By Tom Cohen, CNN-Wed October 16, 2013
Washington (CNN) — Senate leaders on Wednesday announced a deal to end the partial government shutdown and avoid a possible U.S. default as soon as the end of this week, and a key GOP conservative said he wouldn’t try to block the measure.
The news of a deal brought some relief to Wall Street as well as Washington, where the shutdown reached a 16th day with the government poised to lose its ability to borrow more money to pay bills on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hailed the agreement he worked out with his GOP counterpart Mitch McConnell as “historic,” saying that “in the end, political adversaries put aside their differences.”
Now the question becomes whether the agreement can win approval in the Senate and then the House to reach President Barack Obama’s desk, perhaps by the end of Wednesday to ensure there is enough cash on hand for all U.S. debt obligations and bills.
Obama praised Senate leaders for reaching a compromise, and urged Congress to act quickly, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
"As soon as possible is essentially the recommendation we have from here," he said.
Republican and Democratic members of the House were to meet separately in the afternoon to hear details of the proposal as well as weigh the next steps.
House Speaker John Boehner has failed to corral his caucus around any remedy, while House Democrats have solidly supported their leaders.
A senior GOP Senate aide said the Senate vote could come sometime Wednesday evening and a House leadership aide said the House could vote “as early as tonight” following the Senate.
But both chambers will have to take special steps to get the legislation passed that quickly, raising concerns that tea party conservatives led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas would block or delay it in a final effort to include provisions intended to harm Obama’s signature health care reforms.
However, Cruz told reporters that he wouldn’t mount a filibuster or employ other procedural moves against the agreement. At the same time, he criticized his Senate colleagues for what he called their failure to listen to the American people and said the fight against Obamacare will continue.
National polls conducted since the start of the shutdown on October 1 indicate that while all sides are feeling the public’s anger over the partisan political impasse, more blame is pointed at the Republicans in Congress rather than Democrats or Obama. FULL STORY
