The top Democrats in Congress emerged from a meeting with President Obama on Thursday calling for lawmakers to pass a short-term spending measure to keep the government open beyond the budget deadline of Oct. 1.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said they favor a “continuing resolution” to buy more time to negotiate a budget for fiscal 2016.
“The three of us agree that we want a short-term CR,” Mr. Reid told reporters. “We want to make sure we have equal money for defense and non-defense.”
The White House said Mr. Obama agreed to the strategy “in the interest of avoiding a government shutdown.”
“The president reiterated that threats by some Republicans to shut down the government and eliminate access to health care for men, women and families across the country is a game of chicken with our economy that we cannot accept,” the White House said, a reference to the call by some Republican lawmakers to strip from the budget funding for Planned Parenthood.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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