Yeah, son.

It's a good likeness.

Fifties.

Look, look.

Time to show.

It's your time.

Good day and welcome to the Washington Report.

I'm Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, and I'm blessed to serve as the Virgin Islands delegate to the US House of Representative.

The Washington report was created to inform Virgin Islanders on current federal issues that directly affect our community.

I'm tremendously honored to have as my guest today Speaker Moretti.

Nancy Pelosi.

For more than 30 years, Speaker Pelosi has represented the area of San Francisco in the US House of Representatives.

She served as the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives and made history.

In 2007, when she was elected the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House.

She was elected again as Speaker in 2019, the first person to do so in more than six decades.

Speaker Pelosi led the way in the creation of generation defining legislation under two Democratic administrations, including the Affordable Care Act and the American Rescue Plan.

Among many other distinctions and accomplishments, she has been a longtime friend of the Virgin Islands and has provided invaluable support for measures that directly affect the Virgin Islands and the territories.

Countless times.

Welcome to the Washington Report, Speaker Pelosi.

My honor to be here with you and congratulations to the people of the Virgin Islands for having such a wonderful representative in Congress.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm really grateful that you've taken out some time to spend with us.

Virgin Islanders watch this on our public television station and I know that your schedule is incredibly busy.

So we are grateful that you you know, many people oftentimes forget about us and the Virgin Islands, but you again and again, make sure that the territories are included, that we're treated equitably, that we have the resources that we need.

And you recognize us as American citizens.

So thank you for that honor and for sharing some time with us.

So as I mentioned, you have provided tremendous support to the people of the Virgin Islands.

And back in 2017, after Hurricane Irma and Maria, you came down to both Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with a team of people to see the impact of the storms and what and to make an assessment for yourself what needed to be done.

What can you tell us about your thought process in going down?

And I know you've been through many recovery processes and been to many hurricanes.

What were your thoughts?

Well, thank you for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you on the subject.

First of all, let me just say that our office has had a connection to the territories for a long time.

My predecessor, Philip Burton, as the chair of the Subcommittee on Interior as well, Natural Resources Committee, and then again was the author of legislation respecting and valuing that the contribution that the territories make to our country, both in terms of diversity, in terms of just being American.

Many people on the island I've been to the Virgin Islands, not at the time of disaster, but just to visit.

I've met many of the veterans who have served our country.

And so it's it's not just about territorial issues which are significant and different, and that you have spelled out very clearly to us, but also our veterans and so many other needs as American citizens that people have there.

And hopefully to be citizens who are there.

Right.

So when I was there, it was interesting.

Again, I was there on my honeymoon, so I know how beautiful it is going back many years, but also other on other occasions when we could just hear what people had to say.

In the normal course of events in the time of a natural disaster, of course the needs are so great.

So the high cost of energy which are there anyway are exacerbated because of that.

When I was there on the visit you mentioned, remember we went up into the countryside and saw trees blocking.

Yes, highways and roads and cutting off food supply and the rest.

Yeah.

So your leadership in terms of represent the needs of the people of the Virgin Islands was very, very important to us.

And as I said, they're blessed to have you as a delegate because of the respect that you command in the Congress, whether it was now as a member of the Ways and Means Committee or not.

I don't know that any territorial representative ever have never been to be never been before.

But your predecessor, Donna Christensen, she was on energy and commerce.

Yes.

And when I did that, they said, well, you can't do that.

I said, No, I can.

And then that paved the way for you to be in that so that there was no obstacle to your participation on committees of jurisdiction of consequence while you don't have a vote on the floor.

We hope to change that in committee.

You make a tremendous, tremendous difference.

And that's why recognizing the respect that you command, I was honored to appoint you as a manager in the impeachment, and you just you know, you had an amazing team under your leadership and and and that was recognized in the country.

So thank you to the people of Virgin Islands for blessing us with your service.

There's a thing about when a natural disaster strikes, we have these laws, the Stafford Act and the rest of that that says, yes, we will bring in funds, but we want to see matching funds from the community.

Where the community doesn't is not in a position to do that right.

So one of the things that we wanted to do is make a change to how FEMA would come through with the money that that we have said is for natural disasters without requiring that the fullest participation in that is impossible.

I'm not just talking about the Virgin.

I'm talking about gavels and I'm talking about IO.

When the floods are all around the country.

It just doesn't make sense to me.

And it certainly didn't make sense in terms of, again, the high cost of energy, the high cost of things when you're an island.

Right, And you're an island.

