MSNBC "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" - Transcript

MSNBC "1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE" INTERVIEW WITH HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER STENY HOYER (D-MD) INTERVIEWER: DAVID SHUSTER

Copyright ©2009 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.

MR. SHUSTER: Joining us now live from Capitol Hill is House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

And Mr. Majority Leader, Senator Arlen Specter says he will not support this if there are major changes. Will there be major changes? How do you hold him into this?

REP. HOYER: Well, I think the key to that is major changes. I was just with Arlen Specter just about half an hour ago. We didn't talk substance; we were honoring John Dingell. But the fact of the matter is you have a Senate version and a House version. The Senate version is about $40 billion or $20 billion more than the House version, so they've appropriated more money. But we create more jobs, about 3.9 million to their 3.4 million. So there obviously is going to be discussion between the House and the Senate as the best way to get this economy moving and to create jobs.

The bills are very, very similar in many respects. There are substantial differences. They'll be under discussion. Hopefully we'll resolve those differences within the next couple of days.

MR. SHUSTER: Well, I want to show our viewers who will be leading those discussions. Here's the members of the Senate conference committee: Senator Harry Reid, of course, the majority leader; Daniel Inouye, Max Baucus, Chuck Grassley and Thad Republican (sic/means Cochran). Those are the two Republicans.

The House conference committee members: Representative David Obey, Representative Charlie Rangel, Representative Henry Waxman, and the two Republicans there, Jerry Lewis and Dave Camp.

Senator John Ensign today suggested this process would be served through accountability and transparency. I want to play his request and then get your reaction. Watch.

SEN. JOHN ENSIGN (R-NV): (From videotape.) This new president and the Democrat Congress have promised transparency and accountability. What we're challenging the Democrat Congress to do is to televise the conference meetings. When they're working out the difference between the House and the Senate, it should not be behind closed doors; it should be out in the open.

MR. SHUSTER: Mr. Majority Leader, how about that? Why not televise the conference committee?

REP. HOYER: Well, of course, John Ensign, with all due respect to the senator, didn't practice what he's now preaching. As a matter of fact, the Senate was very reluctant to go to conference over the last two years of the Congress. Here we have a crisis situation, as has been projected by the president. I agree with him; we need to act quickly.

There are meetings going on now. Those meetings are intense, not necessarily conference, but meetings between individuals to try to resolve differences on particular programs. We are very hopeful that this can get done and that we can come to agreement. And then there will be a conference.

Now, whether or not -- I presume that it's going to be televised. Whether or not it's a very long conference, clearly the economy cannot wait. We're losing some 600,000 jobs per month, 20,000 jobs per day, Americans being out of work. There is not time to fiddle while Rome is burning, frankly, so we have to move quickly. And in order to move quickly, we're going to have to have a lot of meetings in a lot of different places.

This bill is a very large bill with a lot of items, and they're going to have to get resolved by a lot of people. The conferees themselves, obviously, will be the ultimate resolvers of the differences, but there are going to be many other people involved.

MR. SHUSTER: Well, Congressman, you mentioned the intensity. I'm told that there are already a number of governors which are already lobbying hard because they want the $70 billion in discretionary spending to the states, they want that put back in. It was taken out, to a certain extent, by the Senate. And underscoring sort of these differences that you talk about, here's the House speaker earlier today. Watch.

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): (From videotape.) Our colleagues are excited about the prospect, concerned about some of the differences between the House and the Senate, and we promised that because our bill, the House-passed bill, produced more jobs, we'll go to conference to fight for those jobs.

MR. SHUSTER: Mr. Majority Leader, how do you reconcile all these different interests? And would you acknowledge that this is extremely sensitive?

REP. HOYER: Well, there isn't any doubt that it's sensitive. You're absolutely right, David. But the fact is, we've got to get this bill done for the American people. The American people want us to get it done. They believe it needs to be done. And we're working very hard to do that.

It's not unusual for there to be differences between the Senate and the House, sometimes very serious differences. And people hopefully of good will can come together and there's going to have to be compromises. We believe, as you know, as you said, and as the speaker pointed out, that the states are in real trouble. We want to make sure they don't have to lay off police or fire or teachers and keep our education system going. They have to meet balanced budgets. Their revenues are very substantially down. We think we need to give them some help. We gave them more help than the Senate has given them.

That's why the governors are weighing in. That's why Governor Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, was with President Obama today. But we hope we can resolve the differences. We hope we can do that within the next hours, couple of days, so that by Friday -- and if we haven't done it by Friday, we're going to stay here. This needs to be done.

MR. SHUSTER: Congressman Steny Hoyer, part of the Democratic leadership. Congressman, thank you very much. We appreciate you coming on tonight.

REP. HOYER: Thank you.

Source