Nancy Pelosi Clueless About 15 Democrats Calling for Immediately Funding Small Business Aid

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed on Sunday she did not know about the 15 Democrats who called for immediately replenishing small business relief despite her objections.

Fifteen House Democrats, as well as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Tina Smith (D-MN), called to immediately refund the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) relief fund, known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which ran out of money last Thursday.

ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi on Sunday why Democrats should continue blocking a simple refunding of small business aid, given that many Democrats have called to replenish the program.

He asked, “You’ve even got some of your own Democrats who are saying, you know, those other programs are important. We should negotiate those in a new package. But it’s important to pass the PPP funding right now by unanimous consent. Why not do that?”

“Well, I don’t know who’s saying that,” Pelosi said, claiming ignorance of the many Democrats calling for immediate funding of the PPP.

“But I will say, overwhelmingly, my caucus–and we’re working closely with the Senate Democrats–know that we have an opportunity and an urgency to do something for our hospitals, our teachers, and firefighters, and the rest right now. And then, we are preparing our next bill,” she added:

The 15 House Democrats who called for immediately refunding the PPP are:

1. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO)
2. Rep. Dianna DeGette (D-CO)
3. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)
4. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)
5. Rep. Kendra Horn (D-OK)
6. Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-SC)
7. Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-NY)
8. Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA)
9. Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA)
10. Rep. Max Rose (D-NY)
11. Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ)
12. Rep. Any Kim (D-NJ)
13. Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA)
14. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI)
15. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA)

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Breitbart News Saturday that Speaker Pelosi is losing the confidence of her rank-and-file members by resisting a simple refunding of the small business program.

McCarthy spoke with Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle:

She is because she’s doing nothing but playing politics,” McCarthy said, when asked if Pelosi is losing the backing of her conference’s members. “We knew this fund was going to run out of money when it was first opened, so the administration smartly requested money more than a week. Mitch McConnell went to the floor with a one page bill, just putting more money in. Democrats came back to Washington just to object, and they continue to object when I was in Washington last week to pass it along with Mitch McConnell. They said no. That’s outrageous that they continue to harm small businesses because that’s not where the American public is. They want to help these people keep their jobs. It’s the people you see every day. There are 22 million reasons why the Democrats should have said yes. Why are they hurting small businesses? They claim they’re the party of fairness. This isn’t fair.

McCarthy added, “This isn’t about America. They’re playing pure politics as she always does, as Nancy Pelosi only wants to do.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.