Thank you, Speaker Pelosi

Today, House Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi announced in a speech on the House floor that she won’t seek anoth­er term as leader of the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus, con­clud­ing a two-decade run as both Minor­i­ty Leader and Speaker.

Pelosi will, how­ev­er, con­tin­ue to rep­re­sent Cal­i­for­ni­a’s 12th Dis­trict in the House.

“I will not seek re-elec­tion to Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­er­ship in the next Con­gress,” Pelosi declared in a speech car­ried live on cable net­works. “For me the hour has come for a new gen­er­a­tion to lead the Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus that I so deeply respect.”

Her cau­cus rose repeat­ed­ly to laud her with stand­ing ova­tions as Pelosi smiled.

Pelosi’s deputy, Major­i­ty Leader Ste­ny Hoy­er, intends to fol­low her exam­ple and exit lead­er­ship, paving the way for younger mem­bers to take over, like Hakeem Jef­fries of New York and Kath­leen Clark of Massachusetts.

Pelosi spoke to Pres­i­dent Joe Biden this morn­ing about her deci­sion before announc­ing her plans on the House floor. The White House released a lengthy state­ment from Biden not long after the speech con­clud­ed prais­ing Pelosi:

When I think of Nan­cy Pelosi, I think of dignity.

His­to­ry will note she is the most con­se­quen­tial Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in our history.

There are count­less exam­ples of how she embod­ies the oblig­a­tion of elect­ed offi­cials to uphold their oath to God and coun­try to ensure our democ­ra­cy deliv­ers and remains a bea­con to the world. In every­thing she does, she reflects a dig­ni­ty in her actions and a dig­ni­ty she sees in the lives of the peo­ple of this nation.

In 2007, she made his­to­ry as the first woman Speak­er, but that was just the begin­ning of the his­to­ry she has made dur­ing her four terms. I know because I’ve seen her in action dur­ing my career as Sen­a­tor, Vice Pres­i­dent, and now as Pres­i­dent. With Nan­cy, you see a father’s daugh­ter who learned by his side how to win and gov­ern. With her lead­ing the way, you nev­er wor­ry about whether a bill will pass. If she says she has the votes, she has the votes. Every time.

His­to­ry will record her lead­er­ship with Pres­i­dent Oba­ma to res­cue the econ­o­my in cri­sis from the Great Recession.

With her sheer will, pass­ing the Afford­able Care Act to ensure health care is a right not a priv­i­lege. End­ing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell so patri­ot­ic Amer­i­cans can serve the coun­try they love no mat­ter who they love. The list goes on, includ­ing her lead­er­ship in defend­ing democ­ra­cy and advanc­ing human rights around the world.

In the first two years of my pres­i­den­cy, she is a sin­gu­lar force secur­ing once-in-a-gen­er­a­tion bills that will define our nation for decades to come. The Amer­i­can Res­cue Plan to get us through COVID-19. The Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law to rebuild our roads and bridges. The CHIPS and Sci­ence Act to ensure the most advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing is done here in America.

The most sig­nif­i­cant gun safe­ty law in near­ly thir­ty years – for the chil­dren. One of the most sig­nif­i­cant bills help­ing vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies exposed to tox­ic mate­ri­als. And, the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act that took on Big Phar­ma and won, and reflects the most aggres­sive action ever to tack­le the cli­mate crisis.

Because of Nan­cy Pelosi, the lives of mil­lions and mil­lions of Amer­i­cans are bet­ter, even in dis­tricts rep­re­sent­ed by Repub­li­cans who vot­ed against her bills and too often vil­i­fy her. That’s Nan­cy – always work­ing for the dig­ni­ty of all of the peo­ple. And, as a fierce defend­er of democ­ra­cy through our laws, his­to­ry will also note her fierce­ness and resolve to pro­tect our democ­ra­cy from the vio­lent, dead­ly insur­rec­tion of Jan­u­ary 6th. It’s a threat of polit­i­cal vio­lence and intim­i­da­tion that con­tin­ues and she and her fam­i­ly know all too well, but that will nev­er stop her from serv­ing our nation.

She might be step­ping down from her lead­er­ship role in the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cau­cus, but she will nev­er waiv­er in pro­tect­ing our sacred democracy.

Nan­cy Pelosi is first, last, and always for the peo­ple.  Jill and I count Nan­cy, Paul, and their fam­i­ly among our dear­est friends. As a nation, we owe her a deep debt of grat­i­tude for her ser­vice, her patri­o­tism, and above all, her absolute dignity.

Pelosi’s lega­cy also extends to a long list of bills that were passed by the House but died in the Sen­ate: bills to strength­en vot­ing rights, pro­tect Dream­ers, uphold repro­duc­tive rights, advance cli­mate jus­tice, reform polic­ing, and much more. Again and again, dur­ing eight years as Speak­er, Pelosi mar­shaled the votes need­ed to address the coun­try’s prob­lems in the House of Representatives.

As Minor­i­ty Leader, Pelosi kept her cau­cus dis­ci­plined and uni­fied, sup­ply­ing votes to keep the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment open when Repub­li­cans failed to govern.

Her twen­ty-year run as Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader over­lapped with four pres­i­den­cies: those of George W. Bush, Barack Oba­ma, Don­ald Trump, and Joe Biden.

Democ­rats had a tri­fec­ta for only four of those years (2009, 2010, 2021, 2022). Those were times of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and progress rather than gridlock.

Pelosi’s lead­er­ship was cru­cial to mak­ing the xth Con­gress and the cur­rent 117th Con­gress suc­cess­ful. She isn’t done yet, either: The House will soon be vot­ing on final pas­sage of the Respect for Mar­riage Act and bills to bol­ster Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy and the coun­try’s finances against threats on the horizon.

The votes will be there — because Pelosi will have count­ed them. No one is bet­ter at count­ing votes and mov­ing leg­is­la­tion through the House than Speak­er Pelosi.

Our team at NPI thanks Speak­er Pelosi for her tremen­dous con­tri­bu­tions to our coun­try. As she said, quot­ing Scrip­ture, for every­thing, there is a sea­son. The time is right to pass the baton to a new gen­er­a­tion of lead­er­ship and cel­e­brate an incred­i­ble run that secured the pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion Amer­i­can fam­i­lies needed.