US Congress leaders work toward spending deal to avert Saturday government shutdowns

The US Congress has three days to avert a partial government shutdown, as leading lawmakers and their aides work behind closed doors to overcome disagreements between the two parties and within the fractious House Republican majority over budget and policy priorities.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, opens the Senate declaring that “we are very close” to an agreement on legislation funding a handful of government agencies through September 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

Referring to the meeting he attended at the White House on Tuesday with US President Joe Biden and the other three top bipartisan leaders of Congress, Schumer said: “We all agree a shutdown is a loser for the American people.”

But Schumer provides no details on the deal he said was imminent.

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, has offered Democrats the possibility of a fourth short-term stopgap measure to avert a government shutdown this weekend. But first, Democrats and Republicans would have to cut a deal on a number of fiscal 2024 appropriations bills that face staggered deadlines of March 1 and March 8 for the array of government agencies.

A continuing resolution, or “CR,” could extend the shutdown deadlines to March 8 and March 22.

“Any CR would be part of a larger agreement to finish a number of appropriations bills, ensuring adequate time for drafting text and for members to review prior to casting votes,” Johnson spokesperson Athina Lawson says in a statement.

Without passage of some sort of legislation by early Saturday, operations within the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development could be curtailed. Construction at some US military installations could also be stalled.