White House snubs budget panel leaders in health summit invites

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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/81025-white-house-snubs-budget-panel-leaders-in-bipartisan-summit-invites

The White House did not invite House or Senate Budget Committee leaders to its healthcare reform summit later this month, including a Republican who recently offered to work with President Barack Obama to strike a bipartisan deal.

Obama’s administration on Friday released a list of its invitees to the Feb. 25 summit, but topping the conspicuous absences were the top budget-writers in each chamber. For the Senate, the list excluded Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the ranking Budget Committee member who in recent weeks has been publicly courting the Obama administration for a seat at the table in the talks, and committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).

Conrad and Gregg last month launched an unsuccessful effort to create a legislative commission to study the federal deficit. For the House, missing from Friday’s invitee list was Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) and ranking member Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Conrad and Gregg were both unreachable on Saturday, and calls, pages and e-mails to multiple White House spokesmen went unreturned.