Obama was set to announce the new drilling policy Wednesday at Andrews air base in Maryland. White House officials pitched the changes as ways to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and create jobs - both politically popular ideas - but the presidents decisions also could help secure support for a climate change bill languishing in Congress.

The president, joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, also was set to announce that proposed leases in Alaskas Bristol Bay would be canceled. The Interior Department also planned to reverse last years decision to open up parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Instead, scientists would study the sites to see if theyre suitable to future leases.

Obama is allowing an expansion in Alaskas Cook Inlet to go forward. The plan also would leave in place the moratorium on drilling off the West Coast.

In addition, the Interior Department has prepared a plan to add drilling platforms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico if Congress allows that moratorium to expire. Lawmakers in 2008 allowed a similar moratorium to expire; at the time President George W. Bush lifted the ban, which opened the door to Obamas change in policy.

Under Obamas plan, drilling could take place 125 miles from Floridas Gulf coastline if lawmakers allow the moratorium to expire. Drilling already takes place in western and central areas in the Gulf of Mexico.

The presidents team has been busy on energy policy and Obama talked about it in his State of the Union address. During that speech, he said he wanted the United States to build a new generation of nuclear power plans and invest in biofuel and coal technologies.

“It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development,” he warned.

Obama also urged Congress to complete work on a climate change and energy bill, which has remained elusive. The president met with lawmakers earlier this month at the White House about a bill cutting emissions of pollution-causing greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020. The legislation would also expand domestic oil and gas drilling offshore and provide federal assistance for constructing nuclear power plants and carbon sequestration and storage projects at coal-fired utilities.

White House officials hope Wednesdays announcement will attract support from Republicans, who adopted a chant of “Drill, baby, drill” during 2008s presidential campaign.

The presidents Wednesday remarks would be paired with other energy proposals that were more likely to find praise from environmental groups. The White House planned to announce it had ordered 5,000 hybrid vehicles for the government fleet. And on Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department are to sign a final rule that requires increased fuel efficiency standards for new cars.

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“It is so puzzling that despite the urgent and undeniable need for reform, the Chamber of Commerce has launched a $3 million advertising campaign against it,” Wolin told a business audience as it lunched beneath chandeliers at the organizations ornate headquarters a block from the White House.

Wolins remarks - and a White House meeting between President Barack Obama and leading administration and congressional authors of the regulatory overhaul - signaled a new determination to make reining in Wall Street the next presidential priority.

The legislation working its way through Congress, prompted by the Wall Street meltdown of 2008, would be the most sweeping change in financial regulations since the New Deal. It would give the government unprecedented powers to split up firms considered a threat to the economy, put together a council of regulators to watch for risks in the financial system and create an independent consumer watchdog.

Republican unity, meanwhile, was showing signs of strain. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who tried and failed to negotiate an agreement with Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, questioned the Republican decision this week to let the bill go to the Senate floor without a compromise.

“I just think that it is a strategic mistake,” Corker said in an interview Wednesday. “This is a very different issue than health care. Most everyone in the House and Senate want to deal with it.”

On Monday, the Banking Committees top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, withdrew Republican amendments to the bill and let the committee approve a Dodd-written bill by a party-line 13-10 vote. At the time, Shelby said he would continue to negotiate with Dodd, D-Conn.

But Corker said he feared that Republicans lost some leverage to adjust the bill more to their liking by not seeking a compromise in committee.

At the White House, Obama met with Dodd, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers to begin plotting strategy for the bill. The House passed its version of the bill in December.

“The President expects that we will finish financial reform in the next couple of months, certainly by the time we mark the second anniversary of the financial collapse in the early fall,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Asked after the meeting whether the Senate could pass a bill by Memorial Day, Dodd said: “My hope would be even before then, if possible.”

Dodd will still need at least one Republican to support the legislation to avoid procedural obstacles that require 60 votes to overcome. Right now Republicans control 41 votes and, thus, the ability to sustain a filibuster.

“The credit card issue was a piddly piece of legislation compared to this,” Corker said. “This is a significant piece of legislation. There are lot of details that matter.”

