Congress: Working late into the night

The New York Times on yesterday’s negotiations on the stimulus. "The officials worked late into the night, with Mr. Reid shuttling between meetings with senators in his office and House leaders in Ms. Pelosi’s suite. Centrist senators who were crucial to the stimulus deal, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, Republicans of Maine, Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, returned around 9 p.m. for the talks and left about an hour later. The group broke for the night shortly before 11:30 p.m. ‘We’re not there,’ Mr. Reid said. ‘But we have made a significant amount of progress in the last 10 hours.’” The Washington Post notes that the states are pushing for the compromise legislation to reflect more the House version (which included $79 billion in direct aid to the states) than the Senate version (which provided $39 billion). “‘If the Senate version holds, there will be very deep cuts,’ said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D), who added that the cost to ... (link)