Obama heads to Congress to meet on legislation

WASHINGTON - President Obama will make a rare trek to Capitol Hill this week to ­huddle behind closed doors with lawmakers as they debate how to pay the government's bills, rewrite the nation's immigration laws and adjust the government's surveillance programs.

But he will meet with only Democrats to push his agenda before Congress departs for its annual monthlong vacation — a decision that has served to strain his already tense relations with Republicans.

"This president's a good campaigner. We all recognize that," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. "But, at some point, campaign season has to end — and the working-with-others season has to begin."

Obama is scheduled to meet with House of Representatives and Senate Democrats for an hour each Wednesday morning. White House officials did not respond to questions about whether Obama will schedule similar meetings with Republicans or why he was not meeting with them this week.

Only a few months ago, Washington couldn't stop talking about the president's unprecedented outreach with Republicans. There were phone calls, dinners, meetings. He even appeared on Capitol Hill to meet with the Republican caucuses in the Senate and House.

He has continued to meet with individual Republican senators and invited all four congressional leaders — two Republicans and two Democrats — to the White House to talk about foreign policy a month ago. His staff also is meeting privately with a group of Republican senators to try to hash out fiscal issues.

Mo Elleithee, a veteran Democratic political consultant, said Obama has met with Republicans repeatedly — so much so that Democrats have started to feel a little neglected. "This is a president who has reached out his hand," he said.

Just last week, in a series of speeches in Illinois, Missouri and Florida, Obama criticized House Republicans for failing to pass an immigration bill and for drastically altering a farm bill so that it no longer funded food stamps.

"Over the last six months, this gridlock has gotten worse," Obama said in a speech in Galesburg, Ill. "I didn't think that was possible."

Obama's meetings come as Congress meets for the final week — usually full of last-minute deal-making — before an extended recess. This year, however, no deals are expected, though Congress is likely to give final approval to a previous compromise that at least temporarily lowers student loan interest rates.

Topics for Wednesday's meetings are likely to include the federal budget, immigration and government surveillance, but none of the issues is expected to be settled this week.