Comments by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, as well as House Speaker John Boehner and White House press secretary Jay Carney signaled progress toward reaching compromises on the two main pieces of legislation under discussion before Congress goes into recess until next year.
Reid and McConnell held an hourlong meeting Wednesday night that included Boehner, R-Ohio, in a last-gasp bid to end the political wrangling that threatened a partial government shutdown and raised public frustration with Congress even further
