House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has been speaking on the House floor since 10:04 a.m. Eastern and she’s still talking, more than six hours later. She’s speaking to protest inaction on the legislation that protects Dreamers. Her speech isn’t technically a filibuster even though she’s been talking for more than five hours. Instead, she’s using a block of time available in the House to party leaders and is reading stories about Dreamers. This right belongs to her as a minority leader, giving her the ability to speak on the floor for as long as she wants.
It’s not clear how long she intends to be speaking. Her speech is supporting Democrats’ attempt to legalize Dreamers and she wants Republicans to act in support of this, too. She started her speech saying that she was going to lead an opposition to the budget agreement because it doesn’t address immigration.
When Pelosi neared the six hour mark around 3:41 p.m. Eastern she said: “I have no intention of yielding back,” and continued talking. Why did she start this filibuster-like speech? Democrats hope to pressure to put a hold on immigration legislation votes. During her speech, she talked about people who are protected by DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which is set to expire on March 5. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the administration doesn’t agree with Pelosi’s request to include immigration in the budget deal.
If the live stream above goes down for any reason, we have another one below.
Pelosi decided to give this speech late last night and let Schumer know ahead of time that this was going to happen. Almost everyone else, however, was surprised. As of 3:04 p.m., she had only taken sips of water, The Washington Post reported. One aide is giving her new pages about dreamers as she speaks, so she has more examples to talk about. Before Pelosi’s decision, Democrats had canceled a three-day retreat to Maryland so they could vote on the legislation.
And here’s another stream from Fox 10 Phoenix:
This is a developing story.
Interested in knowing about the longest filibusters in history? See Heavy’s story below.