as he was following a White House meeting Wednesday night. (April 7)

A Thursday-night meeting between congressional leaders and President Obama failed to resolve an impasse over federal spending that, barring an agreement on Friday, would result in a government shutdown.

After the session, which lasted nearly 90 minutes, Obama said in brief remarks to reporters that differences between the two parties remained, adding, “I’m not yet prepared to express wild optimism.”

He did not detail the remaining disagreements between Democrats and the White House and congressional Republicans, which have prompted days of tense negotiations over a bill to fund the federal government.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) issued a joint statement that simply said, “We have narrowed the issues, however we have not yet reached an agreement.”

“We will continue to work through the night to attempt to resolve our remaining differences,” the statement read. Obama, too, said differences were “narrowed” in the night meeting.

Obama said that because the government was preparing for a shutdown, an agreement needed to be reached early Friday.

“I expect an answer in the morning and my hope is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted,” Obama said.

After the meeting, the White House canceled Obama’s scheduled trip Friday to Indianapolis to discuss hybrid-transporation technology.

The leaders gathered hours after the House of Representatives defied a White House veto threat and approved a one-week stopgap spending bill. Republicans said the bill would head off the shutdown this weekend, but Democratic opponents said contains unacceptable cuts and policy provisions.

The House passed the temporary funding bill by a vote of 247 to 181. Before the vote, the White House warned that Obama would veto the measure if it reached his desk — an event considered unlikely given strong opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

After an earlier White House meeting Thursday, Boehner told reporters: “There is no agreement on a number, there is no agreement on the policy.” He added, “We are not there yet.”

Reid, standing beside Boehner, said he was “disappointed” that a deal has not been struck so far, “but I am pleased that we are still working on getting there.” He warned that a government shutdown “of no matter how long” would cause economic damage, including a drop in U.S. gross domestic product. “It’s not easy to do, but it’s doable,” he said of efforts to reach an agreement.

Neither man would detail Thursday afternoon exactly what the disagreements were. Asked whether the impasse was over policy provisions or the amount of cuts, Reid said simply that “everything is in play.”

Boehner said Obama told him during the session that he would veto the temporary funding measure. “I did express my disappointment that he suggested he would veto that bill,” Boehner said.

White House officials would not immediately comment on the meeting or the progress of negotiations after it ended.

Upon returning to the Capitol, Reid told reporters he needed to speak with the Democratic caucus. He acknowledged that Democrats still believe most of the policy riders Republicans have sought would end up jettisoned from the final deal, if there is a deal. He declined to specify which measures Obama and Democrats would relent on.

“We’ll get most of them” removed, he said.

Earlier, after congressional negotiators working through the night failed to reach an agreement to fund the federal government for the remainder of the year, the Obama administration formally rejected the Republican plan for a stopgap measure that includes policy provisions opposed by Democrats.

To give negotiators more time to work out an agreement that would avert a federal government shutdown beginning Saturday, Boehner urged the White House and congressional Democrats to accept a stopgap spending bill that would fund the Defense Department for the remainder of the fiscal year and the rest of the government for one week. But Democrats remained resolutely opposed, saying the measure would require $12 billion in cuts and includes a provision to ban federal and local government funding for abortions in the District of Columbia. Congress already has enacted two stopgap measures to allow extensions of the budget negotiations.

In a formal “statement of administration policy,” the Office of Management and Budget said Thursday afternoon that the Obama administration “strongly opposes” the stopgap bill. “As the president stated on April 5, 2011, if negotiations are making significant progress, the administration would support a short-term, clean continuing resolution to allow for enactment of a final bill,” it said.

“After giving the Congress more time by signing short-term extensions into law, the president believes that we need to put politics aside and work out our differences for a bill that covers the rest of the fiscal year,” the statement said. “This bill is a distraction from the real work that would bring us closer to a reasonable compromise for funding the remainder of fiscal year 2011 and avert a disruptive federal government shutdown that would put the nation’s economic recovery in jeopardy.” It said the stopgap measure “simply delays that critical final outcome.”

The statement concluded: “If presented with this bill, the president will veto it.”

Reid said Thursday morning that the talks on a fiscal 2011 budget deal foundered over two Republican policy provisions on abortion and the environment and that the negotiators largely agreed to an amount of spending cuts. But Boehner disputed that, saying there was “no agreement on a number” and that the disagreements were not limited to a couple of policy provisions known as “riders.”

VIDEO HERE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/reid-says-budget-talks-

stymied-by-gop-policy-provisions/2011/04/07/AFw3fruC_story.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

April 7, 2011