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While speaking at a pen and pad session on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stated that the Conference Committee on the Economic Stimulus package is going to be about seeking consensus. Since the Senate amended the economic recovery bill which came out of the House, the House and Senate need to settle on a final version in a Conference Committee. Hoyer would not specify what the House’s priorities in the Conference Committee would be, but said that he hopes to pick up votes in the House. He continued that he hopes Republicans in the Senate will be willing to compromise further, because they have been “gambling” with America’s future, and have been more concerned about rebuilding the Republican Party than in rebuilding the economy. Hoyer said he has not spoken with Senators Spector, Snowe, or Collins, the Senate Republicans who supported the bill, and that their stated unwillingness to negotiate about certain portions of the bill in Conference was not reasonable.

When asked if the price tag of the bill will be larger once it comes out of Conference, Hoyer said no, and highlighted that the original House bill was less expensive than the Senate version by several billion dollars, and created half a million more jobs. Job creation is the main focus of the House in this stimulus package, according to Hoyer, who said that helping those hurt by the crisis was a top priority. The final question during the session asked if $1.5 trillion dollars was enough money to invest in the recovery package, and Hoyer said that the fact that we are talking about numbers of this magnitude really says something about the sorry state that we let our economy slide into.

Hoyer said that the Conference Committee is expected to start immediately, and says he thinks the president would sign the House version of the bill “enthusiastically”.

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service