Transcript of Speaker Pelosi’s Comments on the Armenian Genocide Resolution

The Armenian Weekly
Oct. 17, 2007

WASHINGTON (A.W.)-Below is the transcript of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s
Oct. 17 comments on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, obtained by the
Armenian Weekly from the Speaker’s Press Office.

Q: Madam Speaker, I understand that you’re talking about SCHIP but you have
made a very powerful, very impassioned case for the need to bring the
Armenian resolution for a vote, you say for principle and for moral reasons.
Do you still intend to do that despite the fact that many of your Democratic
colleagues are saying that they’re not going to support it anymore?

A: Well this is an initiative of our caucus. It has 60
cosponsors -Republican cosponsors – including the ranking member of the
Armed Services Committee, Mr. Duncan Hunter. That group has organized the
initiative for the Armenian genocide resolution. And by the way –
nevertheless, I’ll be working with them to see what their wish is. Do you
have a copy of the statement that I [unintelligible]? Because I think that
the important thing is to – if you haven’t already seen this, and I imagine
that you have – this statement says, "The Armenians were subjected to a
genocidal campaign that defies comprehension and that commands all decent
people to remember and acknowledge the facts and lessons of an awful crime
in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected President, I will
ensure that our nation properly recognizes the suffering of the Armenian
people." George W. Bush, candidate for President. And what he said at the
time was consistent with what President Ronald Reagan said when he was
President. It is consistent with what our diplomats said at the time of the
genocide, that it was such. That word didn’t exist at the time, but that it
was a planned annihilation of a race. So there is reason to bring this to
the floor. Whether those who had been advocating it go to that place remains
to be seen, but the fact is that genocide occurred. Right now, though, we
have short fuses on SCHIP, on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on
our appropriations bills, so we have other matters on the agenda that have
to be dealt with first. But I respect what the president said at the time of
his –

Q: But you are one of those major advocates for this –

A: I said if they could get it through the committee, unless they could get
it through the committee, we could not bring it to the floor. So I have
always supported it, as did the previous leader of the Democrats in the
Congress, Congressman Gephardt. Almost everybody supports it because they
know it is right. Whether it will come up or not, or what the action will
be, remains to be seen. But today we are engaged in a major fight about the
health of America’s children, and that is what our focus is. And again,
yesterday Easter Seals, tomorrow March of Dimes – the President is alone,
and he’s dragging some of his House members with him down his path. Let me
just say, at the end of the day, if you want to know about passion and
politics, at the end of the day, 10 million children will have health
insurance in our country. Thank you all. Thank you Bethany, thank you Dara,
thank you Bo.