–Two Senate Leaders Speak In Strikingly Conciliatory Tones
–Senate Majority Leader: Eager To Resolve ‘Outstanding Issues’
–Sen. Reid: Working For Deal So Hill Can Adjourn ‘In The Next Few Days’
–Senate Minority Leader McConnell: ‘Useful Discussions’ Now Underway
–Sen. McConnell: ‘Confident and Optimistic’ Can Resolve Final Issues

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – After blasting away at each other for weeks with
machine-gun regularity, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Thursday offered strikingly conciliatory
assessments that Congress can complete its work for the year in the next
several days.

In back-to-back speeches on the Senate floor Thursday, Reid and
McConnell ended their ritual attacks on the other party and said an
agreement can be reached soon on both the 2012 fiscal year omnibus and a
payroll tax cut extension package.

Speaking first, Reid said the two Senate leaders had done enough
“back and forth” and now needed to get to work and reach an agreement.

What “We’re going to try to do during the next few hours is try to
work toward resolving some of the outstanding issues,” Reid said.

Reid added there are only a small number of issues left to resolve
on a $900 billion FY’12 omnibus spending bill and added “those issues
should be resolvable.”

He said that he and McConnell are also in talks on a compromise
payroll tax cut extension package.

“We hope we can come up with something that would get us out of
here at a reasonable time in the next few days,” Reid said.

A stop-gap bill funding much of the federal government will expire
Friday and it seems likely that another short-term bill will be needed
to fund the government until the FY’12 omnibus is in final form. The
omnibus will include the 9 fiscal year 2012 bills that have not yet been
approved.

Speaking after Reid, McConnell also dropped his combative tone.

“We’ve been in useful discussions about how to wrap the session
up,” McConnell said, adding that the omnibus and the payroll tax cut
extension are the final big issues left for this session of Congress.

“We’re confident and optimistic we’ll be able to resolve both on a
bipartisan basis,” McConnell said.

House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
will hold separate briefings Thursday morning and many lawmakers will be
watching to see if they also adopt conciliatory language.

Congressional leaders had hoped to adjourn for the year Friday, but
the deadlock on the payroll tax cut extension and the omnibus spending
bill will likely push back this adjournment date until early next week.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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