A few threads ask who the Stimulus bill conferees were - they are in the Senate record

[karynnj]

Rather than spam every thread asking who they were - here is what is in Thomas.

From the detail on HR1 -
"February 10
Senate insists on its amendment, asks for a conference, appoints conferees Inouye; Baucus; Reid; Cochran; Grassley"

"2/10/2009 4:47pm:
The Speaker appointed conferees: Obey, Rangel, Waxman, Lewis (CA), and Camp. "

So, if it was in the Stimulus bill those are the names.

(The Senate record is hard to link to - go here http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00064 and click on HR1, then on that page all congressional action -

[atreides1]

1. Baucus???

Could he have slipped it in? Maybe even Cochran?

[karynnj]

2. I doubt it was just one person - but if it was Baucus or Reid might be good candidates

especially if the nameless source story that Treasury wanted it in is true.

[Undercurrent]

3. Don't know who done it, and it may not have been one of the

Conferance Committee members. Anyway, this is the list from "Writes Like She Talks":

-
Senate Democratic leadership has announced who will be serving on the conference committee to iron out differences in the House and Senate versions of the stimulus bill.

* Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
* Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
* Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii
* Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa
* Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

Both Finance and Appropriations were heavily involved in the creation of the Senate version, with each committee holding markups on their portions.

And for the House:

* Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wis.
* Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.
* Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
* Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.
* Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Dave Camp, R-Mich.

http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2009/02/11/no-female-senators-or-reps-on-stimulus-package-conference-committee/

[karynnj]

13. That's the same list - but it adds their relevant positions

Why do you say it may not have been one of the people on the conference? The hearings are still available on theSenate Finance Committee site (http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearings.htm) The appropriations site is the worst committee site I've seen and it seems to not have the 2009 hearings yet unless I'm looking in the wrong place - http://appropriations.senate.gov/hearings.cfm

[eleny]

4. Dodd, Reid and Grassley denied involvement to CNN

They reported that a little while ago today.

[Undercurrent]

5. WoW

MSNBC talking heads are saying that Conference Committee votes had to be unanimous. ALL member had to have supported this provision being inserted into the bill!

[polichick]

6. Neither Snowe's office nor Wyden's could say who stripped their amendment...

Just called them ~ and neither would say why the Obama Team didn't support the amendment, which would have prevented the bonuses from being paid.

[Undercurrent]

7. Thanks.

Did they indicate that what MSNBC is reporting is true? That ALL the members of the committee had to support this?

If that reporting is true, then it was not one person, but a whole rat bag of them.

[polichick]

9. They didn't say that all the members had to support it - just that they...

...don't know what happened.

I'm glad Chris Matthews has taken it on himself to get to the bottom of this.

[Undercurrent]

15. Thanks for the info.

I am trying to stay abreast of this fiasco. My head is all a twirl by all the visible moving parts, and my brain hurts thinking about all the hidden information!

What a fraking mess!

[Uzybone]

8. I think we are being played

the idea of this whole track of thinking is to pin the blame of AIG bonuses on either Obama or congressional dems. Conveniently overlooking the fact that it was the Bush treasury that allowed these bonuses to be written, and it was GOP policies that allowed this entire situation to occur.

This is just another scheme to make the left own the economic meltdown. Fannie and Freddie part 2.

[beachmom]

10. Nice try, but I refuse to be a partisan hack the way the Bush supporters were.

Yeah, it started with Bush, but it COULD have been fixed by Dems, but wasn't.

[Uzybone]

11. Then be a fool

and focus on bonuses while the larger picture is obscured. The GOP thanks you.

The fact is they are all in on the bonuses, but they want to pin it on democrats only.

[beachmom]

12. Not just bonuses. Anyone who has looked into what has happened

the last 15 years knows that too many Democrats were buddying up with Wall Street. The GOP was WORSE. But the Democrats weren't much better.

Do some research, and you'll find deregulation could not have happened without Democrats going along with it.

[karynnj]

14. There are 2 things here

1) There is a real need to know who weaken Dodd's amendment and who knew about it. The root of this problem is weak regulation. Beachmom is right that BOTH parties worked to weaken regulation. The Republicans did it as a matter of ideology - they hate regulation of anything business. But, there is no denying that Rubin, Summers et al led Clinton to believe that regulation put in place during FDR's first 100 days was archaic and no longer needed.

I looked pretty hard to find a Democratic Senator speaking in the Senate against repealing Glass/Stegall - but I couldn't find it. All the Democrats except Hollings voted against the bill when it passed the Senate, but most of them voted for the conference report. This was a HUGE bill and many of the ones who voted against it had reasons completely unrelated to that amendment. The same thing happened with the Commodities Future Act, except there was no roll call - just a voice vote after almost everyone had gone home for the holidays.

To me, this does not say the Democrats did not do their job or that they were evil, just that they all relied on the advice of the experts in the Democratic administration and most of the experts outside of it. This was a case where what the financial world wanted was wrong. There is blame all around - but blame and guilt are not the same thing - I doubt any did anything they thought could be wrong here.

2) You are right that there is a Republican effort to create a simple - but inaccurate - story that blames the Democrats. They succeeded well with Freddie Max and Fannie Mae, which bought for just 17% of the bad mortgages and they ignored that the Democrats backed the bipartisan House passed bill to regulate them.