After this evening’s conference committee meeting on the stimulus bill, at which Chairman Obey indicated the Congressional Budget Office was scoring bill text, yet no bill text was provided to conferees, no amendments were allowed, and only opening statements were made, Ranking Members Camp,  Lewis, and Grassley sent the following letter to Senate Appropriations  and Stimulus Conference Committee Chairman Inouye requesting that bill text be provided to Republicans and the American people for review.

February 11, 2009

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye                      
722 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Inouye:

This evening, during the closing minutes of the Conference Committee meeting on H.R. 1, Rep. David Obey, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, stated that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was currently working to score a House-Senate negotiated compromise. 

As none of the duly appointed Republican conferees have been part of negotiations on the stimulus package, we request that you provide us the text of the legislation given to CBO. 

As the leaders of the Senate and House have indicated, final votes on a Conference Committee Report could take place as early as tomorrow. We find it imperative that we and the American public be able to immediately begin a review of this massive and complex piece of legislation.

Sincerely,

DAVE CAMP                            JERRY LEWIS                          CHUCK GRASSLEY
Ranking Member                      Ranking Member                         Ranking Member 
House                                         House                                          Senate
Ways and Means Committee Appropriations Committee           Finance Committee

CC: U.S. Representative David Obey

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