Speaker Johnson and House Republicans hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning. I know the weather's gonna get warm here at some point. Good morning and hope
00:20you all are doing well. House Republicans and the American people trust President Trump.
00:28These policies, which put Americans first, will deliver the strongest economy in the world.
00:35For far too long, American workers have been taken advantage of. And President Trump has
00:42made it clear, we will no longer put American workers at an unfair advantage. Imagine starting
00:52a football game, two touchdowns behind. Or imagine being Houston and starting with a
00:5925-point lead. Perhaps they would have won the game last night, right? For the past 50 years,
01:06that position, the United States has actually been in. That is the position that the United
01:13States of America has been in for the past 20 plus years. Think about it. Across 132 countries
01:24and more than 600,000 products, U.S. exporters face higher tariffs two-thirds of the time.
01:35That is the definition of unfair and completely unacceptable. Remember, the goal is to level
01:45the playing field. And the President is already bringing our trade partners to the table. Look
01:53at Vietnam and Japan. Already, businesses have started adjusting and restructuring. They are investing
02:02in America. The President has secured $5 trillion of investments in the United States in his first two
02:13months, including my home state of Michigan, where Apple announced their intentions to launch a state-of-the-art
02:21manufacturing academy. This is proof that President's negotiations work. And high-paying,
02:30skilled manufacturing jobs will follow these investments to America. Just look at the job
02:38numbers from last week. Payrolls increased by 228,000. Payroll increased by 228,000 jobs in March. That was 88,000
02:52more than forecasters had expected. And according to the private sector employment report, in March,
02:5921,000 new jobs were added in manufacturing. Something unimaginable a year ago.
03:11Look, the reality is Biden left behind a broken economy and the status quo won't fix it. No one should fault
03:22President Trump for President Trump for trying unconventional ways to get us out of this mess,
03:27because that's what it's going to take. House Republicans know that President Trump's long-term
03:33strategy will pay off. Now, changing gears and moving on to this week in our work to advance President
03:40Trump's agenda, Americans expect us to do our job. This week, we need to pass the SAVE Act and secure our
03:52elections. Stop rogue judges from stalling President Trump and the American people's agenda. Reverse Biden's
04:03disastrous policies and advance our one big, beautiful bill, which will help get our economy back on track
04:13again and give our markets some certainty. And we said this from the get-go. There may be growing pains,
04:21but House Republicans are unified behind our common goal to deliver on the mandate that the American people
04:32gave us. And now I will turn it over to the man who will help do that, which is our whip, Tom Emmer.
04:43How about that, Alex Ovechkin? Oh, wrong word. Sorry. President Trump's multi-pronged economic
04:50strategy to renew the American dream demands congressional action. The stakes are high. House Republicans must work
04:58in tandem with President Trump to deliver the agenda that 77 million Americans sent here to enact.
05:06This includes renewing President Trump's successful tax policy in order to give Americans the financial
05:12certainty and prosperity they deserve. In addition to the administration's historic actions to secure nearly
05:18$5 trillion in investments and trade commitments in a massive deregulation campaign. House Republicans
05:26must also ensure the continuance of the 2017 Trump tax cuts through reconciliation. We're excited,
05:34by the way, to host U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant later today for a roundtable to address the importance
05:42and urgency of getting this done. Remember, the Senate version of the budget resolution does not prevent the
05:48House from achieving the goals we set for ourselves earlier in this process. In fact, it doesn't mean a
05:54thing to the House. We will continue to advocate for the final reconciliation bill to include historic
06:00spending reductions while protecting essential programs. But we must act now to bring the process to
06:07moving the America First agenda on track. The American people are hungry for economic prosperity.
06:14They were denied for four long years under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Together, the Republican trifecta
06:21can deliver that prosperity and return hope of financial freedom to every American. The work ahead will not be
06:27easy, but we will get it done. Failure in Congress could mean failing President Trump and the American
06:34people. And that is not an option. With that, I turn it over to our leader, Mr. Scalise.
