for anybody who doesn't know my well-established record on this issue let me be unequivocally clear. a man is a man. and a woman is a woman. and a man cannot become a woman. that said, i also believe -- i also believe that we treat everybody with dignity. we can do and believe all those things at the same time. i want to make that clear for everybody because there's lots of questions. that's where i stand. i've stood there my whole life. that's the facts. >> and more from the house speaker now. he, along with other house republican leaders held a news conference two weeks of the party retained the majority after the november, 2024,

elections. this is about 15 minutes. >> thank you everybody for being here, we look forward to being here for another productive week. house republicans are continuing our preparations for the 119th congress so we can hit the ground running and leverage our unified republican leadership in the white house, house and senate to deliver for the american people in meaningful

ways. we're also staying busy in this lame duck period advancing important legislation including two critical bills aisle briefly highlight here my friend and colleague on the ways and means committee, claudia tenney of new york, she's pushing the stop the tear financing tissue stop the terror financing bill. this is a commonsense piece of legislation to prevent the i.r.s. from charging late fees and penalties on american citizens who are wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad. a commonsense piece of legislation. this bill also revokes the tax exempt status of american nonprofits that provide financial support to terror groups like hamas. it addresses critical gap hours for tax laws to hold terrorist groups accountable and provide relief for hostages who are just trying to get home and reunite with families. the second bill we're bringing to the floor, congressman russ fulcher's clean act which will require the department of interior to increase the frequency of geothermal lease

sales from every two years to every year. hold replacement sales if necessary. and create decision deadlines for better transparency and communication. we know that diverse and reliable energy sources are critical to our national security and american energy dominance and geothermal energy provides clean, baseload power that utilizes the resources that we have here in the united states. again two commonsense pieces of legislation that i'm sure you all are chomping at the bit to talk about extensively today in this press conference. looking forward to supporting both of these measures and i'll turn the time over to our whip, mr. tom emmert. mr. emmer: thank you blake. 18 minutes. just how long laken riley fought for her life until she was ultimately murdered bowz of -- because of joe biden, kamala harris, and the democrat's open border agenda. police found laken with her skull bashed in by a rock and her body exposed. yesterday, we learned that democrats failed policies

resulted in laken's alleged killer receiving a taxpayer funded flight from new york city to georgia. this is a slap in the face to the entire riley family. a slap in the face to everybody law-abiding tax-paying american citizen. and it confirms what we've known all along. laken riley's murder was entirely preventable and the biden-harris administration is responsible. unfortunately, her story is not an isolate one. there's 12-year-old jocelyn nungar. 37-year-old rachel moran. and these are just the cases we know about. all of these young women were brutally murdered because the white house prioritized illegal immigrants over their safety. thankfully on november 5, voters said enough is enough. they elected republican president, a republican house and a republican senate with a mandate to get this crisis under control and end the democrats' open borders insanity once and

for all. that's exactly what we're going to do. with president trump leading the way our republican trifecta is ready to hit the ground running on day one to secure our borders and ensure criminal illegal aliens are removed from our communities. january 20 cannot come fast enough. now our majority leader, steve scalise. mr. scalise: i thank the whip. laid out the bills we have -- we are bringing to the floor again this week. last yesterday we passed an important bill for our nation's veterans by juan ciscomani named after elizabeth dole. it was good to get that passed out of the house and over to the senate. going to talk about the planning we're doing for january. we got an overwhelming mandate from the votes of the country to number one, reject the far left policy we was seen from the biden-harris administration the last four years. but especially to put the

country on a different path. and we laid out during the campaign what that path would be. but we're now planning for the policies that we would put in place as a republican majority, with a republican senator and the white house under president trump to get our country back on track. to focus on lowering costs for family at the grocery store, at the gas pump. their energy bills. to secure america's border. so once again, i assembled all the committee chairs last week to go through what we'll be doing in budget reconciliation starting in january. it'll be a busy process next year. we laid out an aggressive 100-day agenda, addressing things to get our country moving again. that would focus on lowering costs and getting our economy moving. making sure there is no tax hike next year, you know. if congress takes no action, the tax cuts and jobs act under president trump, many of those provisions from 2017 would

