Second White House meeting on spending talks 'still possible'

A second straight day of meetings between President Obama and top congressional leaders is still possible, a White House official said Wednesday. 

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said that a meeting with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the heads of House and Senate spending panels was possible Wednesday morning. Pfeiffer tweeted:

POTUS is headed to PA today for a townhall on energy security. Meeting with congressional leaders on the budget is still possible.

Obama met Tuesday with Reid and Boehner at the White House, along with Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairmen of their chambers' respective Appropriations committees. 

After that meeting, Boehner and Reid met again on Capitol Hill late Tuesday afternoon. The second meeting yielded no agreement, but the two leaders' offices released identical statements that said they had agreed to continue working on a budget solution. The statements marked a change in the tone of the talks, suggesting the slim possibility of a deal before a government shutdown would take effect after Friday. 

Obama made a rare appearance at the White House briefing room on Tuesday to say he'd summon the foursome back to the White House on Wednesday, and each successive day, if a deal can't be reached before Friday's deadline. 

"If that issue does not get resolved and we don’t start seeing progress, I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House," Obama said Tuesday. "And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that."

The president's schedule calls for him to leave at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday for Philadelphia and New York, meaning that if there is to be a meeting, there's a short window of opportunity to hold it.

A spokesman for Boehner said Wednesday morning that the Speaker hadn't been asked at that point to return to the White House. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a key negotiator in the spending fight, also said that no meeting had been called, and that that was a sign for hope.

"The fact that the president has not called another meeting in the White House yet shows that there's a view that these talks are making some progress," Schumer said Wednesday morning on "Good Morning America."

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