which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org >> next house minority leader talked about the negotiations and some of the challengeses facing small business owners. he was joined by several republican leaders at this conference. >> ready to roll, leader. mr. mccarthy: thank you all for coming. almost a week ago today, speaker nancy pelosi finally admitted to what every member standing behind me, she sabotaged the covid relief bill simply because of an election. she put politics before people. it was more important for her to hurt president trump politically

than to help the american people. and this is the devastation that has happened since speaker pelosi sat on a solution. roughly one in five small businesses have closed. 110,000 american restaurants have already permanently shut their doors. according to a recent survey from the national restaurant association, 500,000 restaurants of every business type, franchise, chain and ip independent are on an economic freefall. these are more than news numbers. these statistics tell the story of real people who are fighting like hell for their livelihoods and livelihoods of their employees. i know how it is like to have a dream. i never thought it would be government that shut you down. but when government made the

decision, government also had the responsibility. there is more than 138 billion still sitting there for small businesses in the p.p.e. program, to pay their employees. more than 40 times the republicans have brought to the floor the ability to vote to bring assistance. more than 40 times the democrats have said no. the speaker said she would keep us here, but she did not. the speaker then called us back for a special session, but it was about the post office. the republicans brought up relief. it was the democrats who once again voted no. there were 23 democrats who signed a letter in september that warned the speaker if she continued to apply politics and

not move forward that they would sign a discharge petition. i don't know if i should read their name on the letter because they have not signed it yet for an opportunity. i'm not quite sure what the majority leader will say today, will he send us home or put the american public first? the speaker one week ago mitted that she planned to sabotage and put people out of business simply for her own political beliefs. the election is over. the time is now to work. and there's an opportunity to get it done now. i know more than 40 times you said no, but today we hope you will say yes. how many more businesses have to shutter? how many more dreams have to be shattered? how many more people have to be laid off?

before nancy pelosi and the democrats will act, i promise you this. republicans will continue to work in good faith just as we put forth bills again and again that the democrats have voted no just as we worked with the senate and the white house, just as we know there is an opportunity to stop playing politics. with that, i introduce our whip, steve scalise. [applause] mr. scalise: thank you, kevin. i strongly agree with the comments that our leader just made. when you look at where we are right now as a country, there are thousands of small businesses that will spend this weekend to figure out whether or not they will be able to remain open, whether dreams will be crushed and millions of families who rely on those jobs will

sustain themselves through christmas. and during that period, for months now, we have been trying to get a vote on a bill that everybody agrees on, the chabot bill that jamie herrera beutler is straightforward. there are a lot of areas that we are or disagreement on. we need to help small businesses that are struggling and families whether or not they will have a job to go back to on monday. we should not be leaving today without passing that chabot bill. if it was put on the suspension calendar, i suggest we would get over 400 votes on that bill. there is wide bipartisan support. and speaker pelosi continues to play games. she admitted the other day the one reason is she is waiting for a new president. these small businesses don't

have a time to wait for political games whether or not they will close for good. we lost over 100,000 -- [applause] mr. scalise: we lost over 100,000 restaurants in america that will never reopen. a third of every single small business in the entire state of new york is gone for good. this is a real issue that we don't have time to wait on. there is a long list of areas of disagreement. every time they put out another plan on the table, speaker pelosi says no. she doesn't come up with an alternative and continue to play partisan games and this game has to end. this game of chicken where hostages are being taken. the hostages are small businesses and millions of families who want to go be able to go back to work. you had the smartest minds in

medicine who said there is nothing wrong with protocols and you have some of these governors that are telling you you can't get go to their local. these hypocrisy has to come to an end and has to end now. how many times have we seen examples of a governor you can't do something and they are doing it and the mayor is caught doing it. a mayor in cabo he is hanging out with his family with his family. this is madness and not based on science. if it was based on science, they wouldn't be doing it. but they are doing to crush these small businesses. we see what's going on. the speaker acknowledged it the other day. where she admits she is playing games with people because she wants to a new president and

doesn't want president trump to get credit. this isn't about credit. who needs help? let's pass the bills we have agreement on. that chabot bill is one example. you could save every small business that is struggling and wouldn't even add a dime. the $138 billion is sitting in accounts. this is a program that has been widely successful. our local banks know who they are. they can't wait another week. i have been telling the majority leader in our colloquy since september this bill has wide bipartisan support. they don't deny. they point to areas where we disagree. the game has to end. they need to bring this bill to the floor. and we are calling on speaker pelosi to bring this bill to the

