Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pelosi-aims-to-set-new-direction-amid-legislative-battles Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Just over a year into her term as House leader in the new Democratic-majority Congress, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., discusses the latest developments from Capitol Hill, including spending bill battles, new energy legislation, the controversy over CIA interrogation tapes and U.S. policy on Iran and Iraq. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And to our Newsmaker interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. Gwen Ifill spoke with her this afternoon at the Capitol. GWEN IFILL: Madam Speaker, welcome.REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), Speaker of the House: My pleasure to be with you. GWEN IFILL: As we speak this afternoon, you've just come from a leadership meeting with Democrats in the House and the Senate, trying to come up with some sort compromise, I presume, on this big budget bill. Any luck? REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, we've had a number of items on our agenda as we come to the end of this session, but I'm pleased in the direction we're going in. I'm especially pleased that we're going to be bringing the energy bill back to the floor for its final passage. That's really landmark legislation that will change, takes us in a new direction, and it's pretty exciting. GWEN IFILL: I want to point out to you — I'm sure you've seen them — page one of today's Capitol Hill newspapers, "Dems Cave," another ones says, "Democrats set to cave on Iraq, on the budget." What do you say to people who call this a cave-in Democratic Congress? REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I guess they're trying to sell papers, but the fact is, is that I will never confine the hopes, aspirations of the American people, as reflected in the legislation of the House of Representatives, to what the president of the United States, George W. Bush, will sign.We set a high watermark. We negotiate. We compete. We debate for our position to be held. And I'm pleased that, when we come out of this process, our priorities will be largely intact. It won't be funded to the levels that we want, but I'll never start at the president's bottom line. We'll always start at a high watermark.