Pelosi and Mnuchin agree on plan to avoid government shutdown

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have tentatively agreed to use a short term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September, according to Capitol Hill aides. The agreement on government funding comes even as the White House and top Democratic officials have been unable to reach a compromise on a new Covid relief package. Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke for more than 30 minutes earlier this week but remain hundreds of billions of dollars apart on additional stimulus efforts to help the slumping U.S. economy.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have an informal agreement” to keep a stopgap government wide funding bill at the end of September free of controversy or conflict. A source familiar with the talks said the White House envoy and the Democratic leader haven't agreed to a bill or to legislative text, but they both want to avoid a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic and an economic cataclysm. They agreed it should be clean as they both want to keep the government open.