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People walk past the U.S. Capitol building with less than two weeks remaining for the U.S. Congress to negotiate a deal to avert a partial government shutdown in Washington, U.S., January 11, 2024.
Leah Millis | Reuters
WASHINGTON — House and Senate leaders have reached an agreement on a short-term spending deal that would extend two upcoming deadlines to keep the government funded until March, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The move should buy legislators more time to craft longer-term spending bills, following the agreement last weekend to set the overall spending level for fiscal year 2024 at $1.59 trillion.
The new agreement moves upcoming government funding deadlines for different departments from Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 to March 1 and March 8.
Speaker Mike Johnson is set to hold a call with fellow House Republicans at 8 p.m. Sunday to discuss spending negotiations. Several conservatives have objected to the topline spending deal cut by leadership and have urged Johnson to go back on it, though he said Friday that the agreement remains.
As Johnson faced pushback from the right, several moderate Democrats told NBC News that they would be willing to vote to save the Louisiana Republican’s speakership if there was a move to oust him. Democrats stood aside and voted to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a similar situation last year, when a handful of House conservatives rebelled against their party’s then-leader.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats praised the topline spending agreement after it was announced last weekend.
“The bipartisan topline appropriations agreement clears the way for Congress to act over the next few weeks in order to maintain important funding priorities for the American people and avoid a government shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, said in a statement at the time.
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