Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning, everyone. Thank you for being here. This week, House Republicans are emphasizing our commitment to supporting and protecting women and girls across the country. Included in our efforts is Congressman Greg Steube's bill that we will vote on today that will prevent biological males from competing in school athletic programs for women and girls by requiring that sex in athletic competition be determined by genetics at birth. The bill also withholds federal funding from schools that facilitate athletic programs where biological men compete against biological women.
(00:28)
To be clear, this is not about disrespecting anyone. Everyone is worthy of dignity and respect, and you've heard that from the top down, especially from our speaker. However, protecting women and girls from feeling uncomfortable in their locker rooms, sustaining major sports injuries because of unfair competition, or losing out on well-deserved athletic accolades because they are genetically unable to beat a male, is not purely a political effort, it's simply what is right, and it is a line that must be drawn. And we know that the Americans are with us on this.
(00:56)
Today's vote is about our daughters, our sisters, our nieces, and our granddaughters. For me, since I'm stuck with just four boys, it's about my nieces, who candidly, could probably beat me in any of these sports, but who are playing tennis in Charleston, who are playing high school golf and soccer. Moving forward, this line has to be drawn and it's important that women and girls have fairness and safety in sports, and it starts with measures like this.
(01:20)
House Republicans are committed to being part of common sense and we thank Congressman Steube for his leadership on this critical issue. And with that, I will hand it over to one of our new members of the House conference, the GOP conference, Congressman Riley Moore of West Virginia.
Riley Moore (01:35):
Thank you. All right. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. And first I'd like to point out I'm very proud to be a co-sponsor of this piece of legislation. And this is a bill, the state that I'm from in West Virginia, that we actually have already passed and it's to great effect, has I think really saved a lot of young ladies from potential injury or potential assault or dangerous situations in locker rooms and such as that we've heard.
(02:06)
Now, I think it's one important thing to mention here is that sex is not something that is determined at birth. It's observed. It's not determined by a school board. It's not determined even by this body. What we seek to do here is reaffirmed something that is an absolute truth and is that men should not be in girls' sports or women's sports. Now, as a father of two daughters, I can tell you very clearly that there is no scenario or situation where I would want to see my daughters competing against biological males.
(02:44)
I also have a son and he's the youngest of everybody, but he's quickly becoming the largest of everybody. There is a difference, there is an inherent difference. And as I said, it's not determined at birth. It's just something that we observe. And there's only one determinant factor really in it at the end of the day, from my perspective, and that's God, who we're all made in his image.
(03:08)
So, in my view, I think that this bill makes a tremendous amount of sense and from a public support perspective, think about it. President Trump ran on this, he ran ads on this, and I think the public has spoken very clearly about where they stand on this. And I was honored to be down in Mar-a-Lago just this weekend and we talked about a litany of issues. He's very well aware of this as part of his winning message. And now we're going to go here and deliver on it in the House of Representatives. Thank you very much. Turn it over to Whip Emmer.
Tom Emmer (03:46):
Thank you, Riley. As a former hockey player and a coach, I've seen firsthand the powerful impact that sports can have, especially on young people. It's not just about the game or the trophies, although those are nice. It's about the lessons you learn along the way, discipline, the value of hard work and working together as a team, and the importance of setting a goal and seeing it through. But now, unfortunately, that space is being undermined. We've watched the radical left take what was once a fair and clear playing field for female athletes and turn it into a political minefield. What should be an opportunity for young women to thrive and compete has been clouded by an agenda that prioritized so-called inclusion over fairness.
(04:40)
Rather than standing firm for what's right and ensuring young women have the opportunity to succeed on their own merit, Democrats have caved to an ideology that simply denies common sense. What has been the result? Repeated cases of female athletes being exploited in their locker rooms, robbed of scholarship opportunities or injured playing the sport they love, all because Democrats would rather cave to the radical activists in their party than stand up for the women they claim to champion.
(05:11)
Last Congress, 203 House Democrats voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. And while the bill passed the House, it ultimately died on Chuck Schumer's desk where it's been collecting dust ever since. But on November 5th, voters elected a Republican House, Republican Senate and a Republican President, and in doing so they delivered a mandate loud and clear. The time for the left's lunacy is over. The time for common sense is now.
