The U.S. House of Representatives took three days to pass its version of the Obama stimulus package. The U.S. Senate, with a slimmer majority of Obama's Democratic troops, took more than a week, passing an $838 billion package today.

Now, as the dust clears from the Senate's demolition of the original proposal (shaped heavily by a crew of 16 centrists from both sides of the aisle, including Washington's Sen. Patty Murray ), it's time to see if the two packages—stimuli packages?—can be forged into a strong compromise plan for Obama to sign. (While the Senate bill comes to a larger dollar figure—the House package was about $820 billion—the Senate bill, with deeper tax cuts and more high-profile program cuts, is actually more austere .)

Let the rumble begin.

 It's already begun, actually, before the Senate even voted on their bill. Over the weekend,  Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1) and his brand new posse of greens—including Rep. Jim McDermott—started nagging House leadership for a little help making the final stimulus bill eco-friendly. Their list of demands includes devoting more money to transit projects, investing $8 billion in renewable technology, and putting $3.4 billion toward energy conservation incentives.

Green Democrats aren't the only House liberals who are likely to grouse about the Senate version. Cuts include:

• $1 billion in funding for Head Start/Early Start


• $1 billion in energy loan guarantees


• $16 billion in construction funds for public schools


• $600 million for No Child Left Behind


• $400 million to prevent HIV and STD transmission


• and perhaps most contentious of all, a $40 billion cut to a state budgets stabilization fund.
  

That isn't even the half of it. Most of the cuts can be found right here —thanks ObamaNerd.

It's not only Democrats who are unhappy.

All of the Washington State Republicans in Congress (and, actually, all of the Republicans in Congress) voted against the original bill, and one of them is already putting on her boxing gloves.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA, 5)

"Her goal is to create more freedom for the people, like tax freedom," Destry Henderson, spokesperson for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA, 5), told PubliCola yesterday. McMorris-Rodgers, who represents most of Eastern Washington, is in favor of a plan that "involves more tax cuts so we can invest in things that will have a long-lasting impact," Henderson said. The new Senate proposal "looks like just more of the same," he added.
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA), for his part, wrote an editorial for the Seattle P-I on February 5 where he said the stimulus bill was "rushed to the floor without thorough consideration, without clear evidence that it would create new jobs, and without regard for many of the proposals discussed in meetings with the president."

There actually were some notable additions to the stimulus plan during Senate debate, like Sen. Maria Cantwell's $2.28 billion electric car add-on and Sen. Murray's eventual $5.9 billion for nuclear cleanup at sites like Hanford.

Despite the fact that Hanford is practically the bread and butter of Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), who represents Central Washington, and whose contingency has been steadily poisoned by Hanford for the last 60 years, says he probably won’t be on board with the stimulus package under any circumstances. He called the stimulus "a massive expansion of the federal government," something he definitely doesn’t want.

Democrats in both houses, as well as the President—who's been "warning of a pending "catastrophe" unless the bill passes—hope to have something worked out by Monday.