House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are reportedly close to finalizing agreements on a two-year budget.
A source familiar with the talks told The Hill Monday that the two parties are “down to some technical language issues,” but are “near-final agreement” in their 2020 and 2021 spending plans, which will be used to finalize a full government budget later.
“The near-final agreement is a traditional bipartisan budget agreement where both sides will be unhappy with some aspects — a true compromise,” the source said.
Talks between the two offices have been happening for over a week as they negotiate how to pay for a new budget deal.
Mr. Mnuchin has reportedly kept the president and congressional Republicans in the loop on the budget progress, which would entail defense and non-defense increases and a debt-limit suspension that would stay in effect until July 2021.
Lawmakers are attempting to close a deal before Congress leaves for their month-long August recess, giving the House only days to broker a deal before they leave on Friday. The Senate will stay until August 2nd.
The Treasury Department is attempting to curb its borrowing after the debt limit was breached earlier in the year.
“Based on updated projections, there is a scenario in which we run out of cash in early September, before Congress reconvenes. As such, I request that Congress increase the debt ceiling before Congress leaves for summer recess,” Mr. Mnuchin said to congressional leadership in a letter this month.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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