A bipartisan immigration bill soon to be introduced in the Senate could exclude hundreds of thousands of immigrants here illegally from ever becoming U.S. citizens.

Business and labor groups announced agreement Thursday on the principles of a key priority for a comprehensive immigration bill: a new system to bring lower-skilled workers to the United States.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday the nation's immigration system is in desperate need of repair as he opened Congress' first hearing this year on immigration. Whether Congress will be able to agree on how to fix it remained unclear.

Business leaders and labor union officials are delving into high-stakes negotiations over a particularly contentious element of immigration reform a guest worker program to ensure future immigrants come here legally.

This time around, the President is focused more on the most basic building blocks of middle-class economic security: money for retirement, a job, a house, health care.

Hammered by Republicans and the Catholic Church, the White House hinted at compromise Tuesday as it struggled to calm an election-year uproar caused by its rule requiring religious schools and hospitals to provide employees with access to free birth control.

President Barack Obama has scaled back his ambitions from major initiatives like universal health care, to smaller-bore programs he can do on his own or that are uncontroversial enough for Republicans to go along. Think patent reform, reducing health regulations, or helping with student loans.

In President Barack Obama's sales pitch for his jobs bill, there are two versions of reality: The one in his speeches and the one actually unfolding in Washington.