06:39Thank you, Whip. This is a really important week, not just in the House, but for the ability for
06:48Congress to join with President Trump and deliver on that agenda that we all ran on. We all know what
06:53President Trump said at his rallies, talking about getting America back on track, securing the border,
06:59locking in tax rates, no tax on tips, producing more energy in America, getting rules and regulations
07:06under control. All of those things are in this one big, beautiful bill that we have been focused on
07:11for more than a year in the House. But President Trump's not the only one that ran on all of those
07:18objectives. We did too. House Republicans ran on those same things. We need to follow through now
07:26and get the job done. And nobody said it would be easy. It wasn't easy to get the budget passed
07:32a few weeks ago. Some, in fact, not necessarily saying anybody in this room, but some said the
07:38bill might not pass. And yet we passed the bill without a vote to spare because we know our margins
07:45are narrow. But our commitment is firm on getting this done because, as the Whip said, failure is not an
07:53option. And so today is no different where we are than where we were the same week that we passed the
08:00budget over a month ago. There are members that have questions. That's not a surprise. On any big
08:07bill we've dealt with, going back to 2017, when we did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, there were members
08:13who had questions. And our job is to continue answering those questions while moving the ball forward. But it's
08:19critical that we advance this agenda, that we don't delay because passing the budget doesn't end the
08:26process. It starts the reconciliation process. We can't even begin reconciliation until the budget's
08:33done. And if some people think we can just wait for the Senate to catch up to the House,
08:39we could talk all day about the fact that they're not against what we're trying to do. They just haven't
08:44gotten to that point. The months of meetings and negotiations that we've had in the House,
08:51the back and forth with CBO that we have done, which, by the way, has yielded some really big
08:56improvements in the CBO scoring. Some of it is just coming in from the initial scoring from the CBO,
09:04because we disagreed with their numbers, but we didn't just yell and scream. We went back to them.
09:09And we're now getting CBO to give us better numbers on the savings that we'll achieve
09:14from things like work requirements and some of the other reforms that we all agree upon.
09:19But we cannot delay. The country can't afford for us to delay a month or longer
09:27to wait on the Senate getting where we are. We've got to continue to move forward. And the bill that we
09:33have before us allows us to do that. It allows us to achieve all the savings that we laid out in the
09:39House bill. It allows us to achieve all the border security we laid out. It allows us to achieve all
09:45the things we want to do to stabilize the tax code. But think about this, you know, because people are
09:50watching the markets and that's understandable. There is trillions of dollars on the sidelines,
09:57and I've heard this from so many people in different industries all across the country,
10:01trillions of dollars that are not looking at tariffs, that are looking to see what Congress
10:05does on the tax code. And they're not going to make those investments until they see a stabilized
10:11tax code that doesn't expire at the end of this year, but in fact gets renewed for 10 years,
10:17ideally permanently, to lock in tax rates so you don't have a massive tax hike on the country.
10:24And we need to remove that uncertainty. The President can't do that. Congress needs to do that,
10:29House and Senate combined. So the President is all in. You saw his true social post yesterday.
10:35We're all in as well. And yes, members will continue to raise questions. We're going to
10:40continue working through that process. But we can't stop the advancement of our agenda. Democrats don't
10:46want this economy to turn around, but we do. We ran on it. We're committed to it. And our leader in that
10:52effort is our speaker, Mike Johnson. Thank you.
10:55Thank you. Rarely do I get to raise the podium level, but I am going to take great pleasure in
11:00doing that. Thank you. Yes, that's right. It was too low for me. Everybody knows that for the record.
11:06Hey, good morning. Glad to have you all here. It's a very, very busy week on Capitol Hill, as you know.
11:11We had a great boost of excitement in the Republican conference meeting this morning. We welcomed our two
11:17new members from Florida. We were delighted to win those seats handily. And so Congressman Jimmy
11:22Patronis and Randy Fine joined us. We got them on their committees, and they are joining the team.
