House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, celebrated Presidents Day with former President George H.W. Bush in Texas Monday.
The top ranking House Democrat gave a speech at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library of Texas A&M University.
In her speech before a predominantly conservative crowd, the California Democrat both praised the former president for his “civility” and also defended the recent Obama administration contraception rule.
“It’s a great privilege to spend President’s Day with President George Bush. His name and his presidency are synonymous with the word civility,” said Ms. Pelosi. “Something badly needed.”
Despite their political affiliations, Mr. Bush and Ms. Pelosi talked highly of each other during the event at the Bush Presidential Library Monday.
The speech also gave Ms. Pelosi to talk to conservative crowd about the recent bipartisan arguing regarding the contraception rule.
The Obama administration recently stated that it would enforce its contraception rule as part of the president’s health care law. Originally, the rule would require all organizations, regardless of religious affiliation, to provide coverage of contraception to employees.
The president modified to policy to give religiously affiliated organizations to opt out of the requirement, however the backlash from Republicans continued, as conservatives saw the rule as an attack on religion.
Ms. Pelosi does not believe the contraception rule has anything to do with religion though, as she stated Monday.
“There’s a sisterhood of understanding among women on this subject,” said Ms. Pelosi Monday. “Everybody knows that the discretion of a mother should be respected because her health is important to that family. The fact is that this isn’t an issue of church and state.”
The House Oversight Committee held a hearing last week with an all male panel regarding the contraception rule. The hearing featured members of the House and representatives from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which argues that even with the announced compromise, the contraception rule is unacceptable to them.
Ms. Pelosi was one of several female members of Congress that spoke out about the all male panel, asking why there were no females involved in a hearing about women’s health. She posted a picture of the all male panel to her Facebook page asking “Where are the women?”
Although there were protesters holding signs against “job killer policies” at Ms. Pelosi’s George H.W. Bush Presidential Library speech, she was warmly received by the crowd, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Ms. Pelosi has had a longstanding relationship with the older Bush, ever since being elected to the House while he was still a vice president serving under former President Ronald Reagan.
However, she called the presidency of his son a “total failure” after becoming the first female House speaker in history in 2007.
In her speech Monday she also praised the presence of women in government.
“I never set out to do this,” said Ms. Pelosi. “Nothing has been better for our system than the increased participation of women.”
