Democrats in Congress hope to approve a massive economic stimulus plan backed by president-elect Barack Obama by early February, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Sunday.
"We certainly want to see this package passed through the House of Representatives no later than the end of this month, get it to the Senate and get it to the president before we break" for holidays in "early February," Hoyer told "Fox News Sunday."
The Democrat confirmed the size of the package would be somewhere in the range of 775 billion to a trillion dollars. "We've been talking in that neighbourhood. I'm not going to set a figure on it," Hoyer said.
"Clearly, it needs to be very substantial. Every economist from right to left, Republican, Democrat, advises that it has to be a very substantial package if, in fact, we're going to accomplish the objective which is, of course, to stabilise the economy and try to start bringing it back."
Hoyer said it was unlikely lawmakers would get the recovery package passed in the House before Obama's inauguration on January 20 as initially hoped. "It's going to be difficult to get the package put together that quickly to have sufficient time to be reviewed, debated and passed," he said, adding he hoped the House would pass the plan by the end of January.