SENATE LEADERS REACH DEAL TO RAISE SPENDING

WASHINGTON The Senate’s top Republican says there’s Senate agreement on a twoyear, almost $400-billion budget deal that would provide Pentagon and domestic programs with huge spending increases.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the pact, joined on the Senate floor by top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. It would contain almost $300 billion over current limits on defence and domestic accounts.

McConnell, pictured, said the measure would rewrite existing defence limits that have “hamstrung our armed forces and jeopardized our national security.”

The measure, aides said, also contains almost $90 billion in overdue disaster aid and an increase in the government borrowing cap that would prevent a first-ever U.S. government default on its obligations.