WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the debt and budget agreement between the White House and Congress (all times local):
6:35 p.m.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is promising the Senate will vote on the budget deal agreed to by congressional leaders and the White House before senators leave town for the August recess.
The Republican leader said Monday he’s “very encouraged” by the agreement reached by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
McConnell says the “reality of divided government means this is not exactly the deal Republicans would have written on our own.”
But he says all sides have made “enormous strides” funding national defense recently and the deal “is what we need to keep building on that progress.”
The deal sets federal funding levels for the next two years and allows continued borrowing. The House is expected to vote first, with the Senate voting before recessing next week.
__
6:15 p.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say they have reached a budget deal with President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress.
The Democratic leaders say in a joint statement released Monday that the agreement “will enhance our national security and invest in middle-class priorities.”
It will set spending limits for the next two fiscal years, and raise the nation’s debt limit to allow borrowing, through July 31, 2021.
Pelosi and Schumer say the House will move “swiftly” to bring the package up for a vote. The Senate is expected to follow. They hope to send it to the president “as soon as possible.”
They say the deal will avert a debt default and another federal government shutdown.
__
6 p.m.
President Donald Trump says a deal has been struck with congressional leaders on the budget and debt ceiling, mostly eliminating the threat of a repeat government shutdown this fall.
Trump tweets that the agreement is “a real compromise” and a victory for the nation’s military and veterans.
Aides say the deal would allow the government to continue to pay its bills and build upon recent budget gains for the Pentagon and domestic agencies.
Lawmakers were working to avert a first-ever default on U.S. payments and to set overall spending limits and prevent automatic spending cuts.
Trump says the deal contains no “poison pills.” But it comes as budget deficits are rising to $1 trillion levels.
__
3 p.m.
The Trump administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are on the cusp of a critical debt and budget agreement, a deal that would amount to an against-the-odds victory for Washington pragmatists seeking to avoid politically dangerous tumult over fiscal deadlines.
Aides on both sides of the talks say the tentative deal would restore the government’s ability to borrow to pay its bills past next year’s elections and build upon recent large budget gains for both the Pentagon and domestic agencies. It would mostly eliminate the risk of a repeat government shutdown this fall.
The agreement is on a broad outline for $1.37 trillion in agency spending next year and would represent a win for lawmakers eager to return Washington to a more predictable path.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.