Confidential Tip Line Will Accept Private Tips with Details of Secret Plan of Early Executive Actions

In August, the Lawmakers Requested Heritage Foundation Come Before Congress, Reveal 180-Day Playbook

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – In a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), co-founder of the Stop Project 2025 Taskforce, called on the authors of Project 2025 to reveal its secret 180-day playbook, or the “Fourth Pillar,” of the far-right policy blueprint. This follows the Heritage Foundation’s failure to respond to Rep. Pressley’s request with Rep. Jared Huffman to release the 180-Day Playbook and come before Congress to answer questions about it.

Last week, Reps. Pressley and Huffman announced the creation of a confidential tip line for information about the 180-Day Playbook and are encouraging members of the public to come forward with any information about the hidden “Fourth Pillar” of Project 2025.

A full transcript of Rep. Presley’s exchange with witnesses is available below and full video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Demands Project 2025 Authors Reveal Secret 180-Day Playbook, Unveils Tip Line
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability
September 19, 2024

REP. PRESSLEY: You know, this would all be funny if it wasn’t so devastating.

At a time when the leader of the Republican Party is trying to claim that he has no connection whatsoever to Project 2025 – an outright lie. Another lie like the one that he spews daily about Haitian Americans in Springfield, Ohio.

Again, the leader of the Republican Party is trying to claim that he has no connection whatsoever to Project 2025. An outright lie.

Our Republican colleagues have invited four of the manifesto’s architects to testify today – I’m over here – in a desperate attempt to erase all of the ways that the American public has benefited from the Biden-Harris Administration.

This committee has instead spotlighted what Project 2025 would offer: chaos and corruption. However, we would be ignoring a critical component of Project 2025 if we did not address the fact that its creators have been secretly peddling a “[180]-day playbook” that contains executive orders and emergency actions to roll out in the first hours of a second Trump presidency.

Instead of sharing this plan with the public, an indictment of your dangerous policy plans in and of itself, those behind Project 2025 claim it is too controversial to release.

Ms. Gunasekara, yes or no, as a main author of Project 2025, are you aware of this playbook or “Fourth Pillar,” and remember, you are under oath.

MS. GUNSEKARA: Yeah, and it’s online on the website.

REP. PRESSLEY: Can you please detail what exactly it calls for?

MS. GUNSEKARA: I think you explained it pretty well. It is a plan of action so that when Republicans and conservatives have another chance at a next administration, there’s not lost time, and so that there is a plan ready to go.

REP. PRESSLEY: I don’t know if that was specific enough. You are under oath. Can you please detail what exactly it calls for this Fourth Pillar, this 180-day Playbook. Please detail what it calls for.

MS. GUNSEKARA: Again, I’d reiterate what I just said that. I think you summarized it quite well. It includes a plan of action on day one, so that Republicans –

REP. PRESSLEY: You didn’t say anything, and that’s the problem. What is the plan of action?

MS. GUNSEKARA: It’s to institute a more conservative vision on things that the American people want because they’re experiencing all of these hardships caused by the chaos and corruption of the Biden-Harris Administration.

REP. PRESSLEY: Reclaiming my time, Mr. Carr, how about you? Yes or no, as a main author of Project 2025, are you aware of this Fourth Pillar playbook?

MR. CARR: Well, to be –

REP. PRESSLEY: Yes or no.

MR. CARR: To be clear, I’m here in my official capacity –

REP. PRESSLEY: Yes or no.

MR. CARR: I don’t want to have any confusion.

REP. PRESSLEY: I’m reclaiming my time. You are under oath and I don’t want you to filibuster. Yes or no, are you aware of this Fourth Pillar playbook?

MR. CARR: Just so I can be clear, that writing that I did was in my personal capacity after getting the –

REP. PRESSLEY: Reclaiming my time. I didn’t ask you that. Are you aware of the Fourth Pillar playbook? And can you detail, as you are under oath, what exactly it calls for?

MR. CARR: Again, I’ve not seen this Fourth Pillar playbook that you’re talking about but I’m happy to talk about –

REP. PRESSLEY: I find it hard to believe that you don’t know the details of this [180] – well, please you are under oath and do not waste my or the public’s time.

MR. CARR: I’m happy to talk about all of the policy ideas that I’ve talked about. I’ve talked about them in that context. I’ve talked about them otherwise.

REP. PRESSLEY: I want to talk about the [180]-day playbook, the Fourth Pillar. Can you offer any – can you elucidate us to that?

MR. CARR: Again, my –

REP. PRESSLEY: Alright, I’m moving on, sir. I find it hard to believe that you don’t know details of the [180]-day playbook.

But there’s one person that definitely knows: Kevin Roberts, the President of the Heritage Foundation.

And that is why as co-founder of the Stop Project 2025, Task Force, alongside Representative Jared Huffman and dozens of our colleagues, we sent a letter to Mr. Roberts requesting he testify before Congress and release this 180-day playbook.

We sent this letter on August 8. The next day he delayed his book launch, went into hiding. Kevin Roberts, what are you so afraid of? I am disappointed but unsurprised that the authors and leaders of Project 2025 are hiding their 180-day playbook.

So today, Congressman Huffman and I are announcing a new, fully confidential tip line. Any person can visit huffman.house.gov/tip-line-form to submit any information you have about the secret playbook behind Project 2025.

That goes for conservatives with a change of heart, workers of the Heritage Foundation and our witnesses here today who will perhaps find more courage when the cameras are off.

I yield.

—

Rep. Pressley is a founding member of a Congressional Task Force designed to stop Project 2025, a thousand-page blueprint for Donald Trump to seize “supreme” powers and radically undermine reproductive rights, LGBTQIA+ equality, racial justice, free speech, and other democratic institutions and freedoms. The Task Force was announced by Rep. Huffman in June and its members are leaders on many of the issues currently under attack by Project 2025.

As a member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Pressley has repeatedly sounded the alarm on Project 2025, a bucket list extremist policies that would uproot every government agency and disrupt the lives of every person who calls America home.

• On September 19, 2024, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Huffman launched a confidential tip line and encouraging members of the public to come forward with any information about the hidden “Fourth Pillar” of Project 2025.
• On August 6, 2024, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Huffman wrote to Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, requesting that he come before Congress to discuss Project 2025 and release its undisclosed “180-Day Playbook.”
• On July 30, 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on reports that Paul Dans is stepping down from his role as the head of Project 2025.
• On June 27, 2024, Rep. Pressley discussed the importance of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which combats discrimination in the workplace, and sharply criticized the harmful impact that far-right manifesto Project 2025 would have on the Department of Labor, the EEOC, and vulnerable workers.
• On June 17, 2024, Rep. Pressley joined Rep. Jared Huffman on a letter decrying the FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr for crafting part of Project 2025 in his official capacity as an executive-level employee of the federal government.
• On June 14, Rep. Pressley was announced as a founding member of a Congressional Task Force designed to stop Project 2025 which was founded by Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-02).
• On June 12, 2024, Rep. Pressley outlined the damning link between Project 2025 and the Supreme Court’s corruption.
• In a May 2024 committee hearing, Rep. Pressley highlighted the harm of Project 2025’s plans to replace tens of thousands of civil servants with partisan sycophants and destroy government infrastructure.

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