Well, I remember very pointedly your conversations with the National Park Service about opening a second road right on Saint John so that people could have not be cut off on one end of the island to the other, really recognizing that federal nexus and how important that was and your, you know, very pointed questions to our water and power authority about energy, really pressing them about what they were doing and what they would do with the money to ensure that Virgin Islanders are getting good energy.

And, you know, during the time after the storm and we were writing legislation, you were really instrumental in changing the language of the law, the Stafford Act, because prior to that you allowed us to have prudent replacement instead of the standard 50% rule, approve of replacement of badly damaged facilities.

And that provision has allowed us to continue to build not as things were at the time of the storm, but how things should be.

And it's really been a great boon to us to try and reimagine how the Virgin Islands is supposed to be.

And, you know, now our problem is we have so much construction going on and trying to create a workforce to meet that construction and I know that that was really your leadership really driving that, you know, from the position even as a might, the minority leader at the time and so you really made sure that your power and your authority and your leadership was exerted.

You know, I saw the documentary that your daughter did about you, and I was really struck about your strategic thinking and how you negotiate and how dogged you are in the negotiation.

And you said something in the documentary about who ever gets tired first, kind of loses in the negotiations.

Where did you learn that?

And has that something you've picked up all along, or was there one or another mentor that really provided that kind of guidance for you with that of nice immersion that that I, I didn't know what was going to be in the documents, so I watched it sitting on the edge of my seat.

What I said is you cannot tire, you cannot turn.

Now that's fundamental.

But I learned a lot of that from our friends in the labor movement because they're engaged in that in legit negotiations all the time.

And I have been engaged with them in my own district in San Francisco in all kinds of negotiations.

And you cannot tire.

You know, sometimes when you're in a negotiation, you'll say, well, let's just settle this.

Yeah, yeah.

You you have to take it to the the strongest possible place.

You have to negotiate.

Yes.

You have to respect compromise in the rest, but you cannot fold too soon.

But mostly I in my negotiator working with our friends in labor, that was what I got from them.

No.

Say, when you.

When you go into a negotiation, do you know at the beginning what your bottom line is going to be?

Or has it ever moved?

Well, the let me just say, in any success that we have had in the Congress on legislation, whether it's the Affordable Care Act, the rescue package, the R.A, you know, the Inflation Reduction Act or infrastructure legislation, whatever it is I give credit to our members the courage they have to vote for these things.

And by and large, most of this has been mostly just Democratic votes.

Certainly the football care Act was the rescue package.

We had 13 votes on the infrastructure bill and we were glad of Republican votes.

We're glad for that.

But without the courage of the Democrats, because the people are voting against the bill, we're mischaracterizing it in our members is easy for me from my district, but not for them.

So let me pay to the to the House Democrats for their courage in all of this.

And our position springs from our caucus.

We have people say to me, All you've you've unified them.

No, I don't.

Our values unify them and our prevailing value is America's working families.

That's what we're here for.

That's what the Democratic Party opportunity for America's working families.

So so our position springs from the consensus in our caucus, which is values based and unifying.

And I say to them, our unity is our strength.

No, our our diversity is our strength.

Our unity is our power.

And we can go as far as that unity will enable us to go, that's that's really very great.

You know, you talked about Sam Burton.

I mean, Philpot from San Francisco, your predecessor, who, as you rightly said, did a really great deal for the territories in the Insular Areas Act, which provided us relief and support in many areas, recognizing the differences that we have.

And certainly you have continued that.

He was, of course, on the National Resources Committee and so was directly front and center with that.

And you have purview over the entire country and in many instances negotiating around the world whether you're going to Taiwan or you are at the G6 or other places where you have done that.

How do you also how do you have such a wide authority and people around the world that are need your support and still able to focus on small places like the US Virgin Islands?

How do you how do you juggle that?

Well, it's about our purpose.

You know, I always say to people, if you want to be involved in all of this, know why.

why you want to be here.

It's about our values and our security of our country is first and foremost what we take an oath to protect and defend.

So the global role is very important.

Now, I'm the first leader in decades, so nobody even can go back far enough to find anybody who came to the leadership with a security credential.

30 years in all together and intelligence.

20 years by the time I became speaker and the rest.

So a long time with that.

And that's really important to our our role in the world in terms of our values, but also the security of our people.

So that's an important part of it.

But a major responsibility, of course, is the well-being of the American people.

So it's again, we have blessed with members who have interests globally or interests locally.

Everybody is local because that's who we represent.

But some spend more time globally and it's important.

It's important in terms of security, it's interest in terms of our economy, and it's important in terms of our values, in terms of a world at peace so that our children can thrive.

