Pelosi cites 'progress' in talks to clinch budget deal this month

By Sarah Ferris and Caitlin Emma
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arrives for a closed-door session with her caucus before a vote on a resolution condemning what she called

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Tuesday that she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin may be within striking distance of a two-year agreement to avoid billions in automatic spending cuts and a default on the nation’s debt.

“We have a clear understanding of what we want to agree to and I think that’s progress,” the California Democrat told reporters after speaking by phone to Mnuchin. The two plan to talk again on Wednesday after days of ongoing negotiations.

“We’ll have an announcement about something soon one way or another,” she told reporters.

Pelosi's comments to reporters — just hours after she said she was "hopeful" for a deal by next week — come amid a flurry of negotiations with Mnuchin, who has led the talks for Republicans, over the last week.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also said Tuesday that the lower chamber could vote on a two-year budget agreement as soon as next week if congressional leaders and the White House can clinch a deal in the coming days.

“I'm hopeful that that can happen,“ the Maryland Democrat told reporters during his weekly pen-and-pad briefing, adding that Pelosi briefed him on the state of talks Monday night.

“It seems to be positive discussions,” Hoyer said of the negotiations between Pelosi and Mnuchin.

The House and Senate have just seven days in session before lawmakers are set to leave for August recess on July 26, though the Senate is scheduled to be in session for an additional week. Mnuchin has said the federal government could breach its borrowing authority in early September — possibly before Congress returns from summer break.

But Pelosi on Monday night again rejected the notion of a short-term debt limit hike, with both Democrats and many Republicans preferring to hold out for a broader bargain that would lift discretionary spending caps and the debt limit for fiscal years 2020 and 2021.

Hoyer also reiterated that Democrats are opposed to a short-term deal to lift the debt ceiling without a broader agreement to avert billions in spending cuts.

“There’s some talk about short-term, we’re opposed to short-term, we don’t want to go through this again,” Hoyer said. “We think it needs to be at least a two-year extension and a two-year caps deal, so we’re not continually going down this crisis road.”

Democrats have demanded dollar-for-dollar increases in military and non-military spending, in addition to $22 billion over the next two fiscal years for veterans health care.

That request for billions in funding for veterans health care, in addition to offsets for spending increases, remain hurdles to a deal, Mnuchin and Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said on Monday.