Legislators in the United States said they reached a tentative deal Monday to fund the government, thus avoiding another shutdown.
As always, President Donald Trump will hold the fate of any potential border security agreement in his hands. The announcement came only minutes before the president took the rally stage in the Texas border city of El Paso to argue that "walls save lives" as he made the case for his proposed border barrier.
The top four congressional negotiators emerged from a meeting on border security funding Monday night and announced an agreement in principle to fund the government past a midnight Friday deadline.
A congressional source told media outlets it would put about $1.4 billion toward physical barriers, but not a wall. It would include about 55 new miles (about 90 kilometres) of bollard fencing. The agreement would also reduce the cap for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds by about 17% from the current 49,057 to 40,520, according to the source.
A bill could get unveiled late Tuesday or early Wednesday. But that timing could change.
If passed, the measure would avoid reopening fresh wounds from a 35-day partial closure in December and January. About 800,000 federal workers were furloughed or worked without pay, missing two paycheques during the funding lapse. Theywould face the prospect of more financial hardship if nine federal departments, or about a quarter of the government, close again.
