Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday threatened to keep Members in session over the mid-February recess if Congress has not yet delivered economic stimulus legislation to the president’s desk.

“If we don’t have a bill before the Presidents [Day] recess, there will be no Presidents recess,” which is the week of Feb. 16, she said. “We are not going home without an economic recovery package.”

Pelosi brushed off concerns about divisions among Democrats about what should be included the multibillion-dollar package. Stimulus legislation is “long overdue” and Democrats have been making decisions about its components “for a long time,” she said.

A Pelosi aide said the Appropriations and Ways and Means committees would begin holding markups on the stimulus bill the week of Jan. 19. Meanwhile, President-elect Barack Obama was making a national appeal for a recovery package, saying the need is dire and action must be immediate.