Movement on the debt ceiling?
Maybe. House of Representatives Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting of all House GOP members and said they'd push a short-term debt limit extension.
"We're going to offer legislation that will offer a temporary increase in the debt ceiling to allow us some time to continue this conversations," said Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.
The conversation will involve President Barack Obama. House Republican leaders will meet with him at the White House late Thursday afternoon.
"I would hope that the president will look at this as an opportunity to move halfway...to what he has demanded," said House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., has been pushing a six-week extension. During that time, lawmakers would try to negotiate longer-term budget reductions.
Boehner was vague about what he would negotiate. Asked if the temporary debt ceiling would lead to a reopening of much of the government, he said, "That's a conversation we're going to have with the president today."
Leaders appear to have dropped their insistence on changes to the Affordable Care Act.
Boehner would not talk specifics.
"I don't want to put anything on the table. I don't want to take anything off the table," he said. "That's why we want to have this conversation."
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