Republicans Shut Out of Stimulus Conference Negotiations

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Republicans have caught the Democrats in a midnight "stimulus" power play that seeks to cut Republican conferees out of the House-Senate negotiations to resolve a final version of the Obama "stimulus" package. Staff members from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) met last night to put together the "stimulus" conference report.

They intend to attempt to shove this $1.3 trillion spending bill through in the dead of the night without Republican input so floor action can take place in both chambers on Thursday.

I spoke with House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) moments ago about this latest version of Democratic "bipartisanship." Pence told me, "I think the American people deserve to know that legislation that would comprise an amount equal to the entire discretionary budget of the United States of America is being crafted without a single House Republican in the room."

UPDATE: Some Republicans reportedly were in the late-night conference. But -- at least from the Senate -- the official Republican conferees were excluded. HUMAN EVENTS has received e-mail confirmations from the staffs of both Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Ia) and John Thune (R-SD) saying that they had no participation in the conference.

From other Senate sources, we understand that the RINOs were there: one senior staff source told us that the most likely suspects were Sens. Arlen Specter (RINO-Pa) and Susan Collins (RINO-Me) whose staffs may have been there.

HUMAN EVENTS has attempted to verify that report with repeated e-mails and phone calls to Specter's and Collins's staffs. We have been unable to get a response so far.

We will continue to update this report as information becomes available.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30667

[Ban Hammer 13,332]

now there is some reaching across the aisle