WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reached a deal with Democratic leaders to raise the federal government's debt limit and fund the government through December 15, as part of a package that includes disaster aid for Hurricane Harvey victims.
The agreement comes as the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill of roughly 8 billion U.S. dollars in initial emergency aid for Harvey victims.
The deal would attach both the short-term government funding and the debt limit increase to the House bill.
"In the meeting, the President and Congressional leadership agreed to pass aid for Harvey, an extension of the debt limit, and a continuing resolution both to Dec. 15, all together," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement following a meeting with Trump in the White House.
"Both sides have every intention of avoiding default in December and look forward to working together on the many issues before us," the Democratic leaders said.
Trump also confirmed that he has reached a good deal with Democratic leaders on the package.
"We had a very good meeting, we essentially came to a deal and I think the deal will be very good," Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
"I will be adding that as an amendment to the (House) flood relief bill," McConnell told reporters.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has also urged Congress to raise the nation's debt ceiling in coming weeks as the Hurricane Harvey aid needs more government spending.
"We obviously have now the hurricane spending, which is an issue. So that's going to have some impact on our September spending," Mnuchin said last week, adding it could bring forward the debt ceiling deadline by a couple of days.
Mnuchin told lawmakers in July that the Treasury's cash could only fund the government operations through September 29.
