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Pelosi, Mnuchin agree on plan to avoid government shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump
administration have informally agreed to keep a stopgap government-wide
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’s according to Democratic and GOP aides on Capitol
Hill who have been briefed on a Tuesday conversation between Pelosi,
D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. They required anonymity
to characterize an exchange they were informed of but not directly
party to.

“House Democrats are for a clean continuing resolution,”
said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, referring to the stopgap bill. 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. Some lawmakers are sure
to seek substantive legislation and even COVID-related items if
consensus could somehow evolve.

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

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 government faces a Sept. 30
deadline to avoid a shutdown like the 2018-2019 shutdown sparked by
Trump’s insistence on more funding to construct his U.S.-Mexico border
wall. There is sentiment among some Democrats for the stopgap
legislation to extend into next year, but December appears to be the
administration’s preference and a more likely result.

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

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.

The
duration of the stopgap measure affects which modest changes — often
referred to as “anomalies” — are added to address immediate needs like
expiring authorizations at the Department of Health and Human Services
or immediate needs at the Pentagon and the Department of Agriculture. A
longer continuing resolution, or CR, requires more extensive
negotiation.

Monica Crowley, a spokeswoman for Mnuchin, said Treasury would decline to comment.

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.