Biden meets with top GOP and Dem leaders on lame duck

President Biden on Tuesday will meet at the White House with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to discuss the lame-duck session.

The meeting with the “Big Four” will take place at 10:30 a.m., and the president and the leaders will discuss legislative priorities through the end of 2022, according to the White House.

The meeting will be Biden’s first with McCarthy, who is the presumed incoming Speaker in the next Congress after the House flipped to Republican control in the midterms.

“The president has been really clear, and he’s underscored this many times, that he’s here to find common ground and work across the aisle,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday when asked about a potential Biden-McCarthy meeting.

Congress is working on striking a deal to pass an omnibus spending package, which would likely include additional aid to Ukraine, before the end of the year. 

With Senate Republicans unable to take control of the upper chamber in the midterm elections, McConnell is now faced with calculating whether he wants to make a deal with Democrats on the spending package before the House officially flips to Republican control in January.

Later on Tuesday morning, Biden will depart the White House to head to Michigan, where he will deliver remarks about manufacturing and his economic plan.