After the House vote, Pelosi and Boehner urged the Senate to consider their bill as written.
Pelosi argued that other proposals could be enacted later, though she has never committed to a second stimulus bill.
“It’s not unprecedented for one chamber to yield to the bill of the other,” Pelosi said, citing occasions last year when the House passed Senate versions of bills with no changes, partly because GOP opposition in the Senate prevented House bills from moving forward.
“I hope the Senate will return the favor and take our bill and run with it,” she added.
House members have been frustrated with their party’s Senate leaders and the ability of the Senate GOP minority to stall legislation, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) did not bother to hide his disdain for the Senate in comments to a business group Tuesday morning. “Our poor Democratic leadership,” he said, referring to Senate leaders. “They’re held hostage. Sometimes I think they like it because they sure do like each other.”
Pelosi and Boehner said that they like many proposals floating around to stimulate the economy, but warned that reopening the debate would slow the package.
“The American people are expecting a rebate check. The Speaker and I have been through this process,” said Boehner, who added that he and Pelosi had received “hundreds of letters” from lobbyists pushing the gamut of measures to add to the stimulus. “They are all good ideas, but they don’t meet the need of being timely.”
However, it may be too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
On the Finance Committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said she may offer an amendment on green energy tax incentives and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) says that a bipartisan group of 20 senators support a provision he has co-sponsored with Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) to direct that a portion of the stimulus bill be spent on road resurfacing.
“I share the desire of all the leaders to do this quickly,” Wyden said. “But I still have an obligation as a U.S. senator to wring every possible benefit out of the stimulus dollar.”
Ten House Democrats voted against the package, including some centrists who rejected the Alternative Minimum Tax fix last year because it, like the stimulus bill, was not paid for with budgetary offsets. They included Reps. Brian Baird (Wash.), Marion Berry (Ark.); Allen Boyd (Fla.); Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Loretta Sanchez (Calif.), Adam Smith (Wash.) and Gene Taylor (Miss.).
Manu Raju contributed to this article.
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