As we see right now with Ukraine, democracy is on that at stake.

The Ukrainians are fighting very hard for their democracy, but for ours as well.

We cannot let autocracy prevail in that fight.

That's important to us.

You know, throughout the Caribbean, China is gaining a larger foothold.

with providing funding.

I believe that usury rates of loans to Caribbean countries or creating infrastructure.

I don't think necessarily the strongest infrastructure or even with local workers.

How do we as Americans get more engaged in that region and how do we thwart what I think is, you know, it serves an immediate need, but the long term detriment of being so tied to China?

Well, this is our hemisphere.

And it's and we should be, again, in friendship, Not when I was a student, I was at the inauguration of John F Kennedy.

You probably weren't born yet, but I was at the.

And in his speech, everybody in the world knows he said the citizens of America ask not what America can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Yes, students learn that yes, in school its history to them was my youth.

The very next sentence in the speech which just took me.

And it continues to, he said to the citizens of the world, ask not what America can do for you, but what we can do working together for the freedom of mankind.

And he was a leader in our hemispheric initiatives in the rest at that time.

We have to we have to recognize that it's not with any condescension.

This is how I think you should do it.

It's about listening to people working together for the freedom of mankind.

Now, the Chinese don't do this for a because they're altruistic or unselfish.

They do it because they want the votes of these countries.

And at the UN, at the UN global bodies to vote with them to the detriment of human rights, the environment and other priorities for us.

So the I've been watching this for decades, even long before I was even in leadership, when just as when I was on Appropriations and the top Democrat on our funding for global cooperation and I could see what they were doing.

They were buying up ports.

Yes.

Cat Panama Canal.

They have more ownership than they should.

Down to Montevideo, you know, into Uruguay.

Any a substantial waterway they were setting down all over the world, but in our hemisphere.

So it's really important that we again, don't assume that people understand that we're all in this hemisphere.

We're all Americans.

North and South Central America, Americas, but that we have to to demonstrate that more clearly.

And again, as you indicated, the Chinese come in with usurious rates.

Interest rates bring in many times Chinese workers.

So it doesn't even create jobs in the area.

And then use these countries to their advantage.

I think that American people have to understand that we have a global role in peace and in saving the planet and so many other other challenges that we have.

And we just can't complain about the Chinese.

We have to listen to the countries as to what is in their interest and ours as well.

That's excellent.

Just switching gears a little bit and talking about something that you worked on when you were the speaker, was the Inflation Reduction Act.

Yeah, right.

And as we know, IRA Inflation Reduction Act makes historic investments in reducing energy costs.

And I know in San Francisco you have high energy costs larger than many other the rate is higher than other places.

The Virgin Islands, of course, has an extremely high rate, along with also having right now a closed oil refinery and so we are looking at how do we lowered the cost of energy so that businesses can are incentivized to come to us.

So that people are not spending most of their income on energy and can use it in other ways.

You talk about working families, how do you how did you foresee or what is your vision for how we as Americans can utilize the Inflation Reduction Act?

Well, the Inflation Reduction Act to me is really a giant step forward.

I would have hoped that it would have had it.

While it does reduce the cost of prescription drugs, I would hope that it had more care economy initiatives in it.

But that's our unfinished business as we go forward with our child care, child tax credit, things that we originally had in that legislation.

But for what it is, inflation reduction, it does reduce inflation, it does reduce the national debt.

It has funds to do that.

But more importantly, it has investments using tax credits in terms of public private partnerships and the rest to reduce emissions, which are a health issue for our children.

But also a give other, shall we say, reduce the dependance on fossil fuels.

So has other options.

So you're not at the mercy of what somebody might charge.

You're entrepreneurial and creating your own environment as to what is there, the cost of energy impacts small business, big business to families and communities, the communities, the communities.

And it is something that I feel very hopeful that this legislation will go a long way in reducing I mean, even Hawaii, not a territory, but an island high cost, high costs, a high cost of of energy as well.

And it's not just the cost of financially, it's the cost to more kids having asthma and the rest, if we're dependent on a strictly on fossil fuels and not moving to a lower, lower cost and these alternatives, these renewables, they you can get to a place where homes are selling back energy that they're not using to the system, to the system, because they have to utilize the opportunity that is there.

And it's a it's got to be it's a big change.

It will happen.

We just want to shorten the distance between what we think is inevitable and other people think is inconceivable, shorten the distance between the two so that decisions can be made on the merits and are not held hostage to the cost of energy.

As the leader of the Democrats for a long period of time.

