Congressional leaders clear the way for a bipartisan bill to avert a

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden hosted a rare meeting of the four House and Senate leaders Tuesday at the White House, where Republicans and Democrats agreed to pass a bill to avert a nationwide rail workers’ strike before the U.S. economy could start to feel its effects as soon as this weekend.

The meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, both of California, was a last-minute addition to Biden’s public schedule. It also marked the first time the group known as “the Big Four” has met with Biden since Republicans narrowly won control of the House earlier this month, and Democrats held on to the Senate despite strong political headwinds.

The meeting Tuesday was not partisan or contentious even as the power dynamics in Washington are set to change, according to attendees.

“It was a very positive meeting, and it was candid,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol after the meeting. “But from a timing standpoint, right now what we need to do is avoid the strike.”

McConnell struck a similar note: “We had a really good meeting, and laid out the challenges that we’re all collectively facing here.”

A rail strike could formally begin on Dec. 9 if no agreement is reached between unions and rail companies. But the effects of it could be felt before then. Freight rail companies are required to alert customers about a potential strike a week ahead of time, to give them time to make contingency plans.

Congress can intervene using its power through the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to pass legislation ending a strike or a lockout, and to set terms of the agreements between the unions and the carriers. In this case, Congress appears poised to enact a tentative labor agreement that was approved in September by some — but not all — of the sector’s major labor unions.

Pelosi said she planned to bring a bill to the House floor Wednesday morning.

“It’s not everything I would like to see. I think that we should have paid sick leave,” she said.

“And I don’t like going against the ability of unions to strike. But weighing the equities, we must avoid a strike,” Pelosi added.

Both Pelosi and McCarthy said Tuesday that they believed the rail strike bill had the votes it needed to pass the House.

But in the Senate, where it only takes one objecting senator to hold up a bill, the emergency rail strike legislation could face new hurdles.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has already announced he will oppose the bill.

 “Just because Congress has the authority to impose a heavy-handed solution does not mean we…