MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
NPR's Audie Cornish joins us now from Baltimore. Audie, describe the scene and the mood there.
AUDIE CORNISH: The emphasis here is on strategy, especially the strategy of moving forward with some of the more contentious issues in light of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the sort of national call to somehow affect the debate in Congress.
NORRIS: And to that debate, as they move forward, the Republicans plan to vote on repealing the health care law next week. Has there been any change in tone that you can detect or at least when they talk about that?
CORNISH: But with the shooting of Representative Giffords, some people do think that there will be some shift in the way the debate is conducted. So here's Kevin McCarthy. He's a Republican from California, and he's the Republican whip. Let's hear what he had to say.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: Any time America sees the unbelievable event that took place, what happens is that you look back and see what you value. We value life, and we saw a friend get terribly injured in this process. And people are going to look to one another a little differently. So it doesn't matter what you debate on the floor. I think the floor will change.
CORNISH: Another test of that may be the State of the Union. We've got some Senate Democrats floating the idea of everyone having bipartisan seating usually at the State of the Union. It's Republicans on one side, Dems on the other. And McCarthy and a couple of other House Republicans have said, you know, there's no assigned seats, there's no reason why we shouldn't seat together. Let's give it a try at the end of this month.
NORRIS: Audie, what other issues are going to be prioritized as the Republicans move forward with their agenda next week?
CORNISH: The top issue is the raising of debt ceiling and also the continuing resolution to fund the government. That ends in March. And so, all of the effort to rein in spending and all of the effort to make budget cuts is going to sort of - that rubber will hit the road in the next few weeks when lawmakers have to decide are they going to raise the debt limit so that the country can borrow more and not default on any its debt.
NORRIS: Beyond the Republican members of Congress, there are some other guests there - Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. They're potential presidential candidates in 2012. And there are some governors there as well. What's been their role at the retreat? Just quickly.
CORNISH: Their role is to bring things back to the state and to help unify the overall message. So instead of the House Republicans sort of being out on their own, maybe like they were in '94 with Newt Gingrich and all that sort of thing, you're trying to get everyone on the same page so that their marching forward more or less with a similar message going into 2012 and that campaign.
NORRIS: Thank you, Audie.
CORNISH: Thank you.
NORRIS: That's NPR's Audie Cornish covering the House Republican retreat in Baltimore.