US lawmakers reached a tentative deal to avert a new government shutdown of a weekend of $ 1,375 billion to build a wall on the southern border, senators said Monday.
“We have reached an agreement between us in principle on internal security and six other laws”, said Sen. Richard Shelby, one of the main Republican negotiators.
The agreement includes funding of $ 1,375 billion to build a wall at the border with Mexico, one of the election promises to President Donald Trump, who was asking for $ 5.7 billion for his project.
The agreed figure allows for the construction of 55 miles (89 kilometers) of the wall in the Rio Grande Valley area of southern Texas, according to the aides.
But the deal still has to be approved by the White House.
Democrats have been in Congress for weeks with Trump over financing the construction of the wall on the southern border.
The knot led to the largest government shutdown in US history lasting more than a month and ended on Jan. 25 when Trump signed a law giving lawmakers three weeks to reach an agreement or face government paralysis again.
With the announcement of the initial agreement Monday, the president was attending a festival-like festival in the Texas border town of El Paso, where he claimed border fences there had stopped the out-of-control flow of criminals from Mexico.