(05:43)
Our Republican majority doesn't take that mandate lightly, which is why in the first 100 days of the Republican trifecta, we are working to deliver on our promise to keep biological men out of women's sports. I'm grateful for Congressman Steube's leadership on this issue and I look forward to seeing the bill pass the House and ultimately the Senate and be signed into law by President Trump. The only real question is which side of history do Democrats want to be on? And with that I turn it over to our majority leader, Steve Scalise.
Steve Scalise (06:18):
Thank you, Whip. Once again, we have an agenda that's bringing bills to the floor to follow through on things we talked about during the campaign. These aren't just bills we're seeing for the first time. Some of them are bills we brought up last Congress, but as the whip pointed out, as we would pass a lot of these bills, the Senate under Chuck Schumer refused to take any of them up, refused common sense policies because they just wanted to continue bowing to the radical left. You saw it with the Laken Riley Act.
(06:49)
And I remember back last Congress when we had the Laken Riley Act, there were some, even some in this room that would question, "Well, why are you bringing a bill like that if you know the Senate's not going to bring it up? Isn't that just a messaging bill?" And we said, "No, it's smart policy. It's the right policy and we're going to stand up for what's right, whether the Senate will do the right thing or not."
(07:10)
And so, ultimately, if you look at what happened with the Laken Riley Act, Mike Collins's bill not only passed again this time with more Democrat support, so very bipartisan out of the House, as it was last Congress, but now we have a willing Senate which Senator Thune is the majority leader willing to bring the bill up, and that bill will likely be the very first bill that President Donald Trump gets to sign when he becomes the 47th president of the United States.
(07:40)
So, just like with some of the other bills, we're going to continue to stand up for what's right. This week you're seeing a few of those. One of the most common sense bills that we've had is the bill that says men cannot play in women's sports. I traveled all across the country during the election cycle and this came up everywhere you went. People don't understand why it's even an issue that Congress won't resolve, and when you tell them, "Well, we passed a bill out of the House, but the Senate wouldn't even take it up." Believe me, it was a factor in a lot of those races.
(08:12)
And so, when you talk to most people in America, common sense tells you that men shouldn't be playing in women's sports just because some on the far left want to continue to jam their ideology and whatever other kind of achieve the things they want to achieve, and upset what Title IX is all about, upset women's sports and take away opportunities for so many young women across America. It's just not right. And so, we're going to stand up for what's right, again, we're going to bring that bill to the floor. Just as we're going to bring Nancy Mace's bill that says if somebody is here illegally and they're also committing assault and violence against women, that that's a deportable offense. Again, similar bill that we brought last time, passed out of the House. Chuck Schumer refused to bring it up in the Senate. I think we're going to see a different approach from this new Senate.
(09:03)
When people say elections have consequences, the consequences are already being seen and felt in the terms of actual good policy, not only making it through the House but actually coming up on the Senate floor for real votes now. And when you see President Trump get sworn in next week, it's going to be an exciting day, but it's going to be an exciting time for the country because it marks a new beginning for America.
(09:29)
Now, we've been preparing for this moment for a long time. One of the biggest preparations is budget reconciliation. A bill we've been working with President Trump on for months now and working with our committee chairs on, but now it's about to get real. We're talking about bringing a budget by February in Congress, in the House, and then ultimately setting up the opportunity to create a budget reconciliation bill that's going to be focused on getting our country back on track, on securing America's border, on producing more American energy, on lowering costs for families who are struggling, on addressing these radical rules and regulations that add more costs to the inflation that's already driving people to the point where they can't even afford to put food on the table.
(10:15)
We're going to be addressing those problems that we talked about during the campaign and we're going to be bringing one big, beautiful bill as the speaker talks about and the president does, to address those problems and move that bill quickly. So again, our quarterback leading that effort is our speaker, Mike Johnson.
Mike Johnson (10:36):
Thank you, Leader Scalise, and all the leaders here. And Riley, welcome to the leadership press conference. Good to see you all.
