The Archive

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

LEADER LOOK

Happy Wednesday. This is just a quick note for premium subscribers on what’s on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s minds. Both leaders had news conferences in the Capitol today.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi

→ After this tumultuous week: “I always had confidence, I never doubted that … the president’s budget would prevail because of the commitment that our caucus has to America’s working families. That is what unifies. Whatever differences, at the end of the day, our commitment to America’s working families is the unifier.”

Never a doubt, huh? Pelosi navigated passing the budget resolution-rule well, but she did have issues at the beginning with moderates. We’ve been saying this all along, but it’s true — you may like Pelosi, you may not like her, but it’s folly to doubt her.

→ Pelosi on Congress offsetting the reconciliation package: “I’d like to have it totally paid for, we’ll see what is possible. The Ways and Means Committee under Richie Neal has been working with the Senate, and others … Members are making their views known, what pay fors can be. Some are new, some are pretty standard fare, but it’s a question of how much.”

Why you should care: Taxe increases are going to be a part of this large reconciliation package, obviously, and that will be a major discussion point over the next few months.

→ On coordinating with the Senate on reconciliation: “We [will] write a bill with the Senate, because there’s no use of doing a bill that’s not going to pass the Senate —  in the interest of getting things done, results, getting the results.”

Read between the lines: The Senate has extraordinarily strict guidelines when it comes reconciliation — the infamous "Byrd Bath," which knocks out provisions that don’t have a direct budgetary impact. Pelosi’s remarks indicate that she’s not only well aware of this, but priming the ground politically for having to work with the Senate and drop some things from the House’s wish list.

→ Pelosi on Reps. Seth Moulton and Peter Meijer’s trip to Afghanistan: “The point is is that we don’t want anybody to think this was a good idea and that they should try to follow suit. … Really? We’re trying to get people out.”

→ Her deal with the moderates, which set a Sept. 27 infrastructure vote deadline: “It’s a clarification. … We would have had to pass infrastructure. … by September 30 anyway because the authorizations expire, and for highway and some of the things in the bill. And so, we’re talking about a couple of days earlier.”

Burn.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy

→ McCarthy said he would’ve kept troops in Afghanistan and held onto Bagram air base.

→ We also asked him about whether he had a view about Afghan refugees coming into the United States: “We need to keep our word but… from ISIS, from al Qaeda, and from a Taliban point of view — do you think they’ll take advantage of this situation? Do you think they put some people in there. I pretty much believe they would.”

McCarthy is trying to say that terrorist organizations will embed their members on refugee flights to the United States.