Pelosi: No shutdown deal with Boehner

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday dismissed reports that she and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) struck a deal to avoid a government shutdown shortly before he announced his resignation.

Some conservatives, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have alleged that before announcing his resignation as Speaker on Friday, Boehner acquiesced to Democratic demands and agreed to fund Planned Parenthood and a litany of other liberal initiatives to avoid a government shutdown.

“The early reports are discouraging,” Cruz said, The New York Times reports.



“If it is correct that the Speaker, before he resigns, has cut a deal with Nancy Pelosi to fund the Obama administration for the rest of this year, to fund ObamaCare, to fund executive amnesty, to fund Planned Parenthood, to fund implementation of this Iran deal, and then presumably to land a cushy K Street job after joining with the Democrats to implement all of President Obama’s priorities, that is not the behavior one would expect from a Republican Speaker of the House,” he continued.


But Pelosi disputed that claim in an interview with host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“No, I wish it were true,” Pelosi said. “All we have agreed is that we have to honor the calendar which says that on Sept. 30 the fiscal year ends and we have to have a continuing resolution to take us forward as we prepare for the omnibus bill which will take us through the next year.”

Boehner said in a separate interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that there won’t be a government shutdown because he expects the Senate will pass a continuing resolution to fund the government next week, and that the House will likely take that up and pass it.

Republican leadership is under pressure from the party’s base to defund Planned Parenthood after a string of controversial undercover sting videos were released showing official from the group negotiate the price of aborted fetal tissue for scientific research.

Boehner said the House will investigate the videos.

“We’ll also take up a select committee to investigate these horrific videos that we’ve seen from abortion clinics in several states that really raise questions about the use of federal funds and raise questions about aborted fetuses that are born alive,” Boehner said.

Pelosi on Sunday said that Boehner’s resignation shows there is “disarray in the Republican Party.”

Pelosi declined to say that she would miss Boehner, but said she respects him.

“I respect my colleagues,” Pelosi said. “I respect the people who send them here. I respect the fact that their caucus elected them to a leadership position. John Boehner is a very fine person…he’s a person we can agree to disagree without being negative about each other.”