In sending Wolin to the Chamber of Commerce, an organization with 3 million members and a big bank account, the administration signaled it was not in a compromising mood. The chamber initiated a $3 million campaign against the Dodd plan, specifically targeting his proposed consumer bureau. Obama, on the other hand, has said his intent is to strengthen Dodds bill wherever possible.

Wolin told the crowd that their organization, “funded, no doubt, with a good deal of your money, has launched a lavish, aggressive and misleading campaign to defeat” the consumer agency.

The audience politely applauded at the end of Wolins remarks. But Thomas Donohue, the Chambers president and CEO, told him it was “a bit of a political speech.” Later in the day, the chambers top lobbyist, Bruce Josten, issued a statement describing Wolins speech as “political grandstanding and distortion of facts.”

Associated Press Writer Ben Feller contributed to this article.

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Connecticut would get $100 million to build a hospital. About 800,000 Florida seniors could keep certain Medicare benefits. Asbestos-disease victims in tiny Libby, Mont., and some coal miners with black lung disease or their widows would get help, and there are prizes for Louisiana, the Dakotas and more states.

“Were going to do what we have to do to get a bill out of the House and Senate,” said James Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. As for Obamas wish list of deletions: “Well certainly keep it in mind as we pull together a final bill.”

That tepid salute underscores the prickliness with which many senators have greeted what they consider Obamas meddling in their business and raises questions about how successful the president will be in erasing the special projects from final legislation.

It also highlights a spat between a White House and Senate, dominated by the same party, that the president has ignited just as he needs to garner support to finally push his No. 1 legislative goal to passage over monolithic Republican opposition and nervous Democrats.

Obamas proposal to eliminate state-specific items comes with polls finding heightened public opposition to backroom political deals. Republicans have been happy to fan that discontent. Many Democrats, particularly House moderates facing tight re-election battles this fall, are eager to dissociate themselves from such spending.

The president wants votes from House Democrats “who were deeply offended by those provisions in the Senate bill,” said Sheryl Skolnick, who analyzes federal health legislation for CRT Capital Group of Stamford, Conn. “Clearly the math was, I gain more in the House by taking out those provisions than I lose in the Senate.”

Obama has railed against the “ugly process” of cutting special deals, but the president and his top advisers were prime players in negotiations on the agreements to win votes and push the legislation forward.

Republicans say Obamas push to remove deals for states wont help. Because every Democratic senator voted for that chambers bill and all its special provisions, even voting later to remove them leaves those Democrats in a pickle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Friday.

“They will have then voted for them before they voted against them,” McConnell said of the bills projects, an echo of the line that 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry uttered that proved politically damaging.

Obama came out with a summary last month of the nearly $1 trillion health overhaul legislation he wants. It specifically eliminates $100 million in extra Medicaid money the Senate bill provided solely to Nebraska to help win support from that states Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. The so-called Cornhusker Kickback drew such widespread scorn that even Nelson favors repealing it.

Obama also proposed changes in the Senate bill that, without mentioning it, deleted extra Medicaid money for Massachusetts and Vermont, the Florida Medicare exemption and some money for Michigan, according to White House officials.

“Weve made it clear to the Senate that the presidents position in the final legislation should not contain provisions that favor a single state or a single district differently than others,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week.

There are exceptions. The White House says $300 million for Louisiana, which helped win support from moderate Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., should survive because of that states struggle to rebound from its 2005 pummeling by Hurricane Katrina.

Even so, Obamas targeting of state projects is going over poorly in the Senate.

Take Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who helped win extra Medicaid money for his state in the Senate health bill.

Vermont is one of several states that have already boosted the benefits they provide to many poor people. All states would get added federal financing for a nationwide Medicaid expansion under the Senate bill. But states such as Vermont - already providing more generous benefits - say theyre being shortchanged and dont want Obama taking that money away.

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“Its in my blood,” Morgan said in an interview in London. “It was still my baby, the business I started from scratch.”

The decision by Redrows management to build more apartments and fewer more-expensive houses sacrificed profit, Morgan said. Redrows average price of 137,400 pounds ($206,000) was the lowest in the industry last year and compares with the average of 179,639 pounds for the seven publicly traded U.K. homebuilders, according to Citigroup Inc.

