White House, Congressional leaders hold "positive" budget talks

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- White House officials and U.S. congressional leaders from both major parties on Wednesday held a "positive" talk in which they shared their priorities for a bipartisan spending agreement, officials said.

"We've been clear about these budget priorities from the beginning and hope that further discussions will lead to an agreement soon," said a joint statement from the White House, the Senate Majority Leader's Office, and the House Speaker's Office on Wednesday.

The Republicans are demanding more funds for military and border walls, while insisting that "members of Congress do not hold funding for our troops hostage for immigration policy."

However, congressional Democrats are requiring funding increases for non-defense projects equal to those for defense programs. They also require protections for immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children but face deportation as the White House decided to end their protection program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

On Wednesday, two White House officials, namely, legislative director Marc Short and budget director Mick Mulvaney, held talks with both Republican and Democrat leaders on the Capitol Hill to discuss a two-year budget deal.

"We had a positive and productive meeting and all parties have agreed to continue discussing a path forward to quickly resolve all of the issues ahead of us," said Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi in a joint statement, after concluding the meeting.

The budget deal is expected to provide guidelines for government spending for the rest of fiscal year 2018 as well as fiscal year 2019.

Before the Christmas holidays, Congress passed a stopgap spending bill that will keep the government running through Jan. 19. Congress needs to reach a deal for Jan. 19 in order to avoid government shutdown. Enditem