After President Obama's State of the Union (SOTU) speech on January 28, the House Republican Leadership, including Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, sent a letter to President Obama highlighting four issues where they believe there is room for compromise between the two parties. Below are talking points taken from the letter. To access the letter in its entirety, click here. 

• Skills Training: The House passed the SKILLS Act last year, "which would consolidate the myriad of federal job training programs to focus resources on programs that work," according to the letter. The House Leadership proposes that the President and Vice President urge Senate Majority Leader Reid to take up the SKILLS Act for a vote in the Senate, citing the President's SOTU where he averred, "I've asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America's training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now."
• Natural Gas: In November, the House passed the Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act, to "cut red tape to ensure that pipelines can be built to connect our growing natural gas supplies with the new manufacturing plants." With President Obama declaring in his SOTU that natural gas is "the bridge fuel that can power our economy," the letter urges the Senate and the President to progress with the Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act. 
• Workplace Rules: The House passed the Working Families Flexibility Act last May to strike the federal law that denies hourly workers the option of taking compensatory time instead of overtime pay. As President Obama urged in his SOTU, "A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship--and you know what, a father does, too." This letter urges a meeting between the Administration and House leadership, since the Obama Administration's senior advisors recommended that the President veto the bill in its current form.
• Federally-funded Research: The House passed the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act "which would eliminate public funding for political party conventions and instead fund pediatric research at the NIH." Further, "Senators Kaine, Warner, and Hatch announced they will introduce the companion bill in the Senate..." In Obama's SOTU, he stated that "Federally-funded research helped lead to the ideas and inventions Google and smartphones. That's why Congress should undo the damage done by last year's cuts to basic research so we can unleash the next great American discovery..." The letter asks that the Administration reach out to Members of Congress to see where funds can be redirected from low priority programs to medical research.