Apartments rose as a proportion of total construction during Britains decade-long property boom, as developers tapped demand from buyers who planned to rent out the properties. Detached houses fell to 12 percent of homes built in 2008 from 44 percent in 1997, according to the latest annual data from the National House-Building Council.

The pendulum is now swinging back, with companies including Redrow and Taylor Wimpey Plc, the U.K.s second-biggest homebuilder by volume, reducing the proportion of apartments in their construction plans.

Slashing Products

Morgan is now Redrows largest shareholder with a stake of almost 16 percent in his name, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since rejoining the company, he has slashed the number of products by more than half to 32 and introduced a range of costlier houses he expects will account for 80 percent of sales in 2012. Last year, about half of Redrows revenue came from apartments.

“Its returning Redrow to what they did very well in the 1980s and 1990s,” said Rachael Waring, a Liverpool-based analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co with a “hold” rating on the stock. “However, it will take some time to work.”

Redrow, based in St. Davids Park in northern Wales, has climbed about 31 percent since the company announced Morgans intention to return a year ago, even though the company hasnt made a profit since the property market peaked in 2007. That exceeds the 23 percent gain in the Bloomberg EMEA Homebuilders Index. Redrow now has a market value of 415 million pounds.

How Many Units?

“The second I had gone they started to dumb down the product,” Morgan said of the previous management. “They got rid of the attention to detail that the product used to have and they made it cheaper. When I came back in, the psyche of the business was: How many units, how many units?”

At the age of 21, Morgan set up Redrow as a civil engineering business with a 5,000-pound loan from his father. He went into homebuilding five years later and remained at the helm until October 2000.

Redrow had net income of 50.4 million pounds on sales of 405.7 million pounds in fiscal 2000, the last year of results before Morgan left. It reported a loss of about 100 million pounds last year, in what Morgan called the “worst set of trading results” in the companys history.

Morgan Comes Back

Morgan told Redrow last March that he wanted to rejoin management after increasing his stake to 29.9 percent, just short of a 30 percent holding that would trigger a mandatory offer for the remaining shares. He built up the holding by buying shares from the London-based hedge fund Toscafund Asset Management LLP through his investment vehicles.

Only one board member appointed before Morgans return remains at the company following the departure of former Finance Director David Arnold this year. Paul Pedley, who was chief executive officer of Redrow for five years after Morgan left before becoming deputy chairman, declined a request for an interview.

Most U.K. homebuilders reported losses last year after banks cut back on mortgage lending and many have sold shares to raise money.

Prices of detached houses fell 16 percent from the peak of the market in October 2007 through last March, to an average of 211,595 pounds, according to Nationwide Building Society. Apartments dropped 22 percent to 109,708 pounds.

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While House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will come armed with policy alternatives, only one Republican bill, pushed by Boehner, has been reviewed by the Congressional Budget Office. Republicans have ruled out using Obamas plan as a starting point.

“There are fundamental things in this bill that I couldnt support no matter how much other stuff you put in,” North Carolina Senator Richard Burr said of the plan Obama offered on Feb. 22. The summit, he said, is “all theater.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will lead a group of Democratic lawmakers to the meeting, set to begin at 10 a.m. at Blair House, across from the White House.

Obama said the session will allow both parties to work together and “hammer it out” on health care. Boehner sees it differently; yesterday, he announced a group of 17 Republican lawmakers would serve as a “truth squad” to “fact-check misstatements from Washington Democrats” at the forum.

Comprehensive Approach

Obama is advocating a comprehensive approach, while most Republicans say they want smaller steps, starting with efforts to curb medical costs. Obama and his fellow Democrats plan an increase in government assistance; Republicans more often bring up the need to limit medical malpractice lawsuits.

“Democrats want the whole enchilada, and Republicans are saying, Lets take much smaller bites and deal with problems rather than coming up with a whole new system,” said Republican strategist Glen Bolger.

