U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is defending passage of the federal health care overhaul while on a visit to Arkansas.
Pelosi spoke in Little Rock Thursday at an event organized by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
She received a standing ovation when she took the stage, shortly before she praised the passage of the Affordable Care Act as a momentous achievement.
But the federal health care law has faced opposition here in Arkansas, where Republicans now control the state Legislature for the first time in more than a century.
Pelosi of California has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for more than two decades. She was House speaker from 2007 to 2011.
She also discussed immigration reform and the conflict in Syria.