WASHINGTON - President Obama will meet face-to-face on Friday with the newly empowered Republican leadership of Congress as the two sides, faced with the prospect of even worse partisan gridlock in the capital, seek areas of possible compromise.
The lunch meeting is scheduled to begin at 12:40 in the Old Family Dining Room at the White House.
Mr. Obama extended the invitation to the congressional leadership, including the House speaker, John A. Boehner, and Senator Mitch McConnell, the likely next Senate majority leader, after Democrats lost control of the Senate on Tuesday and Republicans made across-the-board gains in the House and in governors' mansions.
In remarks the day after the election, the president said he hoped to work with the incoming Republican leadership. But he also said he intended to use the meeting to press the current Congress to act on several items before its session ends in December.
Mr. Obama says he wants lawmakers to quickly consider a proposal for nearly $6.2 billion to help pay for the fight against Ebola in the United States and in West Africa. He also wants to start a discussion about a new authorization to use military force against extremists in the Middle East. And he wants to talk about the need for a temporary budget for the rest of the year.
Those issues are likely to be part of the discussion. But Republicans said they were also eager to present the president with a broader agenda they plan to push once they are in charge on both sides of the Capitol Building.
'The top issue in this election was jobs and the economy,' said a House leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Republicans' thinking. 'Republican leaders will remind the president that the list of House-passed jobs bills is a great place to start for immediate, bipartisan action to help create more private-sector American jobs.'
Posted by Unknown on Friday, November 7, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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