expire. leading to a large tax hike on families. we are going to work to prevent that from happening. so ultimately if you look at what we're focused on right now is being ready, day one, starting in january, when we get not only that mandate but that opportunity to get this country back on track with unified government in washington to start addressing the problems that were created by president biden and vice president harris. we are ready for that moment, we're already making plans, working with president trump, to get our country moving again quickly. so that families can finally get relief, the relief that they not only deserve but the relief that they voted for just a few weeks ago. so leading that charge while he's not hanging out with kid rock at u.f.c. fights and jelly roll is our speaker of the house, mike johnson. mr. johnson: thanks a lot. good morning to everybody. glad to see such a full crowd.

every seat taken, almost standing room only in here. it is almost like a u.f.c. fight at madison square garden, almost as fun. all seriousness, we had a great weekend at mar-a-lago with president-elect trump. talking about the legislative plan, talking about the agenda going forward. i met with president trump and #-- with president-elect trump and vice president-elect j.d. vance and their senior policy leaders. and there's no daylight between their agenda and what they envision and what we envision for the house. in order to accomplish all of that, the president needs an aggressive cabinet and he has put forward some extraordinary nominees. i met with many of the individually since those announcements were meat. we're excited about the days ahead. house republicans are committed to working with president trump and his nominees and the administration as we prepare for what will be a breakneck 119th congress. the agenda will be fast-paced.

the first 100 days will be very full. as we have a lot to fix. as i said many time, i believe president trump could be the most consequential president of the modern era because we have to fix everything and by extension congress can be as well. the incoming administration will be filled with great men and women and i trust, we trust, and hope, that senate moneys and the whole senate will perform their constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on president trump's nominees and to do that in a speedy, expeditious manner. as i said, we've been working with the senate as well on this big plan we have to hit the ground running in january. we laid out this morning for the house republicans what leader scalise was referring to and that is kind of the overarching point, the overarching pieces of the reconciliation package and in quick summary we want to grow our economy and defeat inflation. we want to restore the border. want to restore america's energy dominance. provide educational freedom.

and dismantle the deep state. lots of details in each of those categories but we're working all that 0u9 together in a bicameral fashion with senate republicans and house republicans working together, coordinating with the new trump administration. in the meantime we have some items we have to go through for the remainder of this year. we have a disaster relief package that's been presented by the biden administration. a request. and even before i want to point out, even before hurricanes milton and helene hit shore, house republicans ensured appropriate emergency funds would be provided to fema as we did in the last funding package. now that we're back in session we're going to continue to provide for the american people with resources that are desperately needed. i saw firsthand, i went to the sites of the devastation, i went to florida where helene made landfall and looked at the devastation there, all the way inland to the agriculture area. went to western north carolina where it looks like a bomb went off in most of those areas.

these communities can be rebuilt responsibly and congress has a role to play. we'll be looking at all that. on the floor this week you heard a quick summary about some of the steps we're taking toward beginning to restore america's energy dominance. tomorrow we'll pass the clean act to increase our domestic power production and strengthen america's energy security. we're going to pursue an all of the above energy policy. and geothermal is a big part of that. it's just beneath our feet and in the mountain west states this is a big thing. we're not going to waste it like the biden administration did. we're going to use all the precious resources we've been blessed as a nation to have. we'll also vote on the stop terror financing penalties act this week. comons legislation. it prevents the i.r.s. from charging late feese on americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad. this is an obvious thing that everybody should be in support of. we're going to make sure that we follow commonsense legislation in these -- and these principles along the way. house republicans will fix that

error this week and many, many errors in the days to come. we're excited about that. i'll just say, one quick note and then i'll take question, we just had a great gathering of all the house republicans as we do each week. we had many of our member-elect, new members who'll be coming, in republican members in the 119th congress, an extraordinary group, they've been on the hill for the last week or so, having orientation. i'm proud of this group. they have an extraordinary set of skills and expertise. they bring to the table. and life experiences. pound-for-pound i think it's one of the strongest classes that's ever come in for our party and i'm excited about what they'll contribute. i told them and all our members this morning as we approach thanksgiving it's an appropriate time for all of us, all of us, to be thankful not just for the immediate blessings of our family and friends and the things we enjoy but for this great country and the fact that i believe that we've been given a great blessing of an opportunity to save america. and that's what we intend to do.