(10:42)
We're excited. When we meet next week it's going to be a great day in America. We are less than a week away now of President Donald J. Trump taking the oath of office and everyone is excited about that inauguration ceremony and all the events that go along with it. There's a lot going on and we are continuing the work already, as you've heard, Congress has gotten a head start on implementing the America first agenda.
(11:05)
The president is going to come in with a flurry of executive orders, as you've heard he and his team discuss over the last couple of days, and we are going to be working alongside the administration and in tandem to roll back the catastrophic policies of the Biden administration. And all that begins now. We are returning common sense. We are restoring common sense. That's the benefit of having Republican government, unified Republican government in Washington again, and you're seeing the effects of it now.
(11:30)
We are going to usher in, as the president says, a new golden age in America, and we are excited to do that work. So, there's real anticipation right now. Lots of energy, lots of discussion amongst our House Republican colleagues and our Republican colleagues in the Senate as well. This is a bicameral approach and we're working together in tandem on all of that.
(11:50)
This week, you've heard a little bit, I won't reiterate all of this, but just showing again legislation that is related to common sense, that follows what the American people believe in and see is reasonable and makes sense. It was noted that last year, 158 Democrats voted not to punish illegal aliens convicted of stalking and child abuse and domestic violence, but we are standing up for women. And at the last Congress, it was noted, 203 Democrats voted to let biological males play in female-only sports. We'll remedy both of those problems this week with our legislation. Nancy Mace's Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act will deport those who fit that description, are involved in these horrific crimes. And Greg Steube's Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 will ensure that female-only sports remain female-only.
(12:41)
Everyone's talking about their children today. I've got two sons and two daughters, and we see the difference, of course, everyone does, and it's kind of silly to deny it. The American people sent a clear message in November. They want us to return to common sense and we're going to see if Democrats have heard that message. We certainly have and we're happy to lead on it.
(13:02)
With regard to taxes, wanted to encourage you to read a new report from the National Association of Manufacturers. It was just published this morning. And this report shows that if we let the Trump tax cuts expire, we're at risk of losing as many as 6 million total jobs and $540 billion in employee compensation. We cannot fail to extend the Trump tax cuts, and our manufacturing sector is just one that will be especially hard hit. We'll be seeing more studies like this come out, where people are urging that we get this job done, and we will.
(13:41)
Republicans are united in our belief that we have to make things right here in America with regard to manufacturing and we're going to set the conditions to do that. If we don't extend the Trump tax cuts, then American workers will be left without jobs and our middle class will be hollowed out even more than it has been over the last four years. We cannot allow that to happen. We will not allow that to happen. So, the reconciliation process that the leader spoke of is moving at a very aggressive pace. We set out a calendar for all the House Republicans today with very specific target dates on all of this.
(14:11)
The idea is to have the budget, the underlying piece of the whole reconciliation process done by late February. We would have the reconciliation bill voted on the House floor before Easter, and then we would have the entire thing done and to the president's desk for signature by Memorial Day. So, a very aggressive timetable for a lot of important things that we'll be putting into that legislation, as you know, and those discussions are ongoing.
(14:38)
I would anticipate lots of specific and detailed questions about what's going to be on that. Let me just give you the answer right now. I'm not going to tell you, okay? This is internal politics and discussion and things that we are doing in reconciliation as the majority party. And we have to allow room for that to breathe and to be decided organically, and I won't be coming out to the press and talking about details until they're finalized. So, I've encouraged our colleagues to do the same, so that we can have that deliberate discussion. Lots of important things we want to put in there and we will.
(15:08)
Last little word about the Southern California wildfires, I would anticipate a question on that. We're watching with heartache, the people in the Los Angeles area and Southern California who are just devastated by this disaster. The leader and I come from a disaster-prone state, Louisiana. We deal with hurricanes and floods and tornadoes all the time and wildfires as well. We all know that. We all feel that. We're all Americans. And the Americans there that are affected, desperately need and deserve help.
(15:37)
But you've also heard us talk about our concerns with the governance of the state of California, state and local, and to the extent that there is complicity involved and the scope of the disaster, then we think that's something that needs to be carefully regarded. You've heard the word conditions on aid. We're not projecting in advance what this will be. First of all, you have to understand the fires are still raging and no one knows what the ultimate cost will be. It takes some time to make estimates and all of that, and that deliberative process will go forward. And the way it works, as you know, is the administration will submit a request, a disaster supplemental request to Congress that goes through the Office of Management and Budget. This is a long, deliberative process that we've gone through many times. So, it's premature right now for anybody to say what that number will be or what the scope of that supplemental legislation would entail.
