Lee Terry: “Water infrastructure is important. And certainly I see in the stimulus bill, at least the version that the House passed…”

“Water infrastructure is important. And certainly I see in the stimulus bill, at least the version that the House passed, that there will be investment in that infrastructure. And I think it's probably a good thing, although there's a budgetary process, an appropriation process, an authorization process, called WRDA, where the same thing could be done, and in an appropriate way where we can have appropriate discussions on that merit. What I have learned today during the 15-minute break I had to eat lunch is that there is now a deal that has been reached between the Speaker's office and the majority leader of the Senate's office on the stimulus bill--the conference. We always knew or anticipated that the whole process was just going to be rammed down the throats of the Members of Congress and that, in all likelihood, the conference was going to be the Speaker's office and Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader's office. Yesterday, they came out and said, We are going to have a conference. Even called our majority leader and said we are actually going to let two Republicans on the conference committee. Of course, none have been appointed.”