WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on efforts in Congress to reach a deal on a $1.3 trillion spending bill (all times local):
2:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump has told two Republican senators that he supports adding proposals to a huge spending bill that would provide billions in federal subsidies to insurers to help curb health care premium increases.
Two congressional sources said Trump offered that support in a Saturday call with GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Maine's Susan Collins.
Alexander and Collins are among Republicans who want to restore federal payments to insurers that Trump halted last fall that reimburse them for reducing out-of-pocket costs for lower-earning customers. They'd also create a $30 billion, three-year program to help carriers afford to cover their sickest, most expensive clients.
Both proposals are in peril. Democrats oppose GOP language forbidding the federal money from being used to finance abortions.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the call publicly.
—By Alan Fram.
——
1:55 p.m.
Congressional Democrats have rejected a White House bid to extend protections for so-called Dreamer immigrants in exchange for $25 billion in funding for President Donald Trump's long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The development came as talks continued on a massive $1.3 trillion catchall spending bill.
Aides said efforts to use the measure as a vehicle to extend protections for young immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, or DACA, appeared likely to fail.
Trump killed the Obama-era program in September, but a court decision has essentially left it in place, for now.
The White House Sunday proposed a 30-month extension of DACA protections in exchange for $25 billion for Trump's border wall — but Democrats demanded protections for a broader pool of immigrants.
The aides required anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing talks.
——
12:51 a.m.
Congressional leaders and the White House are pressing to strike an accord on a $1.3 trillion catchall spending bill.
Standing in the way are disputes over immigration, abortion and a massive New York-New Jersey rail project that pits President Donald Trump against his most powerful Democratic adversary, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
An agreement by Monday would pave the way for a House vote on Wednesday. Action is needed by midnight Friday to avert another government shutdown.
The measure carries political and policy victories for both sides. Republicans and Trump are winning a long-sought budget increase for the Pentagon while Democrats obtain funding for infrastructure, the opioid crisis and a wide swath of domestic programs.
Coupled with last year's tax cut measure, it heralds the return of trillion-dollar budget deficits.
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