(CNN) -

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wouldn't speculate Monday on any potential fiscal cliff negotiating at a White House holiday reception scheduled for later in the day Monday.

The annual gathering for members of Congress -- including House Speaker John Boehner -- is meant to be a social occasion, rather than a working session, and Carney said President Barack Obama was looking forward to it.

"I don't have a schedule for you on the president's conversations," Carney said. "He looks forward to the event tonight, but I don't have any specifics for you. It's true that every member of Congress has been invited, and he looks forward to the event."

A spokesman for Boehner confirmed the Republican speaker was planning to attend the White House party Monday evening.

Obama and Boehner spoke by phone last Wednesday for 28 minutes, sources said. Their last in-person meeting to work out a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff came on November 16.

Those conversations have apparently yielded little progress -- Boehner said Sunday the two sides were "nowhere" on negotiating a deal to avoid the tax hikes and spending cuts that would go into effect at the year's end.

"We've put a serious offer on the table by putting revenues up there to try to get this question resolved, but the White House has responded with virtually nothing," Boehner said on "Fox News Sunday," adding the reason negotiations are going so poorly is that Obama administration officials -- in particular, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner -- aren't taking Republicans seriously.