Obama to meet with Reid, Pelosi ahead of Dem retreat

President Obama will huddle with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday in the Oval Office, the White House announced.

The leaders will “discuss legislative priorities for the coming months” and “areas of cooperation for the year ahead,” the White House said in a statement Monday. 

{mosads}The meeting with the top two Democrats in Congress comes two days before congressional Democrats hold their annual retreat in Baltimore, Md. Obama and Vice President Biden, who willl also attend the meeting, will speak to Democratic lawmakers there.

Entering his final year in office, Obama’s to-do list for lawmakers is small — a bow to the twin realities of election-year gridlock and Republican control of the House and Senate.

But Obama is pushing Congress to pass a handful of measures that would add to his list of accomplishments, including criminal-justice reform legislation, a plan to close the Guantánamo Bay military prison and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

The president faces a tough sell convincing members of his own party to back the trade agreement. Democrats largely voted against Obama on a trade promotion authority bill last year, which paved the way for the 12-nation agreement to be finalized.

Obama was forced to rely on Republican votes for the trade authority bill. So far, the president has not scheduled a formal meeting with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

Bloomberg News reported the president could meet with Ryan as soon as this week, but a blizzard that hit Washington over the weekend could complicate those plans. The House canceled all votes this week due to the after-effects of the storm.