Women of the Senate Are Obama’s Latest Dinner Guests

The informal caucus of women in the Senate â€" now a record 20 strong â€" will take its monthly bipartisan dinner tradition on Tuesday night to the White House, where they will meet with President Obama to discuss budget issues and other legislative matters.

The monthly dinners, a ritual organized by the longest-serving female senator, Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, are intended to create personal and policy bonds across party lines among the women, a minority in the history of the Senate since its inception. The meals are strictly off the record â€" and except for the occasional detail about a lobster roll, they largely stay that way â€" and are generally held at a senator’s home or on Capitol Hill. (Once Few, Women Hold More Power in Senate, March 21, 2013)

While traveling this year aboard Air Force One with Mr. Obama, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, told the president about the dinners, she said, and the two cooked up the idea to do one at the White House. While a final R.S.V.P. list will be distributed by the White House later Tuesday, 18 senators were expected to attend. The conversation likely will be wide ranging, several senators said, but with a focus on the budget.

“I have always thought that the women of the Senate who have come together on issues before,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, “could come together on budget and fiscal issues. If the leaders of the committees of jurisdiction were unable to come up with a solution,” she added, perhaps the group of women, who occasionally form a collation on bills, might.

The dinner is one of a series that Mr. Obama has hosted, some exclusively with Republicans, to try and build some relations across party lines and on Capitol Hill generally, where he has often been criticized as failing to try and lure lawmakers with his agenda.

It is likely that the subject of failed gun safety legislation last week will come up; most of the women who are attending voted for the compromise, although some Republicans and one Democrat, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, did not. “It was a tough vote, but it was a rational vote,” said Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, one of two vulnerable Democrats who voted for a measure to expand background checks for gun buyers. “I’d be happy to see any president any time he wants to talk about the issues important to the people of Louisiana,” Ms. Landrieu said, smiling.

Senator Deb Fischer, Republican of Nebraska, said she expected the format to be similar to one she attended recently for Republicans at the White House, in which lawmakers volley out their issues for Mr. Obama to respond to. “He’s a really good listener,” Ms. Fischer said. “He’s responsive.”