Senate Leaders Announce Agreement on Budget Deal

CAPITOL HILL — 

The top Senate leaders have announced an agreement on a two year budget deal that would provide defense and domestic programs with large spending increases.

Majority leader Mitch McConnell and the top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer spoke to fellow senators about the deal on Tuesday as members of Congress sought to avert another government shutdown.

The House of Representatives will now take up the measure.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she and "a larger number" of Democrats would oppose a spending deal unless there was a guarantee that a vote on immigration legislation would take place.

Last month, the U.S. government endured a three-day partial federal shutdown that was prompted in part by a partisan disagreement on immigration reform.

The standoff had been continuing this week, with President Donald Trump and conservative Republicans so far unable to reach a deal with Democrats to protect young undocumented immigrants brought to America as children who will be at risk of deportation next month.

The president has said he supports a path to citizenship for 1.8 million youth eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama administration program that Trump set for termination. A White House blueprint for immigration reform also calls for funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a reduction in legal immigration to the United States, and prioritizing newcomers with advanced work skills.

"President Trump has done something that President Obama never did — he's offered 1.8 million adults who are DACA recipients and DACA-eligible an opportunity to get on a pathway to American citizenship," Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said. "That's an incredibly generous offer."

Democrats countered that the fate of DACA beneficiaries should not be tied to larger immigration topics Congress has been unable to agree on for decades.

"DACA has been an extraordinary success," Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said. "Bipartisan legislation to protect Dreamers [DACA recipients] has been pending in Congress and has overwhelming support from the people we represent, including President Trump's own voters."

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