Senators work on bid to end standoff

President cites some ‘space for trading,’ lawmaker says

Republican senators, from left, Ted Cruz of Texas, John McCain of Arizona, David Vitter of Louisiana, and Richard Shelby of Alabama, walk in the rain back to their bus at the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, after they met with President Barack Obama regarding the government shutdown and debt ceiling. After weeks of ultimatums, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are exploring whether they can end a budget standoff that has triggered a partial government shutdown and edged Washington to the verge of a historic, economy-jarring federal default. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican senators, from left, Ted Cruz of Texas, John McCain of Arizona, David Vitter of Louisiana, and Richard Shelby of Alabama, walk in the rain back to their bus at the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, after they met with President Barack Obama regarding the government shutdown and debt ceiling. After weeks of ultimatums, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are exploring whether they can end a budget standoff that has triggered a partial government shutdown and edged Washington to the verge of a historic, economy-jarring federal default. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON - Republican senators emerged from a meeting at the White House on Friday expressing confidence that a deal could be reached in a matter of days that would end the government shutdown and extend the nation’s borrowing authority but cautioning that details of an agreement, including the length of an extension, still needed to be worked out.

“I’m glad we had the discussion,” said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. “Now we have to put the words into action and get this resolved.”

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said there was no breakthrough but a general sense that at least the two sides were listening to each other now. “[President Barack Obama] was willing to listen as well as give his point of view,” he said. “So I think it was helpful.”

Significantly, the president signaled that he could be flexible in reaching a deal, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. He said he wasopen to the idea of giving Republicans something on their policy wish list, Murkowski said, if they in turn agreed to give Democrats something - but only on the condition that the government reopens and the debt ceiling is raised.

“He said ‘space for trading,’” Murkowski said. “So apparently we are not talking about negotiation, we’re talking about some trading space.”

After the White House meeting, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., continued work on a proposal they hope could get bipartisan support in the Senate. The plan, according to an aide with knowledge of the discussions, would extend the nation’s borrowing limit through the end of January and include a stopgap-spending measure at sequestration levels that would reopen the government and finance it through the end of March. Government agencies would have flexibility on how to handle the across-the-board spending cuts.

The plan also would call for an immediate bipartisan conference for the House and the Senate to begin negotiations over a budget, with the expectation of producing an agreement by the middle of January.

The aide added that there also would be either a delay or an easing of a tax on makers of medical devices that is part of the health-care law, but that the repeal of the tax was now off the table.

Attendees at the White House meeting said that when a version of the proposal was discussed, the president listened carefully and indicated it could serve as a good starting point for an agreement. “He described it as constructive, as having elements that could be worked on, but I don’t mean to give you the impression that he endorsed it and said, ‘What a great plan.’ He didn’t,” Collins said.

Negotiations over the proposal among a bipartisan group of senators have received the blessing of Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. Both Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democrat, are involved in the talks - a dynamic aides point to as a sign of optimism.

Though Republicans in both chambers have largely tabled the effort to “defund Obamacare,” as its proponents call it, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a leader of the movement, said he reiterated his view to the president that changes to his health-care lawshould be part of any deal.

“The outcome needs to be we should fund the government, and we should provide real relief to the millions of people who are losing their job or forced into part-time work or losing their health insurance because of Obamacare,” Cruz said. “That should remain the focus, and I hope it does.”

Any path to compromise remains uncertain, given how firmly Democrats have insisted that they will accept nothing other than debt-ceiling and budget bills that contain no Republican add-ons.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he sensed some flexibility in that the president displayed willingness to step back from the no-negotiations line he has taken as a condition for reopening the government.

“Here’s what I mentioned to the president: ‘Listen, I understand where you’re coming from protecting the presidency, but you can’t tell the Congress you will reopen the government, you will pass a continuing resolution and you will raise the debt ceiling, then I will talk to you,’” Graham said. “As a body, we can’t give that authority away.”

Graham added that he believed the president was receptive.

“I think he understands that’s a point of view that he used to hold when he was over here,” he said.

Though some senators said that any plan they put forth would also need to pass muster in the Republican-controlled House, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., was eager for the Senate to take the lead in negotiating with Obama on reopening the government.

