Pelosi, Mnuchin agree on plan to avoid federal shutdown

WASHINGTON » House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump administration have informally agreed to keep a stopgap governmentwide funding bill, needed to avert a shutdown at the end of this month, free of controversy or conflict.

The accord is aimed at keeping any possibility of a government shutdown off the table despite ongoing battles over COVID-19 relief legislation, while sidestepping the potential for other shutdown drama in the run-up to the November election.

That is according to Democratic and GOP aides on Capitol Hill who had been briefed on a Wednesday conversation between Pelosi, DCalif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. They required anonymity to characterize an exchange they were informed of but not directly party to.

“We do believe that we’ll be able to get funding to avoid a shutdown,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday.

“House Democrats are for a clean continuing resolution,” said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammil. The definition of “clean” tends to vary among those steeped in Capitol Hill jargon, but it would not necessarily rule out noncontroversial add-ons like routine extensions of programs like federal flood insurance or authority to spend money for highway programs.

The duration of the temporary funding measure or what noncontroversial items might ride along haven’t been settled, aides say, and the Pelosi spokesman declined to further characterize the agreement.

The development came as lawmakers are absent from Washington but are preparing to return for a brief pre-election session that is likely to involve battling over COVID relief legislation. But the chances of another rescue bill have ebbed.

The Mnuchin-Pelosi agreement on preventing a shutdown appears aimed at ensuring that the consequences of gridlock on the COVID relief front do not include a politically freighted partial shutdown.