By Andrew Duehren and Andrew Restuccia 

Breaking News....

WASHINGTON -- Top lawmakers said they have reached an agreement on spending bills, giving Congress a week to approve the legislation before the government runs out of funding after Dec. 20.

(More to come)

Previously.....

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers and the White House are closing in on an agreement on how to spend nearly $1.4 trillion in government funding as the window to approve the legislation before the end of the day on Dec. 20 narrows.

Democrats and Republicans could reach the annual spending deal as soon as Thursday, according to lawmakers, aides and White House officials. The top lawmakers on the House and Senate appropriations committees met Thursday morning, followed by a meeting between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the leaders of the two committees.

Leaving that meeting, Mr. Mnuchin said that negotiators were focusing on a small list of remaining issues and that he planned to update President Trump on the talks later Thursday.

"We're down to a handful of issues that I think both sides are going to try and focus on and see if we can get resolved quickly," Mr. Mnuchin said.

House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.) said that discussions are continuing. "We hope to complete it by the end of the day," she said.

While no deal has been reached, lawmakers and a White House official said that the two sides were approaching a resolution on the most contentious spending issue: a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the possible agreement, Congress would approve roughly the same amount of funding it did last fiscal year for building the wall -- $1.38 billion -- while leaving the president's ability to redirect government funds untouched.

Such an agreement would represent a compromise for both Mr. Trump, who asked for $8.6 billion for the wall in his budget request, and Democrats, who have sought to block new funding for the wall and curb the president's ability to redesignate money to build it.

Deep disagreements about paying for the border wall have racked the spending process for years, holding up hundreds of billions in other funding and leading to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history that ended earlier this year. Congress has temporarily extended funding twice in the past few months as the two sides haggled over the border wall, a priority for Mr. Trump.

If lawmakers and the White House reach an agreement on Thursday, they will still face a tight schedule to pass each of the dozen annual spending bills before the last stopgap measure expires after Dec. 20 -- and many lawmakers plan to head home for the holidays. House members said they aim to bring packages of the bills to the floor on Tuesday, giving the Senate just days to process the legislation before the end of next week.

"We're looking at the funnel," said Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.), the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Next week is the end of it."

Without an agreement, the federal government would still not likely run out of money, as Mrs. Pelosi has repeatedly vowed to avert another government shutdown and Mr. Trump has privately told advisers that he wants to avoid a funding lapse.

But lawmakers are also eager to avoid passing yet another temporary funding fix and enact budget increases negotiated this summer. The duration of any additional stopgap measure would likely compete with the likely impeachment trial of Mr. Trump in the Senate.

Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com and Andrew Restuccia at Andrew.Restuccia@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2019 15:49 ET (20:49 GMT)

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