“House Republicans so far don’t want to get rid of the shutdown, and I don’t know in what world we’re faring well in the shutdown in terms of policy or politics, so in that sense, yeah I’d rather have the Senate,” he said.

Flake also said that while a repeal of the medical-device tax unpopular with some Democrats came up, the issue was “not resolved.” But, he added, the president did show some willingness to tweak other aspects of his signature health-care law. “He said individual things that needed to improve the act - not gutted - that he’d look at, but obviously not in the context,” Flake said.

Though no specific agreement was reached, Senate Republicans described the meeting as productive and said they were feeling, in the words of Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, “optimistic.” Attendees said they discussed potential spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs that Obama had previously proposed - such as testing for Medicare and a new way of calculating inflation to slow the growth of benefits - but were unable to agree on any specifics.

Also Friday, Obama and House Speaker John Boehner spoke by telephone about Boehner’s offer, which would extend U.S. borrowing authority to Nov. 22 from Thursday. Language to curb the health-care law would be attached to a stopgap-spending bill.

“The president has a number of concerns with the proposal,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters after Obama and Boehner talked. Carney said Obama is concerned that extending the debt ceiling for a short period while budget talks occur would lead to a replay of the same brinkmanship the U.S. is experiencing now.

“They agreed that we should all keep talking,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner.

House Republicans want to repeal a tax on makers of medical devices for two years and are considering a change in how full-time workers are defined in the health law’s employer mandate, said a Republican lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the party’s offer.

House Republicans are to meet this morning to discuss their plans.

A deal built around repealing the medical-device tax would be a “hollow victory” and further divide Republicans, said Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, one of the House Republicans still pushing to dismantle the healthcare law.

“It would still fund 98 percent of Obamacare,” Huelskamp said of the latest Republican proposal. “That won’t be sufficient for conservatives and will be seen as capitulating to the left.”

Reid said Friday that he is open to hearing Republican proposals, though he doesn’t like the idea of extending U.S. borrowing authority only to Nov. 22. Reid said he would continue advocating a delay of the next debt-limit fight into 2015.

“Using their theory, we would have another one of these periods of bedlam here in Washington right before the most important purchasing season anytime during the year,” Reid said, referring to the Christmas shopping season, without saying he would stop a short-term extension.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are pressing ahead with their plan, which would push the next debt-limit fight into 2015 and include no policy conditions. A test vote could occur today.

Democrats, who control 54 seats in the 100-member Senate, would need the support of at least six Republicans on procedural votes to pass their bill. Collins said she wouldn’t support the plan and that Reid should call off the vote.

The government shutdownsent ripples nationwide.

The aerospace industry reported that furloughs at the Federal Aviation Administration have resulted in a virtual stop to certification of new aircraft, equipment and training simulators.

The Senate passed legislation instructing the Pentagon to permit military chaplains to conduct worship services. House approval was still needed.

And Keith Colburn, a crab fisherman, told lawmakers during the day that a lucrative, one-month crab harvest set to begin Tuesday in the Bering Sea is in jeopardy because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is not assigning quotas to boats.

Additionally, the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program could soon be a casualty of the partial government shutdown, leaving millions of children without an important source of nutrition, a group representing school nutrition workers warned Congress on Friday.

Meanwhile, the House voted to hold formal negotiations with the Senate on a wide-ranging farm bill that sets policy for farm subsidies and food stamps.

Farm-state lawmakers have pushed the five-year, roughly $500 billion legislation for two years as it has been mired in debates over spending. They are hoping to finish the bill by January, when some dairy supports expire and milk prices could rise.

The Senate passed its farm bill in June, and the House passed two bills that will be combined in the negotiations. One House bill sets policy for farm programs and the other would cut around $4 billion a year from food stamps.

Food stamps are expected to be a contentious issue in the negotiations. The Senate bill would cut just $400 million a year.

Information for this article was contributed by Jeremy W. Peters, Ashley Parker and Ron Nixon of The New York Times; by James Rowley, Roxana Tiron, Kathleen Hunter, Chris Strohm, Julianna Goldman, Richard Rubin, Caitlin Webber and Michael C. Bender of Bloomberg News; and by David Espo, Julie Pace, Jim Kuhnhenn, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, Donna Cassata and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press.

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Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/12/2013

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