Obamas plan relies heavily on a bill passed by Senate Democrats in December and encompasses agreements between the House and Senate. It requires that all Americans have insurance, sets up online purchasing exchanges where people could shop for low-cost coverage, and imposes new regulations on insurers such as Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc.

High-Risk Pools

Instead of an individual mandate, the Boehner proposal would set up high-risk pools, allowing insurers to share costs associated with the sickest patients. It would allow consumers to make greater use of health savings accounts, which are designed to help people save for future medical expenses, to pay premiums for high-deductible plans.

Boehners plan would give Americans freedom to shop for bargains by buying insurance across state lines. The regulations of the state in which a policy was purchased would apply. That could lead to a “race to the bottom,” eroding consumer protection, a group of Democrats wrote to Pelosi and Reid on Dec. 15.

State Compacts

Those Democrats also didnt like an idea contained in the House and Senate bills that would let states set up compacts to allow residents to buy across state lines. Still, the Democratic version contains more controls. States could choose not to participate. And the legislation has guidelines for whats acceptable in policies in the state exchanges.

Another Republican plan, sponsored by Burr, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, and Representatives Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Devin Nunes of California, takes a different tack. Like Obama, the lawmakers would set up purchasing exchanges.

The measure also would end the current tax benefit for employer-sponsored plans and shift responsibility to individuals, who would get tax credits to buy insurance.

Even so, Republicans are together in rejecting Democratic proposals. And there are plenty of differences for them to point up. Democrats plan to use new taxes and about half a trillion dollars in savings from Medicare, the program for the elderly, to pay for their bills. Boehner said his alternative wouldnt hurt Medicare or raise taxes.

Reconciliation

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Opposition to EPA regulations by Democrats could pose a serious blow to the Obama administrations effort to restrict heat-trapping greenhouse gases. While the administration is still pushing for Congress to pass a comprehensive climate bill this year, officials have not ruled out controlling greenhouse gases through regulation.

The letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was signed by Democrats Mark Begich of Alaska, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Carl Levin of Michigan and Max Baucus of Montana.

The Democrats said they did not object to EPA regulation of emissions from cars and light trucks, but questioned the agencys ability to do anything further under the Clean Air Act. The letter asked Jackson to clarify the EPAs timetable and suspend any regulations for coal-fired utilities and other industrial facilities until Congress acts on climate and energy legislation.

Jackson said late Monday that regulation of greenhouse gas emissions will not begin before January at the earliest.

For the first half of 2011, only large polluters that already must apply for Clean Air Act permits will need to address greenhouse gas emissions, Jackson said in a letter to the Democratic senators.

“I share your goals of ensuring economic recovery at this critical time and of addressing greenhouse-gas emissions in sensible ways that are consistent with the call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation,” she wrote.

Last month, Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas signed onto a resolution by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, that would bar the EPA from issuing regulations to control greenhouse gases.

Murkowski said Monday she welcomed the letter from her Democratic colleagues and noted that 41 senators from both parties support her resolution to halt EPAs actions.

Murkowski filed it in response to an EPA finding in December that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health. The EPA finding clears the way for rules that eventually could force the sale of more fuel-efficient vehicles and require plants to install costly new equipment or shift to other forms of energy.

Murkowski said her resolution remains the best opportunity for senators to weigh in before the EPA acts.

“Its a simple issue: Senators either support EPA imposing these regulations without input from Congress, or they dont,” she said.

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“The American people deserve an up-or-down vote on health reform, and this package is designed to provide us the flexibility to achieve that” should Republicans try to block the bill, Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, told reporters during a conference call yesterday.

Using the so-called budget-reconciliation method would be fraught with risks. Republicans may paint it as an attempt to thwart popular will on legislation that many voters oppose.

And passage is far from assured. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped short of endorsing Obamas plan, which largely draws on legislation the Senate passed in December. At least one House Democrat said hell fight to eliminate a new tax on high-end health benefits. And some Democrats may vote against what they see as lax controls on federal funding for abortion.

Republicans criticized Obama for pursuing a partisan agenda while inviting them to the Feb. 25 meeting.

“The president is merely going through the motions of transparency and bipartisanship with Thursdays summit serving more as a made-for-TV event than a serious policy discussion,” said Texas Senator John Cornyn.

