(Bloomberg) – President Donald Trump and congressional leaders agreed to enact emergency aid for Hurricane Harvey together with an extension of the U.S. debt limit and funds to keep the government running, both through Dec. 15, Democratic leaders said Wednesday.
"Both sides have every intention of avoiding default in December and look forward to working together on the many issues before us," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement after leaders of both parties met with the president.
Republican leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were pushing for a longer-term debt-limit deal, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. But the president accepted an offer from Democratic leaders for a three-month deal that included funding the government until mid-December.
Just hours earlier, House Speaker Paul Ryan called the Democratic proposal "unworkable" and "ridiculous."
|$7.4 billion disaster-relief fund
The House passed $7.4 billion for a federal disaster-relief fund two days before it's set to run out. The measure, passed 419-3, is designed to provide relief to tens of thousands of homeowners from flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and other parts of the Gulf Coast.
Senate Republican leaders had planned to use the measure to suspend the debt ceiling past the November 2018 congressional elections, but Trump's move upended their strategy.
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