June 13, 2023

Chairman Aguilar: The House Republican Conference is in Shambles

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Vice Chair Ted Lieu held a leadership press conference on House Republicans' inability to govern.

CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: Good morning, good morning. The House Republican Conference is in shambles. They’ve barely gained control of the floor and we head into a week, and they jump headfirst into defending the corrupt leader of their party. 

Let’s be clear about one thing: House Republicans will stick their neck out for Donald Trump; they’ll stick their necks out for George Santos; and they’ll stick their neck out for the oil companies that gouged consumers at the pump. But they won’t stick their necks out for hard-working Americans, and this week is no different.  

As we predicted, here in the prior week, House Republicans are moving forward with the GOP Tax Scam 2.0. This bill will add trillions to the deficit and completely upends the agreement that the Speaker himself negotiated with President Biden. It will do nothing to help the pocketbooks of everyday Americans and will include giveaways for billionaires and oil companies. 
 
After the record air pollution that the East Coast experienced last week, something that those of us on the West Coast know quite a bit about, I would think that reducing our dependence on fossil fuels would be front of mind for Members of Congress—it is for House Democrats. But instead, Extreme Republicans want to further reward the oil companies with tax giveaways at the expense of the middle class. 
 
VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. Democrats put People Over Politics, and we're focused on policies to help the American economy and American families. 

We've got good news today: inflation has now dropped for the 11th straight month to 4 percent, the lowest since March of 2021. Last month, we had another good jobs report, well above expectations. 
And what are Republicans focused on? Chaos. We haven't voted for about a week because the Republicans lost control of the House floor. And what you're going to see today is one change. In their rule, they put in, essentially, a bill for reversing regulations on stabilizing braces for guns that will make guns more lethal. So, we had all of this chaos, the floor is shut down, and what the radical Republicans extracted was a bill for a rule that's going to now make guns more lethal. And they're doing this during National Gun Prevention Month. They're doing this during the week of the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting. That's where your radical Republicans are.

Video of the full press conference and Q&A can be viewed here.