House Minority Leader John Boehner on Wednesday disclosed who he is naming to fill the four “wild card” slots given to House Republicans for President Obama’s health care meeting at Blair House Thursday.
The four slots will go to Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, Rep. Peter Roskam of Illinois and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Boehner’s office told The Daily Caller.
The other House GOP attendees are Boehner, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Ways and Means Committee ranking member Dave Camp of Michigan, Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton of Texas, and Education and Labor Committee ranking member John Kline of Minnesota.
Boehner held out on announcing the four lawmakers as he lobbied the White House to allow governors such as Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty to attend the session. But the White House, according to Boehner’s office, has refused to do so. The White House has not itself responded to questions about this.
The head of the Republican Governors Association, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, inserted himself into the debate by declaring himself “extremely disappointed to learn that governors will be excluded from the Obama Administration’s so-called health care summit tomorrow.”
“At the meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington this past weekend, it became clear that many states are making progress in health care reform, and governors have many ideas and policies on which consensus could be based at the national level,” Barbour said. “If there really is to be a serious effort to develop a bipartisan agreement on health care reform, governors are critical to the equation.”
This now looks to be one of the main Republican talking points on Thursday during the six-hour session to undermine the president’s attempts to claim efforts at bipartisanship and inclusion.
Boehner said he is also creating a “truth team” of 17 House Republican lawmakers whom he said will be “ready to fact-check misstatements from Washington Democrats and highlight Republicans’ better solutions to lower health-care costs – while the Republican summit team participates at the Blair House.”
A Boehner aide said the 17 members will be focused on doing TV, radio and print interviews during the day, functioning something like a real time rapid response team.
Here is a list of all the attendees coming from Congress:
SENATE DEMOCRATS
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV)
Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (IL)
Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (NY)
Democratic Conference Secretary Patty Murray (WA)
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (MT)
Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (CT)
HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (Iowa)
Finance Subcommittee on Health Care Chairman Jay Rockefeller (WV)
Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (ND)
Sen. Ron Wyden (OR)
SENATE REPUBLICANS
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY)
Minority Whip John Kyl (AR)
Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (TN)
Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
HELP Committee ranking member Mike Enzi (Wyoming)
Sen. John McCain (AR)
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK)
Sen. John Barrosso (WY)
HOUSE DEMOCRATS
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA)
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD)
Majority Whip James Clyburn (SC)
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (NY)
Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (CA)
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (CA)
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Emeritus John Dingell (MI)
Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (NY)
Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus Xavier Becerra (CA)
Rep. Rob Andrews (NJ)
Rep. Jim Cooper (TN)
HOUSE REPUBLICANS
Minority Leader John Boehner (OH)
Minority Whip Eric Cantor (VA)
Ways and Means Committee ranking member Dave Camp (MI)
Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton (TX)
Education and Labor Committee ranking member John Kline (MN)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN)
Rep. Charles Boustany (LA)
Rep. Peter Roskam (IL)
Rep. Paul Ryan (WI)