By Emma Bowman
Congressional negotiators are reporting an agreement has been reached on a massive $1 trillion-plus spending bill that would fund the day-to-day operations of virtually every federal agency through Oct. 1. The House and Senate have until Friday at midnight to pass the measure to avert a government shutdown.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
With Friday’s deadline looming, Congressional negotiators have reached a new agreement on a bill to keep the government open through September 30th, NPR’s Susan Davis confirms.
On Sunday night, details of the deal were not yet public.
Last Friday, Congress bought a week’s time to finalize the bipartisan agreement when lawmakers in the House and Senate approved a short-term spending bill that averted a shutdown on Saturday — President Trump’s 100th day in office.
The agreement follows a tense week of dealmaking on Capitol Hill that led the Trump administration to concede on two sticking points.
On Monday, Trump dropped his demand that the spending bill include a down-payment for his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats, who flexed their leverage in spending negotiations, refused to support any bill that included wall funding. And Wednesday, the White House said it would not stop paying federal subsidies to health insurers that help cover low-income Americans under the Affordable Care Act.
The agreement includes billions in funding for defense and border security, NPR’s Geoff Bennett reports, but scraps some of Trump’s key budget proposals, including his long-promised border wall with Mexico.
“The spending package also includes a nearly $70 million reimbursement to law enforcement agencies for costs incurred helping to protect President Trump and the first family,” Geoff says.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised Democrats’ wins, which included increased funding for Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program and a $2 billion boost to the National Institutes of Health, which Trump proposed slashing. The spending bill also gives additional funding to combating opioid abuse and for summer school Pell Grants.
Lawmakers have until midnight on Friday to pass the deal to keep the federal government funded.
