US parties reach agreement to avoid government shutdown

Washington, Feb 12: Negotiators from both US parties said that the lawmakers have reached an agreement in principle to fund government and avoid another shutdown.

The details of the agreement, preceded by intensive negotiations over funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border, were unspecified. The proposal would require the signature of Donald Trump to avert a new shutdown.

The US government is witnessing a shutdown extending for almost a month, thanks to a prestige battle for President Donald Trump who has locked horns with the Congress over the funding of his pet wall along the US border with Mexico to prevent infiltration. The wall has been one of President Trump's top electoral promise ahead of the 2016 election and not being able to fulfil it means a loss of face for the Republican among his supporters.

US President Donald Trump last month had brought a temporary end to the longest government shutdown in American history, while dropping his previous insistence on immediate funding for wall construction along the Mexican border