Media Availability with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

MEDIA AVAILABILITY WITH SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) AND SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID (D-NV)

SPEAKER PELOSI: Good afternoon. We are about to go into a bicameral House and Senate Democratic leadership meeting to make further progress on the economic recovery package. All afternoon, House Democratic leadership and our relevant chairmen were meeting to go over the particulars of the package as we saw it.

I'm pleased to announce that from our standpoint, we're making great progress and that we fully intend to meet our deadline of having a package passed and signed into law to begin the economic recovery of our country before we leave for the Presidents Day recess.

And as I have said, if we're not finished, we're not leaving. We won't leave here without an economic recovery package. But I feel quite certain we'll be able to do it sooner rather than later.

Mr. Leader?

SEN. REID: Madame Speaker, we had a wonderful caucus today. Excuse me, I have a cough. (Coughs.) We really did have a wonderful caucus today. President-elect Obama was there. He spoke to us for about an hour, answered questions.

We left that feeling so positive about what the future for this country holds. And that same feeling of confidence and being positive is what we're going to do here today.

We know we have problems with the economy, and that's an understatement. We believe, with transparency, accountability, creating jobs, that the future is good. And I look forward this meeting in the speaker's office where we can discuss, on a bipartisan, bicameral basis, how we're going to finish this before the recess.

Q Senator Reid -- oh, I'm sorry. (Off mike.)

SPEAKER PELOSI: (Inaudible.)

Q Senator Reid, some of the members of your caucus today said that the proportion of the stimulus devoted to tax cuts was being winnowed down somewhat. Is that the case? And do you risk Republican support by doing that?

SEN. REID: Well, I think that there were some general comments about where money should be spent and where -- where it should be spent and where it shouldn't be spent. But there were no decisions made there. This was an informational meeting. The president-elect listened very closely. He responded, as he always does, with a lot of firmness. So I -- there was absolutely no dissension in the caucus, zero.

Q Did the members of the caucus ask the president-elect to winnow down the percentage for tax cuts?

SEN. REID: No, I've never -- I never heard the word "winnow." I don't -- now maybe --

Q My word -- (off mike).

SPEAKER PELOSI: (Chuckles.)

SEN. REID: -- yeah, the answer is there -- this was -- the meeting that we had was positive. He received a standing ovation, and it went on for at least five minutes. Senator Baucus received a standing ovation for the work that we know that he's done. The same with Senator Inouye. This was -- we -- for lack of a better description, this was the love-fest. We left feeling exhilarated about what the future holds for this country.

Q (Off mike.)

Q Senator Reid, are you concerned about Tim Geithner's nomination as Treasury secretary -- (off mike)?

SEN. REID: Next speakers -- next question for the speaker.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Sorry -- because -- we're hearing two questions at the same time.

Q Speaker, next week, will committees mark up the stimulus bill? I mean, you say there's progress. Can you detail where the progress -- (off mike)?

SPEAKER PELOSI: Well, progress in getting us to the point where we will take a bill to the floor and send it to the president. That's our goal. But we have goals hour to hour and day to day. And right now our goal is to get the bill into print. And we have to make some final decisions from the -- our standpoint on the House side.

Yes, we will have markups next week.

Q Do you -- are you worried about -- the question about -- are you worried about the nomination of Timothy Geithner for Treasury secretary in light of the Senate Finance Committee finding there are back taxes -- (off mike)?

SEN. REID: Timothy Geithner is a person that is extremely well qualified to be one of the finest secretaries of Treasury this country's ever had. And there's a few little hiccups, but that's basically what they are. I am not concerned at all.

The meeting that I understand took place in the Finance Committee today was with Democrats and Republicans. And even there, with this bipartisan group, he received many accolades for his work that he's done prior to this time. And I think it's clear to say that the hearing, I think, will go very well, next week in the Finance Committee.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you all very much.

END.

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