Taxing Capital Gains

Obama, seeking to break an impasse over what was his biggest domestic priority of 2009, wants to cover 31 million uninsured Americans and curb medical costs.

To help pay for the overhaul, hes proposing the first Medicare tax on unearned income such as capital gains, and higher fees on drugmakers such as New York-based Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

Shares of insurers such as Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana Inc. gained yesterday. The Standard & Poors 500 Managed Health Care Index rose 2.7 percent.

Obama also endorsed a new panel that could curb insurance- rate increases it deems unreasonable and included restrictions already in the House and Senate bills.

Republicans say the 10-year legislation costs too much and would lead to a government takeover of health care. The White House says the program will be fully funded with taxes and savings.

The Republicans said Obama should start over.

“We cant swallow the apple whole,” said Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi, who worked on a bipartisan compromise last year and will attend the Blair House meeting. “We have to chew on it bite by bite.”

Democrats were days away from pushing through a House- Senate compromise when they lost the 60th vote they needed in the Senate because of a Jan. 19 special election in Massachusetts.

Now, universal Republican opposition may force Democrats to try reconciliation. That would allow Senate Democrats to pass what lawmakers call a “fix” to their measure with 51 votes. The House would also pass the fix, along with the original Senate bill.

51-Vote Plan

Obamas proposal is “a 51-vote plan and not a 60-vote plan — that is great news,” said New York Representative Anthony Weiner, a Democrat whos been critical of the White House.

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Obama invited Republican leaders to the Feb. 25 meeting and challenged them to present their own health-care plan.

Democrats in Congress are still reconciling differences between versions of legislation passed last year by the House and Senate thats aimed at expanding coverage to millions of uninsured Americans while curbing costs. House Democrats say that while the two chambers are close to an agreement, they may not have a unified plan in time for the televised meeting.

“I dont know whether the president is going to put one particular piece of legislation on the table,” Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told reporters during a Feb. 17 conference call.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, also declined to say whether there would be an agreement among Democrats before the meeting.

Attacking Insurers

The Obama administration, meanwhile, renewed its criticism of insurers yesterday, with Sebelius releasing a report highlighting 2009 premium increases that she said “are five to 10 times larger than the growth rate in national health expenditures.” The report also focused on 2009 profits and executive pay at U.S. insurers such as WellPoint Inc.

It follows her inquiry into Indianapolis-based WellPoints proposed 39 percent rise in premiums for Californians who buy their own insurance. WellPoint has been called to testify before Congress about the increase.

Sebelius said during a news conference that insurance company profits are “way over anybodys estimates.” She said the five largest U.S. insurers took in combined profits of $12.2 billion in 2009, 56 percent higher than in 2008. “Theyre also companies where the top executives are paid up to $24 million each,” she said.

Politics of Vilification

Insurers said they are being scapegoated. “Its time to stop the politics of vilification,” Karen Ignagni, president of Americas Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement.

WellPoint executives said unexpectedly high costs made the California premium increase necessary. “Premiums were insufficient to cover the higher costs,” Brian Sassi, head of WellPoints consumer business unit, said in an interview yesterday.

Bradley Fluegel, the companys chief strategy officer, said the increase wasnt making up for money lost in 2009. “Weve already lost that money,” he said. “We just have to reflect on a go-forward basis the higher costs.”

Shares of WellPoint, the biggest U.S. insurer of individuals and small businesses, have dropped 11 percent over the past month. Its been the worst performer over that time in the six-member Standard & Poors 500 Managed-Care Index, which has fallen 6.7 percent.

Expanding Insurance

The attack on the insurers may be a theme White House officials will stress at next weeks summit.

Both the House and Senate bills would place new limits on insurers, barring them from rejecting clients because of a pre- existing condition. They would also require all Americans to get insurance or pay a penalty, offering government aid and creating online exchanges where individuals and small businesses could shop for insurance.

A compromise bill was set to pass both chambers when Democrats lost a special Senate election in Massachusetts that cost them the 60th seat they needed to overcome Republican efforts to block passage. Faced with the impasse, Obama invited Republicans to sit down with Democrats at the Feb. 25 meeting to discuss ways forward.

