Senate Passes Recovery Package Amid Contention on MSNBC

See video

... thank all the members of the senate who moved the process forward. we've still got -- we've still got to get the house bill and the senate bill to match up before it gets sent to my desk. we've got a little more work to do over the next couple days but it's a good start. >> joining us live from capitol hill, house majority leader steny hoyer, mr. majority leader, senator arlen sperkter says he will not support this if there are major changes. will there be mayor changes? >> i think the key to that is major changes. i was with arlen specter a half an hour ago. we didn't talk substance. we were honoring john dingell. the fact of the matter is you have a senate version and a house version. the senate version is about $40. or $20 billion more than the house version. so they appropriated more money. but we create more jobs, about 3.9 million to their 3.4 million. so there's going to be discussion between the house and senate as the best way to get the 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 in the next couple days. >> i want to show our viewers who will be leading the discussions. the members of the senate conference committee. senator harry reid, of course, the majority leader. max balk cuss. the house conference committee members, representative david obay, representative charlie wangle, henry waxman, the three republicans there, jerry lewis, dave camp. senator john ensign today suggested this process would be served through accountability and transparency. i want to play his request and get your reaction. watch. >> this new president and the democrat congress have promised transparency and accountability. while we're challenging the democrat congress to do is to televise the conference meeting. 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. majority leader, how about that, why not televise the committee? >> john ensign, with all due respect to the senator, didn't practice what he's preaching. the senate was reluctant to go to conference oerst last two years of the congress. we have a crisis situation projected by the president. i agree with him. me need to act quickly. there are meetings going on now. those meetings are intense. not necessarily conference but meetings between individuals to cry to resolve differences on particular programs. we are very hopeful this could get done. and that we can come to agreement. there will be a conference. whether or not, i presume, it's going to be televised. whether or not it's a very long conference clearly the economy can not 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. we have to move quickly. 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 large bill with a lets of items. they're going to have to get resolved by a confer rees, them will be the ultimate resolvers of the differences but there are going to be many other people involved. >> congressman, you mentioned the intensity. i'm told there are a number of governors already lobbying hard because they want the $70 billion put back in. it was taken out to a certain extent by the senate. underscoring these differences you talk about, here's the house speaker earlier today. watch. >> our colleagues are excited about the prospects, 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 will go to conference to fight for those jobs. >> mr. majority leader, how do you reconcile all these different interests? would you acknowledge this is extremely sensitive? >> there isn't doubt it's sensitive. you're absolutely right. 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. people hopefully of goodwill can come together and there's going to have to have compromises. we believe, as you know, as the speaker pointed out the states are in real trouble. we want to make sure they don't have to lay off police, fire, teachers. keep our education system going. they have to reach balanced budgets. their revenues are down. we need to give them help. we've given them more help than the senate has given them. that's why governor crist, republican governor of physical unless, was with president obama today. but we hope we can resolve the ...