Harry Reid to meet with Obama in Oval Office

President Obama is slated to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the Oval Office on Monday. 

Details about the closed-press meeting were not immediately available. But during a CNN interview last week, Reid said he would meet with the president and the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), this week to talk 2014 election strategy. 

It comes after the White House announced the creation of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach last month, which will serve as the main point of contact with campaigns during the midterm elections.  

{mosads}Reid’s trip to the White House also comes less than a week after Reid expressed his opposition to a trade promotion authority bill that Obama has pushed Congress to enact. The legislation, also known as “fast track,” would make it easier to move trade agreements through Congress.

Last Wednesday, Reid reiterated he was “against fast track” and said “everyone would be well advised just to not push this right now.”

Obama dedicated a small portion of his State of the Union address to call on Congress to enact the legislation, which would set out timelines and amendment restrictions on congressional votes to pass trade deals negotiated by the administration.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have sponsored legislation in the Senate, but Reid has said he would not guarantee floor time for the proposal. 

The administration has lobbied Congress to pass it in the hopes of securing trade deals with the European Union and other Asian and Latin American countries in the next few months. 

—Updated 8:30 a.m.