Congress seeks deal on border

WASHINGTON: Congressional negotiators dug in for a weekend of talks on a security plan that included some sort of barrier on the USMexican border, hoping to complete a deal that is also acceptable to President Donald Trump and will avoid another government shutdown.

Negotiators were homing in on a deal with border barrier funding of $US1.3 billion ($NZ1.9 billion) to $US2 billion, a person familiar with the talks said. Trump has demanded $5.7 billion.

Steven Palazzo, of Mississippi, a Republican member of the HouseSenate panel holding the talks, said on Saturday he expected a deal ‘‘before the end of the weekend’’ that could be finalised tomorrow. He said some key details were still under negotiation.

Another Republican on the negotiating panel, Chuck Fleischmann, of Tennessee, said the party wanted as much barrier funding as possible and he hoped the final amount was above $US2 billion.

House appropriations committee spokesman Evan Hollander said Democrats wanted the figure to be less than $US2 billion.

Even so, Fleischmann said chances of a government shutdown triggered by an impasse were ‘‘next to nil’’.

‘‘There’s next to no appetite in the room on either side in either body, and that’s a good thing. We didn’t want the government shut down the first time,’’ he said on Saturday.

Democrats and Republicans continued to exchange proposals on Saturday. Texas Republican Kay Granger said there still were ‘‘issues to be worked out’’.

The biggest wild card remains Trump. If the President does not agree to a deal reached by bipartisan negotiators, some Republican senators say they are unlikely to go along with it, although Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not ruled out bringing it to a vote. — Bloomberg News