Updated at 3:57 p.m. on Dec. 17.

COPENHAGEN -- House Republicans in a bipartisan, 21-member CODEL led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi are complaining that they are being mistreated by Pelosi's staff.

This, they claim, includes not being invited to attend a press briefing today featuring Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and five other Democratic leaders; not being helped in setting up their own media briefing; and initially not getting access to top U.N. climate negotiator Todd Stern.

"It's pretty frustrating," said House global warming ranking member Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "They basically sent the Republicans back to the hotel on a bus" when the Democrats went to do their media briefing, he said. "The partisan card is being played on here."

Sensenbrenner said that Stern briefed the entire delegation only after he complained that Democrats Henry Waxman (Calif.) and Edward Markey (Mass.), who both chair environmental panels, were getting a private briefing with him while everyone else was being briefed by deputy Jonathan Pershing. "Two members were getting the A team and the rest of us were getting the B team," Sensenbrenner said. All of the CODEL were briefed by the Indian environment minister and the head of the Danish parliament.

But the press event starring the House Democratic leaders "was by invitation only, and we were not invited," Sensenbrenner said. Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton of Texas, like Sensenbrenner a veteran of international climate conferences, said this is the first time the party in the minority "was not included in the public events of the majority and discouraged -- if not prohibited -- from doing their own events."

Barton said that Republicans were able to get a room for their press briefing set for Friday late this afternoon after a bit of a struggle. "And that is inexcusable," he said. "But we'll work around it."

The 15 House Democrats and six Republicans -- who flew here together on two military 737s that Pelosi chartered for them -- are getting along just fine on a lawmaker level, Barton said. "I wouldn't be here if the Speaker didn't have my name on the list," he said. "But then we ran into a roadblock with the Speaker's staff."

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, who is here in Copenhagen, responded in an e-mail: "Both the R and D members requested space to do a press conference. Ds got space today and Rs have space tomorrow in the US Center." He added, "As you know, you don't even really need space to do a press conference," noting that Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., held his own impromptu 30-minute press conference this morning in the media center here.

Regarding the briefings so far, Hammill said there was a bipartisan briefing with both U.S. negotiators and "one negotiator came late." He added that "delegation organizers worked very hard to make such a high level briefing take place in the middle of ongoing negotiations."

A House Democratic aide also said that Republicans didn't struggle with Democratic staff to get a room for their press conference; they made a late request to the U.N. "They had press staff out here since the weekend and seemingly have not done any planning," the Democratic aide said.

One House Democratic aide added that plenty of both Democrats and Republicans are doing their fair share of press relations here, noting that Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, for example, left a roundtable discussion on women and climate change earlier today to do a BBC interview.

The lawmakers return to Washington Saturday morning.

CORRECTION: The original version of this report gave the wrong title for Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.