floor to save these small businesses that need the relief. they need it today, not next week, not next month. bring up the chabot bill and give relief to small businesses and saves millions of jobs so they can have their christmas. with that, i'm going to bring up our conference chair, liz cheney. [applause] ms. cheney: thanks very much. every one of us lined up on these steps, every single member on the other side of the aisle, we represent thousands, thousands of people, thousands of small businesses who are hurting. and when i watch what speaker pelosi and the democrats are doing, there are many things -- many times we have come up and raised our disagreements with the speaker. but when i watch this, it is a

level of sin civil and willingness to ignore the people that she represents that i have not seen before. and it makes absolutely clear, speaker pelosi has been in congress and been in congress as the speaker for far too long. the american people deserve a house of representatives that is one that will do what is needed. we are in the middle of a pandemic. we have small businesses across this country, ag producers, energy prusters, hospitals, people who are suffering. and if the speaker of the house seems to think this is about sitting in back rooms negotiating deals, scoring political points, when she finally says the quiet part outloud and admits she is doing that, she has delayed getting help to the american people

because she was waiting to see if joe biden was elected president. that is what she is doing. every single member of this house, and every single member of her party needs to answer the question, and i hope you will ask them, do you agree that the speaker of the house is in the right to continue to play politics while people's businesses are suffering and people are dying and our hospitals are suffering and our agricultural industry is suffering. every member has to stand up and explain why it is ok and people are hurting and they need help as our leader and whip said. we have the ability today right now, instead of voting on bills to legalize marijuana or protect exotic cats, put the bills that ill support small businesses

now and it will pass. we stand together calling on this body, calling on the speaker to stop sitting on our hands and in front of refrigerator at the expense of ice cream and help the american people today. i'm going to introduce mr. habot. [applause] mr. chabot: i was the chair of the small business committee for two terms and past term, the ranking member. and i would like to start off by saying half the people of america work for a small business. 70% of the new jobs created in america are created by small businesses. this they are critical to the american economy. when covid-19 hit earlier in the year, this institution, the house, the senate together, bicameral and bipartisan, republicans and democrats passed the cares act and the the

paycheck protection program, it saved over 50 million jobs including in my district, the cincinnati area. i visited those businesses and talked to businesses who would have gone under. it is not just the small businesses that you are trying to help but it's those employees and families that those support. the paycheck protection program, the doors to that program were shut back in august. and all we need to do is pass legislation to reopen those doors and give small businesses to get an opportunity in the first round or a business that did but has revenue decreases of 25% meaning they are hurting and needing another loan, give them access. we don't have to put money in that program.

there is $135 billion just sitting there and help those businesses and save those jobs. the speaker, speaker pelosi, we all suspected she wouldn't bring this up for a vote because even democrats for it and all the republicans for it, because if passed, it might help president trump in the election. we suspected that and she confirmed it recently. that is outrageous to think that politics is standing in the way of helping those small businesses and helping those employees and those families who depend upon this. jamie our next speaker, herrera beutler for her leadership on the rules committee and initiating the discharge petition and bringing my bill to the floor and put those democrats who said they

support it on the line with the all the republicans and pass it for those small businesses that o desperately need it. [applause] mr. butterfield: thank you to leader -- ms. herrera beutler: thank you for your work on the p.p.e. legislation. we are here because we want the families and the individuals and the businesses in our districts and across this country to survive. we want them to thrive. but heading into christmas, we don't want sending them team members into the unemployment line where the unemployment benefits has stalled. this is ridiculous. this is not a partisan issue. we are the ones stepping up

saying nancy pelosi, the first p.p.e. bridge worked. do not become her bridge to nowhere. we have got to get this passed. the paycheck protection program expired august 8 and we knew months before that the date it was supposed to expire. we have known that this would be a problem. p.p.e. has 135 billion left sitting there untouched. we don't have to spend new money or add new money into a supplemental, it's there. all we have to do is change the date to allow those loans to be accessed. that's it. and the reason this hasn't moved is it a political football. nancy pelosi has allowed these individuals and families and i have single families, allowed

those people to be a political football in order to get different, more bigger, trillions of dollars of more money. what we need is this targeted relief and we know what is going to work. in my district alone, 95,000 jobs, 95,000 jobs. that's amazing. 10,000 businesses have access to these unforgiveable loans. house democratic leadership has used this as a bargaining chip. i'm going to guess most of the folks here. but she has admitted it. that's why i filed a discharge petition back in september to clear the gridlock and give small businesses to survive the pandemic. this discharge is a tool of last resort. we know it. and members on both sides of the

