Joe Barton: “But the real reason I'm here is that I'm getting a little bit frustrated on behalf of the American people of being shut…”

“But the real reason I'm here is that I'm getting a little bit frustrated on behalf of the American people of being shut out of the process. We have this suspension bill and then three or four others from the Science Committee this afternoon. We're basically treading water because a decision was made last night by our Speaker and the majority leader in the Senate and the President to lock down the stimulus conference. The Speaker apparently has a plane trip scheduled to leave to go to Italy on Friday at 6:00 and can't be bothered with an open and transparent process on spending in the neighborhood of $800 to $900 billion to theoretically stimulate the economy. And to put that number in perspective, that is larger than the entire economy of the nation of Australia. It is 20 years worth of State spending. The State budget of the State of Texas, which I represent, is the second largest in terms of population in the country, second only to California. You would think if we were going to spend that kind of money, and it is an issue of such importance, that we would have some sort of a process around here that would have input from everybody.”