US Congress may seek 1- week extension to avert shutdown

The US Congress inched toward a deal to fund the government through September but was preparing to possibly extend a midnight Friday deadline to wrap up negotiations and avoid an imminent government shutdown.

The one- week extension would give leading Republicans and Democrats “a little breathing room” to finish negotiations and present their plan for spending around $ 1 trillion through the rest of the fiscal year to rank- and- file lawmakers, according to a House of Representatives source familiar with the talks.

Negotiators were racing against the clock to clear away remaining disputes in the massive spending bill.

The arduous talks have produced at least two major victories for Democrats so far, even though they are the minority party in Congress.

President Donald Trump gave in to Democratic demands that the spending bill not include money to start building the wall he wants to erect on the US- Mexico border. Trump has said the “big, beautiful, power- ful” wall is needed to block illegal immigrants and drugs from entering the country.

Mexico has adamantly rejected Trump’s assertion that it would pay for the wall.

Democrats have also gotten the administration to agree to continue funding, at least for now, for a major component of the Affordable Care Act, even though Trump campaigned on a vow to end the program, commonly known as Obamacare.

Administration officials had threatened to pull the plug on subsidies for low- income people enrolled in the 2010 healthcare law, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement.

“While we agreed to go ahead and make the payments for now, we haven’t made a final decision about future commitments,” a White House official said.

Anthem Inc, one of the largest insurers on the Obamacare exchanges, said that without the government payments, premiums would increase 20 percent next year.