Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is considering at least a short delay to the start of his holiday vacation in Hawaii so he can try to work out a deal with congressional Republicans on the Bush tax cuts that expire December 31, CNN has learned.
Two senior administration officials tell CNN the White House has been getting signals that the lame duck session of Congress could drag on past December 18, when the president is scheduled to depart for Hawaii.
Obama has privately said he is willing to stay in Washington until Christmas Eve if necessary to finish the contentious debate over taxes, the officials said.
While administration officials do not expect that Obama will have to stay in town until Christmas Eve, which he did last year because of health care reform, they believe there could be a delay of at least a couple of days.
The reason is that Democrats and Republicans have made little progress in the tax debate so far, and White House aides went into Tuesday's long-awaited "Slurpee Summit" believing that both parties will need a lot more negotiating time beyond this one meeting to come up with a compromise.
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