US lawmakers hopeful on averting government shutdown

Top US lawmakers have vowed to avert a partial government shutdown ahead of a Friday deadline to approve funding.

"We will get the government funded," House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after a meeting with President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Democrats and Republicans have been far apart in the budget negotiations on border security and aid to Ukraine.

Republicans control the House by a slim majority, while Democrats hold the Senate by a single seat.

That means spending bills to keep the government open require buy-in from both parties in order to advance through both chambers to President Joe Biden's desk.

If a deal is not reached, some government departments, including agencies that oversee agriculture, transportation and veterans affairs, will temporarily close at the end of Friday.

Other government funding, including defence spending and Homeland Security and State Department budgets, will run out on 8 March. Past shutdowns have led to furloughs of government workers and the closure of national parks.

President Biden met the top four lawmakers - Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries - at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the effort to keep the government open.

"It's Congress' responsibility to fund the government," Mr Biden said at the top of the meeting. "A shutdown would damage the economy significantly, and I think we all agree to that, and we need a bipartisan solution."

Speaker Johnson is expected to put forward legislation in coming days to keep the government open, but the details remained uncertain.

He faces fierce objections from right-wing lawmakers in his ranks who insist that any further support for Ukraine should be tied to more money for border security.

"We have been working in good faith around the clock every single day, for months and weeks, and over the last several days, quite literally around the clock, to get that job done," said Mr Johnson, who also had a one on one meeting with Mr Biden at the White House.

"We're very optimistic," he said.

Senator Mitch McConnell struck a similar tone while talking to reporters at the Capitol.

"We are making some real headway on the appropriations process," he said.

Senator Schumer said the meeting at the White House was "passionate". "It's in his hands," he said of Mr Johnson.

A defence spending package including aid for Ukraine and Israel has passed the Senate, but Mr Johnson has so far resisted a vote on it in the House.

The Speaker also faces demands from the most conservative members of his bloc to push for spending cuts.

Those same members booted out the previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy, in October, after they were angered by a short-term budget deal that Mr McCarthy made with Democrats.

However, Mr Johnson has so far managed to work out deals to keep the government functioning while staving off any attempt to oust him from the speaker's chair.

In a statement released after the meeting, the White House called a potential shutdown "unacceptable" and said it would "cause needless damage to hardworking families, our economy, and our national security".

US budget rules make it an outlier among advanced democracies. A strict interpretation of financing guidelines dating from 1980 has led to 10 US government shutdowns or partial shutdowns over the past four decades.