(16:29)
I'm told, and I heard this morning as well, I spoke to President Trump about 90 minutes ago. I think he's planning to go make a trip himself to Southern California to see the disaster himself and we will follow the administration's lead on this, but I will say that we have to make sure there are safeguards on the precious treasure of the American people. There are natural disasters, of course, but if they are made much worse by human error and deliberative policy choices that were unwise and were stated as such at the time, then I think that that's something that needs to be carefully regarded. With that, I'll take a few questions. I know we're running over time this morning. Chad?
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Good morning. I know you talked about it's going to take months to figure this out here, but how does the disaster in California and the approximate, unknown, staggering price tag that's ultimately going to come in on this, make it harder to get budget reconciliation through? Because you're going to have to do a supplemental. Just did 100 billion for the Carolinas and Florida last fall. And the idea that there's going to be tornadoes, there's going to be earthquakes, there's going to be hurricanes, as you well know. Doesn't that complicate this inherently? And then, there's going to be some other natural disaster in the next three or four months and somebody's going to say, "We need money for that." Doesn't that complicate this process of cutting spend?
Mike Johnson (17:48):
Well, it probably does. Let me make clear and echo, frankly, what the FEMA Administrator Criswell said in media reports over the last few days. FEMA is well-funded right now. We just did that, you noted, in December we filled up the Disaster Relief Fund again and the Small Business Disaster Loan Program. So, they have sufficient resources to address the immediate needs there. We'll have to calculate what the rest of it is.
(18:12)
You ask a good question, Chad, and that is, how can we be good fiscal stewards of the public's treasure and fulfill the responsibilities of the federal government that are appropriate? It's a delicate balance. I mean, there's a lot of my colleagues, and I feel the same, that we should be paying for disaster relief. That's an ongoing dialogue around here as well. It'll be part of the reconciliation discussion and debate. A very thoughtful debate that's had.
(18:39)
No one wants to leave any American who is in need hanging, so to speak. Right? But at the same time, we recognize we have a $36 trillion federal debt and we have to balance these needs. It's about priorities. And the federal government can and should do a better job about putting money away for a rainy day, so to speak. I mean, we're working on deficits now. We've got to turn that around. And so, you'll hear a lot of thoughtful discussion and deliberate backroom debate about how we can change that trajectory. We have a responsibility to do it. So, it doesn't mean we're going to leave any Americans without the appropriate need and appropriate supplemental disaster aid and all that from the federal government, but it's got to be done very carefully. So, I don't have all the answers this morning, Chad, but this is part of the discussion and it will be a big piece of it. So, you're right to note it.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
Last question.
Mike Johnson (19:29):
Second row, right here. Yes, sir?
Speaker 8 (19:30):
Thank you, sir. Attaching the disaster relief and the debt limit was seen as a path to bipartisanship but Democrats say that's unacceptable. So, if that's not a path to a bipartisan vote on the debt limit, then what do you think would be is the next step?
Mike Johnson (19:45):
Stay tuned on that. I mean, this is one of the things we're working on. I'm not sure there's consensus on the Republican side on that either. It's one of the ideas that are out there. We don't want to play games in any way. This is not politics. We need sound public policy and we need states to follow common sense. They've not done that in many respects in California, and I won't litigate all that here this morning, but there'll be lots said about that in the days ahead.
(20:09)
I saw the LA Times retracted its endorsement of the mayor of Los Angeles, and they noted in their paper that, "Gee whiz competency actually is really important when you're electing local officials. Welcome to reality. I think this is a conversation that a lot of Americans are going to be having, and I think they're going to demand of Congress, real safeguards, real accountability when we send out disaster relief. So, we'll see where all that lands. I'm just telling you that we're going to look at this very honestly, and it's not political. We have to do the right thing for the people at a time when our fiscal house needs to be made back in order. We'll get back to y'all soon. Thank you.