President Obama plans to sit down with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday, the first meeting between the two since Ryan took the job in October, to discuss legislative priorities and areas of possible compromise for the rest of the year.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will also join the private meeting with Obama and Ryan in the Oval Office.
“We certainly believe there are areas of cooperation for the year and we will have a discussions with Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell” about that, said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
Earnest said the meeting with Ryan has been under discussion since the beginning of the year, but a busy White House schedule, as well as snow days and few congressional work days so far has delayed it.
Earnest said that “based on some success we’ve had last year on a whole range of legislative priorities,” there are “good prospects” for finding more areas of common ground this year.
Shortly after his election as speaker late last year, Ryan and Obama worked together to reach a budget deal, pass a new education bill, a major five-year transportation measure and a long-awaited fix to Medicare’s formula for paying doctors.
