Schock Calls for Public House - Senate Stimulus Negotiations

From the Office of Congressman Aaron Schock

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) issued the following statement calling for an open and public forum for House – Senate negotiations on the stimulus bill. House rules dictate that there must be an open hearing for conference committee negotiations.

“Given the billions of taxpayer dollars at stake in the stimulus, negotiations between the House and Senate must be completely open and transparent. American taxpayers deserve to know how and where the government plans to spend their money. I believe it is an open invitation to trouble to keep these negotiations closed.”

“Allowing this historically enormous spending package to be negotiated between a small handful of people behind closed doors would eliminate accountability to the American taxpayers and wholly undermine all efforts at bipartisanship.”

“I support fast action but not at the expense of getting this wrong. We need to work in an expeditious and bipartisan manner to proceed under full sunlight so taxpayers can have full faith in this process and the resulting economic stimulus bill.”