The Senate Has Passed The Stimulus Bill. Now What?
The House passed its own version of the bill on January 28th, at a price tag of $819 billion.
The two versions of the bill have significant differences. The Senate version, which was passed with the support of three Republicans, is more focused on tax cuts and offers less in the way of spending than the House version, which passed with no GOP support.
Now the two chambers of Congress must work together to produce a bill that they both agree on, a process President Obama is hoping to both speed up and influence with his public relations push on behalf of the bill.
"We've got a little more work to do over the next couple of days," the president noted in Florida today.
But how, exactly, does that work happen?
As you may have heard, a House-Senate conference committee is expected to be convened to hammer out the details. According to CBS News Capitol Hill Producer John Nolen, it is not yet clear if this will be a formal conference or not – or if the details of an agreement will instead be worked out behind closed doors, most likely in the offices of Congressional leaders.
It is quite possible, Nolen says, that it will be a little of both. There are indications that the two chambers will appoint conferees, though it remains to be seen how public any conference will ultimately be.
(UPDATE, 2:20 PM ET: Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign, a critic of the bill, just challenged Democrats to televise the stimulus conference meetings. House Republicans also plan to present a motion later today requiring that the final conference report be posted online for at least 48 hours before either chamber can vote on the measure.)
The White House will likely be involved in negotiations as well, as President Obama ultimately has to sign the bill into law. How involved the White House gets depends in part on how well the negotiations go, as well as where the final version of the bill is headed; the president, for example, would like to see education provisions that were stripped from the Senate version of the bill get restored in conference.
Once a deal is worked out, the final version goes back to both chambers for another vote. There will be a limited amount of debate in the House, followed quickly by the final vote.
In the Senate, there are maneuvers that the opposition can use to force the majority to need a filibuster-proof vote total, which means that Senate Democrats will need to make sure that the three Republicans who supported the initial version of the bill are still on board for the final version.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he believes this process can be finished by the end of the week, and President Obama wants to sign the bill by President's Day next Monday – though with potentially contentious negotiations ahead, that's far from a sure thing.
UPDATE, 3:08 PM ET: Nolen reports that a meeting began at 2:30 PM this afternoon in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office to discuss where things stand with the stimulus bill prior to going into conference.
Three representatives from the White House were present: Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Congressional liaison Phil Schiliro and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.
The Senators present included Reid, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who worked on the bipartisan compromise, Independent Joe Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats, and two Republicans who supported the bill: Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.
When the meeting is over, moderate Republicans and Democrats plan another meeting, in the Dirksen Senate office building. There is not yet word on when the Stimulus conference will hold its first official meeting.