Last-minute deal avoids shutdown

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama headed off a shutdown of the government with just hours to spare Friday night under a tentative budget deal that would cut $39 billion from current federal spending this year.

After days of tense negotiations and partisan quarreling, House Republicans came to terms with the White House and Senate Democrats over funding the government for the next six months, resolving an impasse that had threatened to disrupt federal operations around the nation and the globe.

House Speaker John Boehner, who had pressed Democrats for cuts sought by members of the conservative House majority, presented the package of spending reductions and policy provisions, and received a positive response from his rank and file shortly before 10 p.m. Central time. Democrats and Republicans proclaimed that they had reached a deal and would begin the steps necessary to move the bill through Congress.

Democrats said that under the agreement, the budget measure would not include provisions sought by Republicans to restrict funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions and to limit environmental regulations.

“This has been a lot of discussion and a long fight,” Boehner said he exited the party meeting. “But we fought to keep government spending down because it really will in fact help create a better environment for job creators in our country.”

Speaking from the White House after the Republican meeting, Obama said both sides had to give ground in reaching the bargain and some of the cuts that Democrats accepted “will be painful.”

“Programs people rely on will be cut back,” Obama said, adding that Americans had to begin to live within their means. “Needed infrastructure projects will be delayed.”

In the private Republican session, according to people present in the room, Boehner described the plan as the best deal he could wring from Democrats and said the cuts - an estimated $39 billion - represented the “largest real dollar spending cut in American history.”

While both sides compromised, Republicans were able to force significant spending concessions from Democrats in exchange for putting to rest some of the social-policy fights that had held up the agreement.

Because of the need to put the compromise hammered out at the highest levels over the past few days into legislative form, congressional leaders moved a stopgap measure through Congress to prevent any break in government financing.

The Senate acted within minutes of the announced deal, and the House followed suit shortly before midnight Central time.

The actual compromise is to be considered sometime next week.

The developments came after Republicans and Democrats spent the day blaming each other for what would be the first lapse in government services brought on by Congress in 15 years

As the 11 p.m. Central time deadline approached, efforts to finish a deal intensified, and Obama and Boehner spoke by telephone to find an agreement.

“Both sides are working hard to reach the kind of resolution Americans desire,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, who consulted closely with Boehner on strategy during the fractious talks. “A resolution is actually within reach. The contours of a final agreement are coming into focus.”

McConnell’s optimism could not disguise the fact that time was steadily slipping away, and testy leaders of the two parties were pushing hard to shape public perceptions of who was responsible for an impasse - and to presage even more consequential fiscal showdowns in the months ahead. Democrats said Republicans were insisting on over-reaching policy provisions; Republicans said the impasse remained about money.

After night-long negotiations that ended before dawn Friday yielded no agreement, Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, went on the offensive. He told reporters and said on the Senate floor that Boehner, the Senate Democrats and Obama had essentially settled on $38 billion in cuts from current spending, a figure that represented a substantial concession for Democrats.

But, he said, Republicans were refusing to abandon a policy provision that would withhold federal financing for family planning and other health services for poor women from Planned Parenthood and other providers.

“This is indefensible, and everyone should be outraged,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “The Republican House leadership have only a couple of hours to look in the mirror, snap out of it and realize how truly shameful they have been.”

In a statement of his own to reporters, Boehner said there was “only one reason we do not have an agreement yet, and that is spending.” He asked, “When will the White House and when will Senate Democrats get serious about cutting spending?”

As the day went on, aides reported progress in attempts to reach an accommodation on the family-planning provision. Even veteran anti-abortion Republicans, such as Sen.Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, indicated willingness to compromise, not wanting the party to be accused of shutting down the government over social policy and diluting its new emphasis on cutting spending. Other Republicans, in interviews and statements, indicated that it was time to end the stalemate.

The dueling characterizations of the negotiations added to the frustration, extending far beyond the nation’s capital, among federal employees and the people who rely on their services, as they waited to find out whether serious disruptions were imminent, and how long they might last.

Despite the disagreement over what still divided the two parties, it was clear that the dollar difference had been reduced considerably, to about $1 billion or $2 billion. That amount left some lawmakers and their constituents grappling to understand how the federal government could be shut down over such a relatively small sum. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he was embarrassed. “People across Virginia cannot understand why we can’t get this done,” he said.

Allies of Boehner, the veteran lawmaker in his first months as speaker, said he seemed to be pursuing a strategy of pushing the negotiations to the last possible tick of the clock to appease rank-and-file conservatives, who have been reluctant to give an inch from the $61 billion in cuts approved by the House.

In a private party meeting Friday afternoon, Boehner told Republican lawmakers that he was fighting for all the cuts he could get, and regaled them with reports of how angry Obama was with him for the hard line he has taken in the talks - news that elated his membership.

Emerging from the meeting, Boehner called the negotiations “respectful,” but added: “We’re not going to roll over and sell out the American people like has been done time and time again in Washington.”

In the absence of a deal, Boehner had again urged the Senate to pass a temporary House budget resolution that would finance the military for the balance of the fiscal year, cut $12 billion in spending from the current year’s budget and keep the rest of the government operating for another week.

“This is the responsible thing to do,” he told reporters.

Senate Democrats rejected that approach as a gimmick, and Obama said he would veto the temporary resolution.

It was an unusual Friday on Capitol Hill, a day when corridors are often empty of lawmakers who have left for the weekend. Instead, they milled about and took the Senate floor to expound, as they awaited news of an agreement or braced for the expiration of government financing. It was frustrating to some because most lawmakers were not privy to the high-level talks.

“I hope that negotiations are continuing by someone somewhere,” Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said as he spoke about six hours before funding would run out.

Lawmakers said they realized that the outcome of the negotiations would have implications not only for them, but also for the federal work force, the public, the economy and the nation’s image.

“We know the whole world is watching us today,” Reid said.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael D. Shear of The New York Times; and by David Espo, Donna Cassata, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, Julie Pace and Ben Feller of The Associated Press.