At a Congressional Democratic press briefing on Tuesday, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke about the Equality Act.
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00:00Let me just say that I associate myself with everything that has been said about the need for this.
00:05And I just want to tell a little different perspective.
00:09Jeff Merkley, thank you for your leadership.
00:12And I'll talk about when we had our first press conference on this.
00:15But first I want to acknowledge Sarah McBride, our member of Congress from Delaware.
00:21And she's a pioneer in Congress as well.
00:23And as we all know, Dina Titus has been a champion on these issues from Nevada over time.
00:30So here's the thing.
00:33Well, hearing Chuck speak about his daughter, I remember when Allison was born.
00:38So to hear him talk about her with such pride in her marriage, her baby, and another baby to come is an emotional thing for me.
00:47But just think of how valuable that is to us in this cause.
00:53Mark Tucano, I heard your speech as I was coming.
00:55Oh, our great leader, the House Democratic Whip, Catherine Clark, is now with us as well.
01:03So here's the thing.
01:05Go back a few years, and when Tammy was speaking, she was talking about how to get the votes and the mobilization involved in that.
01:16But go back a few years.
01:17We had four things we were going to do.
01:20Four things we were going to do.
01:21We were going to have a fully inclusive hate crimes act.
01:25We were going to have ENDA, ending discrimination in the workplace.
01:29We were going to have marriage when that became a court issue, too.
01:33And we had a number of things, including the repeal of don't ask, don't tell.
01:38In the course of that, folks said, why are we doing ENDA?
01:42Why are we doing ending discrimination in the workplace?
01:46Let's do the whole kit and caboodle, hence the Equality Act.
01:50It was a challenge because it involved the Civil Rights Act and the rest, and those who were very protective of it,
01:57and rightfully so because of certain things that go on around here that we didn't want to interfere with what protections were already in the law.
02:06But John Lewis, remember Senator Merkel?
02:10He stood with us, right, Mark?
02:11He stood with us at that first press conference.
02:15He said to the Black Caucus, it's long overdue.
02:19The time is now.
02:20We cannot wait.
02:21This is it.
02:22And that was such a remarkable, okay, right, Mark?
02:25It was such a remarkable occasion.
02:27So we went from ENDA to equality in every aspect, and that's exactly what we should have done.
02:35So I just wanted to put it in perspective for you.
02:39When we were going along with ENDA, the groups outside said to us, don't ask, don't tell.
02:46So, again, I take great pride in the fact that my last bill as speaker the first time around was the repeal of don't ask, don't tell,
02:57and we were so proud because of the outside mobilization.
03:00So I want to salute our friends from the outside because this is, I know you'll be hearing from Jay Brown and Olivia Hunt,
03:08but the outside mobilization made all the difference, as Tammy described in her comments.
03:15That made all the difference in telling people's experience with their own families and just the support that grew and grew and grew.
03:24So hopefully springing from this introduction, let me just say Senator Merkley has been such a champion, relentless, persistent, constant on all of this,
03:36and I salute you for your leadership and always look to you for guidance on this on other issues as well.
03:44So that's why I'm here again to say let's get it done.
03:48I don't know what the prospects are now, but I do know that we're going to win the House.
03:55I know we're going to win the House, hopefully the Senate.
03:57We're going to win in a short period of time.
04:00It will be clear to them, and maybe they'll be more receptive to doing what the right thing is.
04:06Now, the next speaker that I'm going to yield to spoke on the floor for, what, 20, let me read to get it exactly right.
04:17How long was it, Convoke?
04:1925 hours.
04:21I had the record in the House for over eight hours.
04:23Of course, I had on spike heels, and we can't yield, but nonetheless, 25 hours, a record that an African-American leader could replace the record there above.
04:35What would you call him?
04:39Segregationist.
04:41Segregationist.
04:41That's as gentle a word as we can use right here, I guess.
04:45So I'm so glad that I'm going before him, because you never know how long he's going to talk.
04:52But thank you, Cory Booker, for your leadership, and I'm pleased to yield to you.