By Kristina Peterson, Natalie Andrews and Laura Meckler 

WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders were closing in on a deal Wednesday morning over a spending bill that would fund the government until October, according to people familiar with the negotiations, wrapping up the final stretch of talks that had delayed a deal for several days.

The top four congressional leaders met Wednesday morning to decide on whether a last handful of measures would be included in the bill, according to aides. But the bulk of the bill had been hammered out over a stretch of late-night and early-morning negotiations. The government's current funding expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Lawmakers and President Donald Trump agreed to the bill's $1.3 trillion funding level last month as part of a two-year budget deal. But they spent weeks wrestling with the details of how to divvy it up across federal agencies. Should the bill be finalized later Wednesday, lawmakers would have to sprint to pass it through both chambers to avoid what would be the third partial government shutdown of the year.

Although a deal hadn't been completed early Wednesday, more of its contents were emerging. One of the most contentious issues had been whether Congress would provide funds to deliver on Mr. Trump's promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Democrats have opposed building a physical wall but supported beefing up border security.

The spending bill is expected to allocate $1.57 billion for border fencing and some related spending on the southwest border, according to two people familiar with the details. That includes $641 million for 33 miles of new border fencing and levee walls, which are spans of concrete with bollard fencing on top. That is about half the 60 miles of new barriers Mr. Trump had requested.

The compromise gives the administration more than it asked for in replacement fencing -- a total of $696 million for about 60 miles, including 14 miles of replacement fencing that the president requested. Both new and replacement barriers must use existing technology, one person said, which would rule out the sort of solid concrete wall that some have envisioned.

The bill also includes a separate technology fund of about $1.2 billion that would pay for road construction at the border, hiring new border agents and other border security measures.

The spending bill won't include any provisions cutting off federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities, cities and other jurisdictions with policies in place limiting local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, two people said. One of them added that the bill also doesn't fund additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers or new detention beds, both of which would help increase deportations of people already living in the U.S.

Congressional leaders were likely to include funding to strengthen election security to thwart Russian meddling in November's midterm elections. The bill is expected to boost the Federal Bureau of Investigation's funding for counter-intelligence efforts to fight Russian cyberattacks by $307 million and provide an additional $380 million for election technology grants to states.

That is far short, however, of the more than $3 billion that Congress provided to state and local governments to upgrade and modernize their election infrastructure after the 2000 election, when a final result was delayed by troubles counting ballots in Florida.

GOP leaders have focused on the boost the spending bill would provide to the military. Under the budget agreement reached last month, funding for the military will be increased by $80 billion this fiscal year over spending limits set in 2011, although Congress has regularly agreed to lift federal funding since then.

"This is really about how we build the 21st century military," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told reporters Tuesday. "We have 21st century threats, and our men and women in uniform need to be equipped and prepared to deal with these threats."

Democrats, meanwhile, have emphasized the $63 billion boost domestic spending would get. The funding would go to help combat the opioid epidemic, fund medical research and infrastructure investments, among other provisions.

The bill is expected to include $2.8 billion for treatment, prevention and research into opioids.

The spending bill "follows through, as you know, on the bipartisan budget deal we struck in February," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told reporters Tuesday. "And for the first time in a long time, will robustly fund our military and provide substantial investments in our middle class."

The bill is expected to exclude some of the most contentious policy provisions, including an effort from Republicans to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a women's health organization that provides abortion services.

Congressional leaders had agreed last month to boost infrastructure spending by $20 billion over two years. In this spending bill, lawmakers are expected to direct $600 million to develop new high-speed broadband, provide $1 billion more to an airport-improvement program and lift spending for the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Railroad Administration.

The Census Department is expected to get a $1.3 billion increase over last year's level.

The House was still expected to vote on the bill Thursday, forcing lawmakers to waive their normal requirements for how long a bill must be public before voting on it. Once the House has passed the spending bill, it would go to the Senate, where any one senator can block the chamber from speeding up its time-consuming procedures, as Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) did last month on the budget deal.

"We all know that we've got a hard stop on Friday, and the closer you get to Friday, the more worried people become," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

--Byron Tau contributed to this article.

Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com, Natalie Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com and Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 21, 2018 10:25 ET (14:25 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.