Pelosi: We must do more
Spotlights Ukraine refugee crisis as she tours N.Y.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the U.S. must do more to support refugees fleeing Russia’s vicious assault on Ukraine, citing the enormous scope of the crisis, as she embarked upon a twostop tour of New York City on Monday.
“We have to do more in terms of meeting the needs of some of the 2.7 million refugees — 2.7 — it’s a number that’s almost incomprehensible, and not finished yet,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said at a news conference in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
At the event, Pelosi, who was joined by some of New York’s congressional delegation members, touted the November passage of the $1 trillion infrastructure package and the approval last week of a $1.5 trillion spending measure.
Both Democratic priorities passed with bipartisan support.
Pelosi said the infrastructure law will send “a lot of money” to create “a lot of jobs” in New York, rattling off some of the local cash commitments: $11.6 billion for highway repairs, $9.8 billion for public transportation and $1.9 billion for bridges.
As the midterm elections approach in the fall, she and other Democratic Party leaders are working to sell their legislative track record, which was dented last year by an unsuccessful push to pass a massive social spending bill. Pelosi said Democrats have more to do, but described the infrastructure law as a “very important piece of legislation.”
“This is a great moment, and I’m so happy we’re here in Brooklyn to celebrate,” Pelosi said under a clear late-winter sky. “It’s about justice. It’s about safety. It’s about quality of life.”
After the stop in Brooklyn, Pelosi headed to the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, the Bronx to further plug the work of Democrats to deliver for Americans.
But Democrats are balancing their domestic policy aspirations with the humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe unleashed by President Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.
The spending package passed in Washington last week set aside more than $13 billion in humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine, including more than $1 billion in assistance for refugees, as the 30-year-old democracy faces down the Russian Army.
According to the UN’s refugee agency, the count of Ukrainians who have fled their homeland has now eclipsed 2.8 million.
“Ukraine is on fire,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters Monday. “The country is being decimated before the eyes of the world. The impact on civilians is reaching terrifying proportions.”
Pelosi said Congress can go further for beleaguered Ukraine, a nation with a peacetime population of some 44 million facing relentless bombing since the invasion started Feb. 24.
“They’re fighting for democracy writ large,” Pelosi told reporters, decrying the “assault that the beast Putin has been foisting on those people, the acts of bombing maternity wards, outside the circle of human behavior.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to address Congress by video Wednesday, and Pelosi indicated he will outline the needs of his embattled nation. “It will be a privilege for us to hear from this champion of democracy,” Pelosi said.
Zelenskyy, who has become a face of Ukrainian resistance, delivered a virtual address to the British Parliament last week, drawing a standing ovation at the end of a speech in which he quoted William Shakespeare and summoned the words of Winston Churchill.
Support for Ukraine figures to remain a focus in Congress as Europe reels from the largest military conflict on the continent since World War II.
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) said she expects “a lot of talk this week about how we can expedite reuniting families.
“My district has a huge Ukrainian population — we’re all ready and willing to accept folks,” Clarke told the Daily News. “But there are some obstacles in terms of regulatory schemes that we are going to be working on this week.”