As President Obama began putting the final touches on a major jobs speech to be delivered Thursday night, House Republican leaders on Tuesday sought a meeting with the president to discuss possible areas of agreement.

In a letter to the president, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said their caucus has passed plans that have been blocked by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The two House Republicans proposed potential areas of agreement with Obama, including proposed free trade agreements, new ways to spend highway bill money, a streamlined permitting process, and help for the unemployed based on a jobs program used in Georgia.

In requesting a bipartisan congressional meeting with the president before his Thursday speech, the two Republican leaders said: "Obviously achieving bipartisan agreement on these and other initiatives requires more than just one side declaring a proposal to be 'bipartisan.' It requires that we work together."

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not commit to a meeting, but said, "I'm sure the president will be consulting with leaders of Congress as he moves forward."

Obama is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The letter comes a day after Obama said he would challenge Republican leaders to back a package of jobs programs that had bipartisan support in the past.

"We're going to see if we've got some straight shooters in Congress," Obama told a labor crowd in Detroit. "We're going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party."

That message didn't sit well with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He said Obama's "central message" seems to be that "anyone who doesn't rubber stamp his economic agenda is putting politics above country."

"With all due respect, Mr. President, there's a much simpler reason for opposing your economic proposals that has nothing to do with politics," said the top Senate Republican. "They don't work."

In their letter to Obama, Boehner and Cantor also said they would oppose efforts to build on the 2009 stimulus bill.

Excerpts from their letter: