* Gov. Pritzker met privately with President Biden in the Oval Office yesterday. Here’s Lynn Sweet…

The two main items on Pritzker’s agenda in his talk with Biden:

• Dealing with $4.2 billion the federal government advanced to Illinois to keep its Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund afloat after it was drained of cash because of the enormous surge of claims triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. What kind of repayment breaks Biden can provide is not yet clear.

• Flagging how when it comes to the Biden administration helping fight gun violence, in Illinois, it’s more than about Chicago. Chicago, with unrelenting gun violence, is expecting in the coming days extra help - a strike force - from the Biden Justice Department. Pritzker said the Illinois State Police are already working with the ATF, DEA and the U.S. Attorney’s office to stop the flow of guns into Illinois.

“I wanted to double down on his understanding that we have a problem, it’s not just a Chicago problem. It’s a problem in Rockford, it’s a problem in other cities in Illinois. People just focus on Chicago, but it’s really a problem in a number of urban areas,” Pritzker said.

Biden also showed Pritzker around part of the White House grounds and West Wing.

Like I’ve been saying, the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund deficit is the biggest fiscal issue facing the state right now.

Also, kinda cool to get a personal POTUS tour, if you’re into that sort of thing.

* Greg Hinz…

In a phone call after the sessions, Pritzker did not indicate that he’d received any definitive promises from Biden other than to fully consider any Illinois requests. But he said the session went “very well” and described Biden as “gracious.” […]

Pritzker said he specifically asked for money for “logistics buildout,” an apparent reference to highway and railroad improvements designed to secure metropolitan Chicago’s place as a national distribution center. But he also asked for help in filling a huge hole in the state’s unemployment trust fund that is now in hock to the feds for hundreds of millions of dollars of expenses run up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pritzker clearly would like the feds to erase some of the debt. But there are other possibilities, he added, including stretching out the period in which the state—more specifically, state employers—will have to pay off the debt.

* Pritzker also participated in a press conference with other White House attendees. Here’s Mike Flannery…

Asked about opposition to Biden’s big spending plans among some Illinois Republicans, Pritzker suggested their districts would benefit more than those of Democrats. “There are many, many more miles of roads that need to be repaired in those areas, not to mention we’ve got to replace our lead line pipes across the state of Illinois.”

Potential challenger Rodney Davis has been speaking against the infrastructure bill.

* Tribune…

Later Wednesday, Pritzker called it “an excellent bipartisan meeting and real discussion about things that we share in common across all of the leaders that were in the room.”

“There is a massive infrastructure deficit across the nation,” Pritzker said. “Each one had a different angle on what they need in this infrastructure bill. For Illinois, I talked not only about the roads and bridges and water ports and how important those are for our industry, as the crossroads of America run through Illinois, but also about building out our early childhood education centers as well as our child care centers. We need real investment in those.”

* Video..

* Raw White House video 1

* Raw White House video 2

* Raw White House video 3