Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader delivered on Wednesday a record long speech meant to help secure the protections for recipients of the DACA program.
The speech lasted eight hours and seven minutes in which were included prayers, Bible passages and testimonials from “Dreamers.” During the speech, Pelosi promised that she will oppose the two-year budget package unless Speaker Paul Ryan vows to consider legislation that will support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Donald Trump ended and is expiring in less than a month.
According to The Hill, the extraordinary speech was at once a remarkable display of endurance for the 77-year-old Pelosi and a media sensation generating endless buzz across Capitol Hill. It was also something else: a clear signal to Pelosi’s troops — some of them questioning her dedication to securing Dreamer protections — that she’s leading the fight on immigration head-first.
“This is not an issue that’s going to go away,” Pelosi said. “This is an American value that is deeply felt across the board.”
Democrats know that there is no assurance that DACA will win a vote in the lower chamber, as it did in a 2013 immigration debate when, although the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform package with bipartisan support, the GOP leaders in the lower chamber ignored it.
“It never saw the light of day in the House of Representatives,” the Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Representative Joseph Crowley said on Wednesday, confirming that he will also oppose the new budget package.
Pelosi took the floor on Wednesday after 10 a.m. saying that it will be only a “one-minute” speech. Her goal of the marathon speech was to get Ryan to guarantee a vote on DACA legislation, otherwise she and other members of the caucus will oppose the new budget agreement.
“Without that commitment from Speaker Ryan, comparable to the commitment from Leader McConnell, this package does not have my support, nor does it have the support of a large number of members of our caucus,” Pelosi said at the start of her speech.
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