11:29That team is going to be very busy. As you heard, the recount of sort of what we're going to be
11:33working on over the next few days here. Between now and Thursday, the House is going to pass some
11:37really important legislation. We'll ensure that only American citizens decide American elections. As you
11:43heard, we're going to prevent activist judges from issuing these unconstitutional nationwide
11:48injunctions and legislating from the bench, which has become a real problem. And we're going to roll
11:52back two burdensome Biden-era CFPB rules. This is all common sense – all common sense issues,
11:59and they're things that make sense to the American people. Let me talk about the SAVE Act very briefly.
12:03You've heard some about this already. Polling shows that nearly 90 percent of the American people
12:09believe that proof of citizenship should be required to vote. There are few issues in American
12:14politics that enjoy that level of bipartisan support. This should pass with a massive bipartisan
12:21margin. But watch, it won't. The Democrats are contorting themselves into a pretzel trying to justify
12:27some sort of vote against this. Last year, they argued we were too close to a federal election to
12:33make voting changes. And then they said that non-citizens don't actually vote. And then they said
12:38the SAVE Act will somehow result in voter suppression. All that was total nonsense.
12:45Now they're claiming that the SAVE Act disenfranchises married women who changed their
12:50last names. I mean, it's absurd. What they're trying to do is protect the ability of non-citizens
12:56to participate in our elections. Plain and simple, that's what this is about. And we know it's a crisis
13:00because the last administration, as we all well know, opened the border wide and we had, by some
13:04counts, 20 million illegal aliens come into the country, right? There's no mechanism in federal
13:10law – in current law – that requires states to prove citizenship. So even though it is currently
13:17against the law – only U.S. citizens should decide U.S. elections – there's no way to make sure that's
13:22actually happening. So the SAVE Act is so critically important. It follows common sense,
13:26and the American people are with us. The Democrats, I predict, will not be, and they're going to have
13:30to answer for that. Let me talk about reconciliation. You heard a lot about this. This is the mechanism
13:36that we have to advance the Trump agenda in a big way and deliver results to the American people,
13:43all those who voted for these big changes. And this week, we're working in the House to advance
13:48the Senate's amendment to our budget resolution, as you know. Just to recount this, we've been working
13:53on this for over a year. We started this process well before most of the people in this room
13:59agreed with us that we would have this moment of unified government where we would have Republican
14:03majorities in the House and Senate and, of course, the White House as well. And so we started that
14:08process. I want to make four important points about the Senate's amendment to our House resolution.
14:13Number one, the budget resolution is not the law, okay? All this does is it allows us to continue the
14:20process, begin drafting the actual legislation that really counts, and that's the one big,
14:25beautiful bill. Number two, the Senate amendment makes no changes to the reconciliation instructions
14:31that we put into the budget resolution. So our objectives remain intact. Number three,
14:37any final reconciliation bill has to include historic spending reductions that we included in our
14:44resolution while also safeguarding essential programs. And you've heard a commitment from us over and over
14:50that that will happen, and the President has said it himself over and over as well.
14:54The fourth point is that reconciliation will be a collaborative process between the House and
14:59Senate. You're going to see the Republican Party in both chambers working together as one team.
15:04I know that's a rare occasion and people don't really know what that looks like, but we're actually
15:07going to do it this time. The House is not going to participate in an us-versus-them charade. We won't do it.
15:14To secure and accomplish our mission, we've got to be working together and rowing in the same direction,
15:20and I'm fiercely committed to doing that, and so is Leader Thune and our members on both sides.
15:26Passing this amendment just allows us to get off the sidelines and get on the field and start this
15:30game. It's the kickoff, so to speak, with one of my football metaphors, and we've got to get this
15:34done. Republicans have an historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver relief to hardworking
15:42families and set our country back on the path of prosperity. The American people desperately need
15:47us to take this action, and we will. As we wrote in a letter to our conference this weekend, time
15:52really is of the essence. There's a lot of pressure points that are outside of our control but are
15:57forcing this action. We're months away from the ex-state on the debt limit, the border security
16:02resources are being diminished, markets are unsettled, and the largest tax increase in American history
16:07is set to hit families and businesses at the end of this year if we do not act. And for all those
16:12reasons, we have no luxury of complacency, and we really don't have time to dither on this thing.
