Congressional leaders announce agreement on topline spending levels, a key step to averting shutdown

Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on topline spending levels for the current fiscal year that could help avoid a partial government shutdown later this month. The agreement largely hues to spending caps for defense and domestic programs that Congress set as part of a bill to suspend the debt limit until 2025. In a letter to colleagues, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday it will secure $16 billion in additional spending cuts from the previous agreement brokered by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden and is about $30 billion less than what the Senate was considering.