ukraine, and the white house has been working with the negotiators to reach some sort of agreement. and the white house is expressing optimism that the house leader mike johnson and the senate chuck schumer have reached an agreement, but it is still unclear if they will have to time and the will to get these funding bills passed before the january 19th and february 2nd deadlines and also whether the conservatives will try to use this to push forward stricker immigration and border policy changes. thank you, arlette and manu. we will talk further with michael schnell congressional reporter for the hill, and also, our congressional reporter for the hill, and we go to michael first. this is a first step, and we have heard manu explain all of
shutdown means that the funding is going to run out for 20% of the government which includes the veterans assistance or any kind of food or drug safety issues, and what is coming from the white house that is potentially there is a deal in which they can work with? well, president biden expressed some optimism about this funding agreement that was announced saying that it is the first step to trying to avoid a government shutdown, but of course as manu outlined, still a number of hurdles to be cleared for all of this to come to fruition, but in a statement today, the president said that the bipartisan funding agreement, quote, moves us one step closer to aiding a needless government shutdown and protecting national priorities and protecting the funding levels that he negotiated with the priorities of last spring, and hard working families count on and the passing of full-year funding bills for delivering for
tricky. there are going to be members, especially in the house, who want deeper cuts, and house members and conservatives who want to tie in more restrictive policies along the southern border with mexico, and add that to this as leverage to enact the policy priorities. they do that, that could run into, run into opposition from that white house and from the senate democrats with very little time to spare to avoid a shutdown which leads to a question of whether they can actually avoid the government shutdown despite the deal being reached, but this deal is a key first step to averting the shutdown. now they are on the same page of how much money the government can spend, and now the details of the individual funding levels, but it is a long delayed agreement and one that has been reached to potentially avoid a catastrophe in a matter of days. again, no guarantees, fred. thank you, manu. and arlette, any potential
arlette saenz is in delaware traveling with the president, and manu raju is working capitol hill and working the phones. manu, we will begin with you. yes, this deal could avert a government shutdown, and it is not a guarantee, but it is significant, because they have been at loggerheads for months of how to fund the government, and the initial deal is on funding levels a at that point with the speaker of the house to agree to short term extension and that is leading to his ouster with the speaker of the house who is not happy with the spending cuts, and that brought in the next speaker of the house mike johnson who extended the spending cuts to january 19th, and now with congress set to come back this week, the questions are if they can avoid a government shutdown by january
the steps that are going to be under way, and how encouraging however is this? look, fred, fredricka it is a first step, but significant step as manu laid out. this is a real key need to avert a government shutdown. i have been speaking to the lawmakers over the past months about this government funding process, and a number of the top appropriators have stressed that we can t do anything until we have a top line number agreement. it is very key to unlocking the rest of the negotiations, so today, with the house and the senate leaders coming out that they have a deal on the top line numbers, it is significant and now they can figure out the specifics within the 12 appropriations bill as the funding deadlines creep up, january 19th, the first, and february 2nd is the second. and as noted, several other wrinkles in the process, and particularly the border security, and the republicans took a trip to the border to kick off the new year, and some of them are saying they will not fund the