Negotiators reach deal ‘in principle’ to avert shutdown

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico

UPDATE

Democratic and Republican negotiators have reached "an agreement in principle" on a spending bill that would avert a government shutdown.

"We reached an agreement in principle between us on all the homeland security and the other six bills," said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).

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Democratic and Republican negotiators said they were optimistic about striking a broad spending deal as soon as Monday night as congressional dealmakers sought to avoid revisiting another government shutdown at the end of this week.

Amid a breakneck series of meetings aimed at funding a quarter of the government and providing a bipartisan border security deal, the top spending committee lawmakers said they would reconvene late into the night to try to get out of a battle over President Donald Trump's border wall that has sucked up two months of Congress's energy and provoked a 35-day shutdown.

Sens. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) stood next to each other after a 6 p.m. meeting and said they were hopeful they could clinch a deal by night's end. They planned to meet again at 8 p.m.

"We're trying to show some unity," Leahy told reporters. He said his goal was to "wrap this up tonight, do it tonight and not tomorrow."

"We're talking about serious, serious things and hopefully making some progress," Shelby agreed. "At the moment, I think the odds have improved."

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Shutdown Part 2 canceled?