee has to do about this,
18:25but I assume, like many things that the Doge Committee here in Congress does,
18:29it's part of some sort of handshake deal that Marjorie Taylor Greene extracted from Speaker Johnson.
18:34That's why she's leading the committee, and so they will get to talk about the issues that she wants to talk about.
18:42With respect to the issue, the president has put out an executive order.
18:46The NCAA has guidance.
18:50Each of our states have rules guiding sports in high school athletics.
18:57In California, our law says that the student gets to decide where they participate.
19:03If Republicans want to add layers of government to that, they're free to engage in that debate.
19:09We feel that that is a topic that is best left to our scholastic and sports authorities locally and parents in that case.
19:21And so I'd ask Lori to also come up because she's talked about this issue in the past as a Division I athlete.
19:31But House Democrats, there's no space in between House Democrats, you know, on this issue.
19:38We oppose Marjorie Taylor Greene, you know, adding this to a list of things that they want to affect.
19:45Again, this does nothing to address that their policies that they're advocating are to kick people off of health care coverage.
19:54Nothing talks about reducing costs or the burdens that Americans face.
20:00You know, all of this is just just for show.
20:04Yeah, to be honest, I don't really have anything to add.
20:07Chairman Aguilar covered it quite well.
20:09They look at this issue as something that they can just lodge a political win.
20:17Even though the president has signed an executive order, they should be moving on to the issues that actually matter and impact so many hardworking families in this country.
20:25But they won't because they keep coming back to this issue as though it's one that is relevant in people's lives.
20:35So, look, I was a college athlete myself, and I've been pretty upfront about, you know, where there's big differences between, you know,
20:46a transgender athlete playing at a collegiate level or a high school level and not letting six-year-olds play in their youth soccer sports.
20:53And that's who they're targeting with these cruel policies is not letting kids participate in youth leagues.
20:59It's totally government overreach, and we've got the structures in place to make those rules, but they're bypassing it because they look at it as a political opportunity.
21:13Mr. Chair, last question.
21:14So I want to ask you about a bill you are voting on this afternoon, H.R. 15-16.
21:19What is your position, what are your thoughts more broadly on the DHS restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese entities are concerned?
21:26This is an issue that's come up multiple times, you know, in the last, you know, Congress as well.
21:32You know, again, you know, just an absolute, you know, abject failure on behalf of the Republican majority to deal with issues that everyday Americans care about.
21:44They're not concerned about this.
21:45This bill would affect five college universities and campuses.
21:50It doesn't address driving down costs, doesn't address the health care crisis that they're starting, doesn't address driving up costs with tariffs.
22:01That's not what they choose to focus on.
22:04Instead, this is an attack on, you know, our higher education system.
22:08That said, the committee has marked this up.
22:12This has been a bipartisan bill in the past.
22:15We assume it's a bipartisan bill now.
22:17Members are going to vote their districts.
22:22There isn't, we are not whipping this bill.
22:26But, again, it's just, it's a missed opportunity because they're devoting debate time and floor time to a topic that doesn't have anything to do with what people really care about.
22:36Thank you so much.