Welcome to meet the press now.

I'm Monica Alba in Washington, where Republicans on Capitol Hill and the White House are zeroing in on a potential deal to end the travel chaos at airports around the country by funding

TSA and the Department of Homeland Security as a shutdown enters day 39.

According to four sources familiar with the negotiations, the path to a possible agreement involves a two-step plan.

First, by giving Democrats something that they might like a framework to

fund nearly all of DHS, except for the part of immigration and customs enforcement that

handled deportations, which Democrats are adamant needs major reform. Then Republicans would

plan to use a budget maneuver to bypass Democrats to fund the rest of ICE while also advancing

the president's efforts to overhaul voting requirements.

The big question right now, will it work?

For Republicans, that begins with getting the president's support.

Here's some of what he told reporters today about where negotiations stand.

Well, I'm going to look at it, and we're going to take a good, hard look at it. I want to support Republicans. Would you be comfortable with a deal that involves separating ICE funding from the DHS funding package in order to reopen? Well, they're working in all of that, you know, that's a detail that they'll explain later. I don't want to comment until I see the deal, but as you know, they're negotiating a deal.

I guess they're getting fairly close, but I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it.

That lukewarm message, however, is still a shift from just a day ago when the president insisted his party shouldn't make a deal

until they pass sweeping legislation to overhaul elections in America, among other priorities.

I'm suggesting strongly to the Republican Party, don't make any deal on anything. The most

important thing we can have is what's called the Save America Act.

Don't make any deal on anything unless you include voter ID and you have to be a citizen to vote.

Republicans do not settle with Democrats and let them out of this hole that they've buried themselves in.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune today telling reporters that a visit by Senate Republicans

to the White House last night was able to convince the president to get on board.

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