we have a very deliberate agenda to pursue to make sure that happens. we look forward to getting to work. reporter: is congressperson-elect sara mcbride a man or a woman? mr. johnson: i'm not going to get into this. we welcome all member who are duly elected representatives. i believe it's a command we treat all persons with dignity and respect and we will. i will not engage in silly debates about this. there's concern about uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms, this is an issue congress has never had to address before. we'll do that in a deliberate fashion. with member consensus on it. we will accommodate the needs of every single person. that's all i'm going to say. reporter: do you plan to bring nancy mace's transgender bill into the package? mr. johnson: i'm not going to address any plans. i'm not going to engage in this. we don't look down on anyone.

we treat everybody with dignity and respect. that's a principle i've pursued my whole life. we'll take care of this. we'll provide appropriate accommodation for every member of congress. reporter: do you support is that president-elect trump wants to confront china. do you support that? do you support stripping china of the most favored nation status? mr. johnson: we have a select committee on the chinese communist party and the extraordinary threat that they are. not just to america but to freedom around the world. i think it's a very, very serious issue. next to the national debt i think it's our greatest threat to national security. and we have to address it appropriately. i expect that president trump will be very aggressive on that matter. you've heard him talk about it for quite some time.

he started talking about that in 2015 before anyone else ever really was paying attention to it and recognizing the menace that china has become. you're going to have a very aggressive approach that in the new congress. republicans are very serious about this. very sober minded. we have lots of legislation, lots of measures that we'd like to pursue. but i'm not going to get in front of that and tell you what all that will be yet. just know we'll take this very seriously. i think we're going to address it. reporter: you left the door open for appointments but you said i hope that the senate does its job. my question is will the confirmation process be the ultimate test of republican -- or bipartisan separation? mr. johnson: i genuinely believe the senate could do -- should do its job. i think it's an important principle that the incoming president gets to select their own team. i think that's an important

principle. the advise and consent responsibility is guinn to the senate and the -- in the constitution. they need to take that seriously and they will. they'll properly vet nominee and that process will play out. look. i'll just say this about a numb of the nominees that have been appointed. i think president trump is looking for persons who will shake up the status quo. and we got a mandate in this election psychle to do that. the status quo is not working for the american people. these are persons who will go in and bring real reform, significant reform to the agencies they lead. if you poll the american people they'll agree that that is an appropriate objective. i think that the senate should do its job and sure, take a look. do a deep dive. vet these persons. move them along for confirmation so the president has the team in place to do what the american people have elected him to do. we're going to support that effort. thank you. appreciate it. have a happy thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving.

>> the u.s. house will bba at 4:00 p.m. eastern to vote on a bill rng the bureau of land management to hold geothermal lease sales at least once a year. off the floor, talkn funding continues. fundin ends on december 20. house democrats rlected hakeem jeffries as their leader. current members of the democratic leadership team were also re-elected. katherine clark as democratic whip. joe neguse as assistant democratic leader. ted lieu as vic chair. michigan congresswoman debbie ngell was re-elected to chair the communications cmiee, she defeated a challenge from congresswomanasne crockett. as always live coverage of the house is on c-span. >> c-span is your unfiltered

view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more. including midco. >> where are you going? or maybe a better question is how far do you want to go? and how fast do you want to get there? now we're getting somewhere. so let's go. let's go faster. let's go further. let's go beyond. >> midco supports cpan as a public service alo with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democry. >> this coming wednesday, homeland security secretary ejdro mayorkas, f.b.i. director christopher wra and national counterterrorism center acting direcr ett holmgren will