Not So Fast

Is there a deal or not?

The Democratic leadership from the House and Senate are meeting in the Speaker’s office, trying to salvage the deal that had been announced earlier. There were hard feelings by some House members that an agreement on the economic stimulus had been announced before they had seen the details.

At least some of the differences, aides said, appeared to be over construction spending measures. Aides said the situation would be resolved.

“I think we’re moving very rapidly toward making an announcement of a deal,” Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for the House Speaker, told reporters who crowded the corridor outside Ms. Pelosi’s office.

End update.

We’re told that House members, including Representative George Miller, are still concerned that there is not enough money in the bill for school renovation.

The much-anticipated conference session — where a $789 billion deal on the economic stimulus package was about to become formal — has just been postponed. It was quite a spectacle, with several veteran senators and chairmen waiting for House Democrats, whose absence forced the conference to be put off.