--- description: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held the House floor for eight hours Wednesday, setting a record with a speech on immigration and DACA. title: Nancy Pelosi Sets Record With 8-Hour-Long DACA Speech on the House Floor image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d80b089b515273b/6988faffcf40a8b2d7c4b3b8/nancy-pelosi-house-record-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Congress](/tag/congress/) ## Congress Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Nancy Pelosi Sets Record With 8-Hour-Long DACA Speech on the House Floor  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 7, 2018 11:41 PM CUT  A TV shows U.S. Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) giving a lengthy immigration speech on the House floor during the opening press conference for the 2018 House Democratic Issues Conference on Feb. 7, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. A TV shows U.S. Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) giving a lengthy immigration speech on the House floor during the opening press conference for the 2018 House Democratic Issues Conference on Feb. 7, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.Alex Wong/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 7, 2018 11:41 PM CUT House Minority Leader [Nancy Pelosi](http://time.com/collection/firsts/4898581/nancy-pelosi-firsts/ "undefined") held the House floor for eight hours Wednesday, setting a record for the longest continuous speech delivered in the chamber as she shared the stories of young undocumented immigrants and urged Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan to bring a vote on immigration legislation. Pelosi’s speech comes as lawmakers [struggle to agree on a plan](http://time.com/5136498/trump-shutdown-congress-daca/ "undefined") for recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which protected undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. President Trump announced last year that he would [end the program](http://time.com/4927263/daca-dreamers-trump-sessions/ "undefined"), leaving DACA recipients — [often called Dreamers](http://time.com/daca-dream-act-jose-antonio-vargas-time-cover-revisited/ "undefined") — in limbo as the program is set to expire. “Every day, courageous, patriotic Dreamers lose their status. Every day, the American dream slips further out of reach,” Pelosi said, [beginning to speak](https://www.c-span.org/video/?440688-1/minority-leader-pelosi-sets-record-marathon-immigration-speech-demanding-vote&live=&vod "undefined") at 10:04 a.m. on Wednesday. “As members of Congress, we have a moral responsibility to act now to protect Dreamers who are the pride of our nation and are American in every way, but on paper.” > [](https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/961273925031243776) “There’s nothing partisan or political about protecting Dreamers. If a Dream Act were brought to the floor, it would pass immediately with strong bipartisan support,” Pelosi added. “Yet our Dreamers hang in limbo with a cruel cloud of fear uncertainty above them. The Republican moral cowardice must end.” The House historian’s office said Pelosi appears to have broken a record set in 1909 by Missouri Rep. Champ Clark, who spoke for five hours and 15 minutes about a tariff overhaul. “It’s important to note that although Clark held the floor for the duration, he was repeatedly interrupted during his remarks,” the House historian’s office said in a statement. “We’re not certain that Clark held the record for the longest speech at the time, but it is the longest example we’ve been able to find on short notice.” While House rules have limited the length of time that members are allowed to speak, those limits do not apply to the majority and minority leaders or to the speaker of the house. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5138545/nancy-pelosi-house-immigration-speech-record-daca/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5138545/nancy-pelosi-house-immigration-speech-record-daca/"},"headline":"Nancy Pelosi Sets Record With 8-Hour-Long DACA Speech on the House Floor","datePublished":"2018-02-07T23:41:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:11:39.078Z","description":"Lawmakers have struggled to agree on a plan for 'Dreamers'","url":"https://time.com/5138545/nancy-pelosi-house-immigration-speech-record-daca/","keywords":["Congress","Immigration","nancy pelosi","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d80b089b515273b/6988faffcf40a8b2d7c4b3b8/nancy-pelosi-house-record-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d80b089b515273b/6988faffcf40a8b2d7c4b3b8/nancy-pelosi-house-record-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Democrats Hold Retreat At Capitol, Instead Of Travel To Maryland As Gov't Shutdown Looms","caption":"House Democrats Hold Retreat At Capitol, Instead Of Travel To Maryland As Gov't Shutdown Looms","creditText":"Alex Wong/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5138545/nancy-pelosi-house-immigration-speech-record-daca/","name":"Nancy Pelosi Sets Record With 8-Hour-Long DACA Speech on the House Floor"}}]}] ```