After abruptly pulling the lobbying reform bill earlier and retreating to a private room, it looks like House Republicans have hammered out some sort of compromise on the earmark mutiny, because they’ve brought the reform bill back to the floor.
According to the AP:
Grievances were aired at a closed two-hour meeting at which House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other party leaders pledged that the final bill that comes out of House-Senate negotiations will expand the earmark language to cover all bills.
I’m watching C-SPAN now, and Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) just euphemistically referred to that meeting as an opportunity to hear “more input.” Right.
So they won’t change the bill, but have sworn that they’ll change it down the line. We’ll see how that flies with Rep. Lewis (R-CA) and his fellow earmark mutineers.