Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said a meeting between congressional leaders and President Obama at the White House Tuesday was productive, saying they discussed “several areas where I think we can make some bipartisan progress.” The new leader said the president and Republicans found common ground on trade fast-track authority, cybersecurity and the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
“We spent our time largely talking about the things that we agree on,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters at the Capitol. “We don’t want to use the fact that there is an election coming up as a rationale for not making some progress.”
McConnell said the president pressed the lawmakers to grant him trade promotion authority to help fast-track trade deals, which the senator said has the support of most of his Republican colleagues.
“We think trade agreements are good for America — they create jobs and opportunity for our people,” he said.
McConnell said the president also said he was working on sending Congress a request for authorization to the use the military to combat the Islamic State.
“I think a good starting place is for him to tell us what he wants [in the authorization] and to provide the initial document off which we would work, and my feeling is that we’re going to get that sometime in the near future,” the majority leader said.
Also discussed were ways to enhance cybersecurity — which McConnell vowed to push for in the Senate.
Still, the meeting wasn’t solely a “Kumbaya” session. The president and Republicans remain poles apart on immigration, the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, and other issues.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he told the president his chamber is pressing forward on a Department of Homeland Security spending bill that includes amendments to stop the president’s recent executive action on immigration aimed at stemming deportations. A final vote on the controversial package is expected Wednesday.
The speaker reminded the president that he had stated publicly many times in the past that he didn’t have the power to rewrite immigration law through executive action.
Boehner added the Republican-led House already has passed several measures designed to combat cyberattacks.
The White House, which has issued a veto threat for the DHS bill if it includes the immigration measures, said the president at the meeting underscored that “there are priorities that rise above politics — including keeping Americans safe by promptly and fully funding the Department of Homeland Security without delay.”
The president also asked that leaders from both parties work together to build on the nation’s economic growth.
