Congressional leaders, White House officials to meet Wednesday on spending

Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress will meet Wednesday with senior White House officials in another attempt to reach a deal on raising spending caps and the federal debt ceiling.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Tuesday that he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will meet with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Wednesday afternoon.

{mosads}Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the top Republicans and Democrats from the Appropriations committees — Shelby, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) — will also attend, according to a congressional aide briefed on the meeting.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Office of Management and Budget acting Director Russ Vought will represent the administration.

The meeting follows a phone conversation Shelby had with Pelosi on Saturday on how to move the stalled talks forward.

“We’re going to meet tomorrow afternoon with Pelosi, I guess in the Speaker’s office. I got a notice an hour or so ago,” Shelby said Tuesday. “We’re having positive discussions.”

Congressional leaders and senior administration officials announced progress when they met shortly before the Memorial Day recess.

Mnuchin said last week that the White House now supports combining a spending deal with legislation to raise the debt limit.

One outstanding difference between congressional leaders and the White House is over whether to raise statutory spending caps for the next two fiscal years or just for 2020.

The White House has indicated it would prefer a shorter deal that’s likely to have a smaller impact on the federal deficit.