Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) previewed her return to the House rank-and-file on Thursday, surmising that she will retain “strong influence” when she steps down from her post.
Much of her influence will be deployed to encourage women to run for office and promote civic duty, rather than wielding it over her colleagues on hot-button issues, Pelosi said. She also emphasized that she still has plenty of outstanding business left to wrap up with the speakership.
LONGTIME HOUSE LEADERS RETURN TO DEMOCRATIC RANK-AND-FILE
“As speaker of the House, I have awesome power. As I’m now transitioning to a different role, I expect to have a strong influence, but not on my members. Just in terms of encouraging more women, for example, to run, to talk about civics,” Pelosi explained during a press conference Thursday.
Pelosi still has a load of paperwork to sort out for the Library of Congress, interviews, and other speaker-related items on the docket that she anticipates will take time to finish after stepping down from the post, she said.
“I think that probably the most overwhelming thing I’ll be doing forever is saying ‘thank you,'” Pelosi added.
Her remarks come as the House is poised to take up a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown and do last-minute work in the lame-duck session ahead of the next Congress getting sworn in next month.
Pelosi, 82, decided to step down as the No. 1 Democrat in November, fulfilling a pledge she reportedly made with colleagues in 2018 not to serve more than four years as speaker. She will be succeeded by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as the top House Democrat, while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) scrambles to clinch the speaker’s gavel amid a wave of Republican defections.
She also reflected on words former President John F. Kennedy uttered after his famous “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” line.
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“The very next sentence, ‘to the citizens of the world asked not what America can do for you, but what we can do working together for the freedom of mankind,'” she reflected. “I said to President Biden, you have fulfilled in so many ways when President Kennedy was signaling, working together with all of the countries.”
“My wish is that the members that are the new leadership in the House … will do even better than the significant legislative successes that I have had as speaker of the House,” she added.
