Nancy Pelosi: 'I Feel No Responsibility' To Pass Budget Deal

Elise Foley
HuffPost
Posted: 04/14/11

WASHINGTON -- Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said on Thursday she feels no obligation to pass the bill to fund government for the remainder of the year, in part because the agreement was reached without her input.

"I feel no ownership of that or any responsibility to it, except that we do not want to shut down the government," Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a press conference a few hours before the vote.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will likely need votes from Democrats to pass the budget deal, which was hammered out at the eleventh hour to prevent a government shutdown last week. Both Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were left out of negotiations over government funding.

McConnell kept away from negotiations partly because he and Boehner agreed it would be better to exclude Pelosi, said a source who is familiar with what occurred.

In the end, no women were given a voice in the final negotiations, which took place between high-level staffers for Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the White House. The final deal involved a major battle over women's health, including debates about blocking government funds to Planned Parenthood and banning the District of Columbia for using its own tax revenue to fund abortions for low-income women.

(More here.)