House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Speaker John Boehner’s resignation signifies disarray in the GOP and “their obsession at shutting down the government at the expense of women’s health.”
Pelosi, D-Calif., who served two terms as speaker before Democrats lost the majority in 2010, called his resignation “seismic,” but said she would continue to negotiate with Boehner on a short-term spending bill that will keep the government open past the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Pelosi said while she wants a short-term bill to last only until Nov. 20, she is willing to back a Senate version that would last until Dec. 11, telling reporters, “there isn’t a great deal of play,” on the timing of the short-term bill.
Boehner on Friday announced he will leave Congress at the end of October. His departure comes as conservatives in his conference have called for defunding Planned Parenthood in the government spending bill, which is a move that would trigger Democratic opposition, a presidential veto and likely government shutdown.
The short-term bill will not include language to defund Planned Parenthood, which means it must pass with Democratic and Republican support because dozens of conservatives are likely to vote against it.
“Their obsession with shutting down the government at the expense of women’s health needs to be reckoned with and recognized,” Pelosi said, referring to the conservative opposition to Planned Parenthood funding.
Pelosi said she called Boehner Friday morning to discuss the temporary government funding measure, but he was in a meeting. She had no idea he was about to resign until “all of a sudden the phones lit up … and we found out,” while conducting a Democratic closed-door caucus meeting.
Pelosi said that as the leader of the Democrats, she expects to be nominated as House speaker when the body votes on a successor in the coming weeks.
Republicans have the majority, however, making it very unlikely she could win the 218 votes needed to win.