aisle know it and they said we are going to do this. i believe it is well past time. congress must act if we are needing to get relief. and get p.p.e. legislation, re-authorized, re-opened up. individuals need it and that's why we are here and that's what we are about. and we are going to have representative luetkemeyer come up next. mr. luetkemeyer: thank you for being here this morning and putting this together and for representative chabot to put his bill together and representative herrera beutler in getting the discharge put together. i'm going to be the new ranking

member on small business. i'm on the p.p.e. program that came through originally and want to continue this morning. this is a very, very important program that is proved to be effective that proved to work and yet it's being held up for no reason except politics which around here seems to be the course of the day by the speaker. back home in missouri, today, 520 small businesses that employ 1.1 million people were greeted this morning by continued nothing. they continue to wake up to the news that the majority wants to play politics with their lives, the lives of the businesses and lives of businesses' employees. this is the eighth legislative days that the house has promoted marijuana and zero to help the workers who have lost their

livelihoods. governors on the coast are taking a break from their dinners to shut down businesses and independently-owned restaurants and sit down without mask and eat a lunch without incident. hypocrisy of that is breathtaking. i would say to the speaker does not understand the real world and effects of that policy. just this week as we mentioned a number of times, she has announced she knew what she was doing when she blocked the p.p.e. vote 40 times over the last four mounts. she was increasing pain on small businesses and their employees with hopes of taking the economy and hurting the president's chances. that is not leadership. that is not serving our country but hurting people. the very people we all came here to help and should be working

hard for instead of punishing. leadership is putting the pizza shop owner in one of my counties in st. charles or the hotel worker in jefferson city over the d.n.c.'s desire to control our lives. they are writing a bill supported by members of the parties and render relief to small businesses and tens of millions of people. $130 billion is left in the p.p.e. and targeting that money to the businesses and individuals that need it. we know as a result of the past several months. we are the biggest struggles are and those employees of those businesses. we can target this relief. the money is sitting there. what are we doing? nothing. enough is enough. i think we need to stop

attacking the economic freedom that this country is built on and stop attacking the work ethic that makes us the most successful nation on earth and american small businesses and american people deserve so much more. with that, i thank you very much. and i thank chairwoman cheney is going to introduce more folks. thank you. [applause]

the president has the right for every legal challenge to be heard and has the right to go to the supreme court. yes. next question. [indiscernible question] mr. mccarthy: speaker pelosi was

notified, i was not. i'm asking for an f.b.i. briefing now. if she knew and maintained swalwell on intelligence, wrong. he is a national security threat. he was put on in his second year. i will tell you as a leader, intelligence committee is treated differently. why? because those who serve on intelligence get information that members do not. the democrat side -- if you spend the last four years in intelligence, worried about foreign intrusion, adam schiff knew as well. to allow eric swalwell where you do not bring your phones or watch because of what is discussed. he puts the threat of what is everybody talking. why did she allow him to stay on that committee and i hope she

doesn't allow him in the next congress either. the democrat leader appoints the democrat side. the question raises, when did she know, the same question that adam schiff. did anyone approach nancy pelosi to lobby to put someone on their second term on the intelligence committee? the next question is why did the democrats pull out of a bipartisan task force on china after they agreed they would? this just raises so many more questions. eric swalwell should take it upon himself to resign. f.b.i. went to him. why did he challenge the director of intelligence, john ratcliffe, when he briefed the american public on the rise of

china's spying. why did he take china's side and not america. i would hope the democratic leadership would raise a question for them. it's an easy one for me to answer. he is a national risk that should not serve in the and he as swindled. [indiscernible question] mr. mccarthy: if you are in the intelligence committee, that would be appropriate. this individual actually bundled money to help him get elected. this individual within the china spy went into mayors' offices as well and the director of intelligence warned america. the only person who went to challenge it and took china's

side was eric swalwell. [indiscernible question] mr. mccarthy: i support the plan that is more money that is supported by the president and supported by the republican leader that would go to more people and more people in time of need and put would allow us to use money that is appropriated and be fiscally responsible at the same time and to do that now. the only person who has held it up the last four months and that is speaker pelosi. [indiscernible question] mr. mccarthy: yes. t easily can get done. [indiscernible question] mr. mccarthy: next question. thank you all very much.

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steny hoyer and steve scalise talked about that effort. here are their remarks.