Is there an end in sight to the budget drama?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reported progress Monday toward a deal to avoid a threatened default and end a two-week partial government shutdown as President Barack Obama called congressional leaders to the White House to press for an end to the impasse.

“We’re getting closer,” Reid told reporters after he met privately with the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

While Reid, D-Nev., said there was not yet an accord, he said he hoped to have a proposal to outline when the two men and House leaders meet with Obama at mid-afternoon.

No details were available on the terms under discussion.

In announcing the mid-afternoon meeting with Obama, the White House said the president would repeat a vow he has made consistently in recent weeks: “we will not pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government and raising the debt limit.”

The two Senate leaders, Reid and McConnell, had spoken by phone Sunday but failed to agree on a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing authority above the $16.7 trillion debt limit or reopen the government. Congress is racing the clock with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warning that the U.S. will quickly exhaust its ability to pay the bills on Thursday.

Separately, a bipartisan group led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, met for two hours Monday morning on a possible solution to the impasse.