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“It doesnt yet feel like much of a recovery,” Obama had to concede Wednesday, even as he sought to promote his year-old massive economic stimulus bill.

Unemployment trumps all else. It provides a lens through which the public reads an economic narrative of bank bailouts, executive bonuses, expensive health care remedies and exploding debt.

In that environment, gross domestic product growth is an abstraction. Obama gets little credit for an economic turnaround under his watch. And Republicans seek political advantage by merely asking, “Where are the jobs?”

This week, on the anniversary of the stimulus plan, the White House is seeking redress. Obama and the presidents political arm at the Democratic National Committee are casting the program - initially priced at $787 billion and now estimated at $862 billion - as a demonstrable success and its critics as hypocrites.

Its a political necessity.

As with previous instances of high unemployment, the publics skepticism - anger, even - poses a threat to the presidents party in Congress. In 1982, with unemployment above 10 percent and Ronald Reagan in the White House, Republicans lost 26 House seats.

The publics frustration also threatens efforts in Congress to win the kind of new short-term spending the White House believes the economy needs to stay on a positive trajectory.

Support for the stimulus plan has gone from 55 percent last June to 38 percent, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center this month. More worrisome for Obamas allies in Congress, support for the stimulus fell 18 percentage points, to 60 percent, among voters who identified themselves as Democrats.

“For the first time, we have as many people saying that Obamas policies have made things worse as say his policies have made them better,” said Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut. “In all fairness, many more people say its too early to tell.”

With that in mind, the White House dispatched Cabinet members and Vice President Joe Biden to 35 communities across the country to promote programs funded by the stimulus. Biden issued a glowing first-year report, and the president declared, “We have rescued this economy from the worst of this crisis.”

In an e-mail to Obamas vast network of presidential campaign supporters, his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, boiled down the pitch: On the first anniversary of the stimulus package, job losses have seen a reversal of the trend experienced in the last year of the Bush administration.

White House officials maintain that the stimulus suffered a certain guilt by association with the unpopular $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund.

“People have conflated money lent to banks - much of it paid back with interest - to stabilize the financial system, or investments that had to be made in restructuring auto companies, with the recovery plans,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday. “Im not sure exactly what could have been done to rectify that.”

But Pews Kohut says the public does distinguish between the programs, and while more disapprove than approve of both, people have a much more negative reaction to the bank bailout than to the stimulus.

Whats more, the White House and the national Democratic Party have launched a counterattack on Republicans, noting that while many in the GOP criticize the stimulus package, several have applauded spending in their own home districts. “They cant really have it both ways,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on his White House blog.

Still, the administration has had to make its own corrections along the way, which havent helped the salesmanship. Before Obama took office in January 2009, his economists promised that a sizable jolt to the economy would keep employment below 8 percent.

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Democrats in Congress are still reconciling differences between versions of health legislation passed last year by the House and Senate. House Democrats, during a conference call with reporters yesterday, said that though the two chambers are close to an agreement, they may not have a united plan by next week.

“I dont know whether the president is going to put one particular piece of legislation on the table,” Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told reporters.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, asked by reporters on Feb. 16 whether the president would present his own plan if Democrats in Congress failed to agree, said, “stay tuned.”

In addition to pledging to post an overhaul plan online, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius challenged Republican leaders in a Feb. 12 letter to “put forward their own comprehensive bill.”

Forums Purpose

Van Hollen, a member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosis leadership team, said Obama would use next weeks forum “to get a sense of what our Republican colleagues objectives are” and “work to try to include those ideas, if they are not already included in the legislation.”

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, also declined to say whether there would be an agreement among Democrats before the meeting.

“We are continuing to make progress on winnowing the differences between the House and Senate proposals,” Manley said in a telephone interview.

Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who also is part of Pelosis leadership team, said that in holding the summit, Obama is addressing Republicans complaints that they were left out of congressional deliberations.

“Much of what they were interested in is part of the bill already,” she said, adding that the meeting will help determine “if there is a genuineness” among Republicans “about moving forward.”

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