Now you've negotiated not just with other members on the other side of the aisle, but sometimes also with present against presidents or even your own presidents, right?

When you have disagreements, how do you how do you what lessons can you give us about negotiating with presidents or individuals that seem to have the majority of the power when you walk into the room or even someone who's of your same party that you want to be on the same page with but you don't always agree with.

Well, we have to respect people's views.

We all represent different areas.

We have different priorities.

And how we present our case depend will justify how we prevail in a debate.

So we have to again be respectful, but also have our what is our vision in this negotiation?

What is it that we hope to achieve?

What do we know about the subject matter?

What do we have in terms of strategic thinking about how we get it done so that we go to the table ready and prepared?

And that's really important.

The for example, right now we are dealing with the debt ceiling and lifting the debt.

And in the 20 years that I was leader or speaker, I had 19 encounters of the Debt ceiling, 1919 three of them during the previous president, most recent previous president, who shall remain nameless.

But they're there three times and it wasn't too bad.

It was this is the right thing to do for our country, right?

We have to lift the debt ceiling.

What are we talking about here?

You don't want our president because he's a Democrat, to have a victory.

When President Obama was president, we we had to deal with a and sometimes during that time, a Republican majority that did not want to lift the debt ceiling and even the discussion of it lowered our credit rating.

Just the thought that they might not do it, might not know.

Eventually we achieve what we want it to achieve.

But it is again, I always talk about President Lincoln, he said.

Public sentiment is everything.

With it.

You can accomplish anything, almost anything.

Without it, practically nothing.

And so the public has to weigh in on this.

And for the public sentiment to prevail, people have to know.

So you're not just at their table, you're conveying to the American people what is at stake for them.

You're at that negotiating table.

They're at their kitchen table.

What does this mean at their kitchen table in terms of their cost of living in terms of decisions that they have to make about their future?

And some of them are economic.

I say all of them are economic, but some of them are about personal freedoms, like a woman's right to choose, which is an economic issue at that kitchen table.

And it's a freedom issue.

So when people see what is at stake and what it means not at the negotiating table, but at the kitchen table, then we have a because we would like to think that we all have shared values, But that isn't always the case when it comes to the other side these days.

Well, when you're talking about negotiating with your colleagues, speaking on their behalf, speaking with presidents, I want to ask you just personally, you know, you have had to juggle not just this job, but a really successful marriage and children and grandchild grin all at the same time.

How do you negotiate that?

I always say to the members, keep the home fires burning.

That is your strength.

That is that means everything.

At the end of the day, the politics may come to an end, but your responsibility to your family are so ongoing.

Right.

I myself now very grateful to the kind remarks we received about the assault that was made on my husband's life.

Coming very close.

But he loves you.

You know that so much.

You know, we have we love each other and we, of course, have our Georgia connection.

I think that's how you started this friendship.

Georgetown, the joy, a connection.

But it is a really important and recent event in New York with Hakeem Jeffries, our new leader.

I somebody said to me, what are you are you instructing him in any way about how to juggle all of this?

And I said to him yesterday, the answer to that question is I'm not teaching him anything, but my kids are.

They're of his generation and they had things they want him to know about family and the rest and all of this.

They will ask me, what does the marital mean?

I said, It means happiness.

We have great leadership.

I'm so proud of.

I came and Catherine and and Pete Aguilar and Ted Boone, I knew leadership and I just want them to serve in the majority.

So that's part of my focus now, is to make sure that they do pretty soon.

Well, I love seeing you on the floor in your California area and, you know, different leaders going to you and coming to you for advice.

And you're always there to support all of us.

And I know that the people of the Virgin Islands have been grateful for you in the positions that you have in the continued position and the voice that you have in our country.

And I want to thank you for being that leader, but also thank Paul and thank all of your children, your grandchildren, for allowing us for sharing you with us.

So that you can make the impact that you have made, not just on your generation and mine, but, as you always say, for the children.

And you've done that for all of us going forward.

So I'm really grateful.

And thank you for spending some time with us here, and I look forward to your continued service.

Here's my appreciate your saying that, but I accept every compliment on behalf of the House Democrats whose courage made it so much possible over time and yours as well.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

So that wraps us up for this edition of The Washington Report.

Thank you for joining us.

Speaker Pelosi was an honor to have you.

And thank you for taking the time today.

To all my Virgin Islanders.

If you have anything that you'd like to present to us, you can send it to.

Asked Stacie at mail dot house, dot gov.

And please remember, stay very strong and have a great day.

Much love.

Love you.