16:17So we'll be moving that forward, and you'll see that action this week. Okay. With that,
16:22I'll take a few questions. Okay.
16:23Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker.
16:24A question on two tax proposals that are being talked about at the White House. I just want to get
16:28your official comment on them. One, a 40 percent millionaire surtax is still being talked about over
16:34there. What's your opinion on that? And the second is an export tax credit to help those who are facing,
16:40such as in China, retaliatory tariffs. What are your thoughts on those two?
16:43MR. Well, look, I'm not going to comment on specific proposals because there's
16:47hundreds of them on the table right now, and I don't want to put my thumb on the scale. I mean,
16:51generally we're trying to reduce taxes around here, so that's our general principle. But we'll have to
16:57see. We've got a lot of great ideas. The formulation that we'll try to work on and complete
17:03over the coming weeks, the next several weeks, a few weeks, I hope, maybe several weeks,
17:08is to get the point of consensus on all of those different factors and finding the level that will
17:15not only, as I said, reduce spending and change the debt trajectory for the country,
17:19but also protect our essential programs. And I'm convinced we can do better.
17:23Yes, sir. You mentioned resources for border security. In yesterday's Supreme Court ruling on
17:28the Alien Animes Act, the justices unanimously reaffirm migrants' rights to a hearing before
17:34removal. Should Congress allocate additional funding to the judiciary to address a possible
17:39backlog of cases and to ensure potential deportees get due process?
17:43MR. Well, due process is an important principle, and of course we support that,
17:47and we have to give Customs and Border Patrol agents and everybody involved in the process the
17:52resources they need to get the job done. It does require additional resources, because we have
17:57so many people to process, because the last administration opened the border wide, and it's
18:01a serious crisis. And I think that was top of mind for most of the people who voted in this last
18:06election. So we'll – we don't know what the specifics are yet. We do applaud the ruling for the
18:12Supreme Court. The most important principle that came out of that is that they said that you can't go
18:16venue shopping for this. They're going to return that back to the court in Texas where it belonged,
18:21and I think that's a very important step. We – the reason that we're passing the No Road Rulings Act
18:26this week is because we're concerned about this – what really is a constitutional crisis. And you've
18:31heard the stats, but I think it's 60 – 62 percent of – or 64 percent of all the injunctions, national
18:38injunctions that are issued against the President or against Donald J. Trump over the last several decades,
18:43and 90 percent of those or something were issued by judges that were appointed to the federal bench
18:49by Democrat presidents. I mean, it just – it just looks on its face to be a serious issue,
18:55and Congress has to address it. And so Congressman Darrell Issa's bill is a – is a really good
18:59measure to – to take some control in that area, and we're looking forward to that develop.
19:02Yeah. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask you – it's been three months since the wildfires in Los Angeles.
19:08I know Governor Newsom sent in her office a letter asking for additional funding.
19:13Have you been able to review that letter? Can you tell us a little bit about where those
19:16discussions stand on that funding?
19:18Well, look, the California wildfires is something that it'll – you know, it's a request for
19:23supplemental emergency spending, and all of this is kind of wrapped together in all of the
19:28deliberations we're – we're making right now. Reconciliation is – is the most immediate and urgent
19:34thing on our plate, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time. I'll tell you that there's some
19:38internal discussion about it, but it hasn't advanced yet, but stay tuned on that.
19:41Second row, yes, sir.
19:43The HHS Secretary, Robert Kennedy, has now put in a call to the CDC to stop the fluoride
19:51in drinking water. I want to get your thoughts on that, as health advisors have constantly
19:56said that they advise against that.
19:57Yeah, it's an interesting issue. I don't profess to be an expert in chemistry. I do constitutional
20:03law primarily, but I'll tell you that I think it deserves – from what I've read and from what I
20:08understand it deserves real evaluation. There's a concern that it may be having a negative effect
20:16on the health of children, and obviously we have an obligation at the federal government level to
20:20look into that. So I'm as interested as you are. I don't have the answers, but I think it's one
20:24that the question has been begged and it needs to be addressed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
20:36Thank you, Mr. Speaker.