WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier today, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) delivered a rousing speech nominating Nancy Pelosi as the next Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The video of Jeffries’ speech can be seen below, as well as his full remarks as prepared for delivery.

WATCH

Chairman Jeffries Remarks As Prepared for Delivery:

Thank you Madame Clerk.

Let me begin by welcoming all of the members and our families to the People’s House as we commence the 116th Congress. 

The scripture says that weeping may endure during the long night, but joy will come in the morning.  Madame Clerk, it is with great joy that I rise today as directed by the House Democratic Caucus to place the name of Nancy Pelosi in nomination to be the next speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Without question, Nancy Pelosi has a track record of legislative success that is unparalleled in modern American history. Nancy Pelosi captained the ship that defeated the effort to privatize social security, rescued our economy in the midst of the Great Recession, saved the American Automobile industry, provided affordable healthcare to more than 20 million Americans, created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, enacted a minimum wage increase for the first time in ten years, struck a blow against mass incarceration with passage of the Fair Sentencing Act and provided relief to tens of millions of Americans who were credit card holders that were being defrauded.

But Nancy Pelosi is just getting started. In the 116th Congress, she will continue to fight hard For The People.

Nancy Pelosi will fight to lower healthcare costs, strengthen the affordable care act, protect people with pre-existing conditions, increase pay for everyday Americans, enact a real infrastructure plan, clean up corruption, defend the dreamers, fix the voting rights act and end the era of voter suppression once and for all. 

Nancy Pelosi will fight for a country that provides for the poor, works for working families, makes sense for the middle class, stands up for Senior Citizens, innovates in the inner-city, strengthens suburban communities.

Nancy Pelosi is a woman of faith, a loving wife, a mother of five, a grandmother of nine, a sophisticated strategist, a legendary legislator, a voice for the voiceless, a defender of the disenfranchised, a powerful, profound, prophetic, principled public servant. And that’s why we stand squarely behind her today.  Let me be clear — House Democrats are down with NDP — Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, the once and future speaker of the United States House of Representatives. 

I proudly place her name in nomination. May God bless her and may God bless the United States of America.