President Donald Trump said Tuesday it is "too early" to determine if a partial government shutdown can be averted.
"We'll see what happens," the president told reporters when asked about the prospect, The Hill reported. "It's too early to say."
Trump stressed he is determined to get $5 billion for his promised wall along the southwest border, declaring: "We need border security," The Hill reported.
Yet chances of a shutdown appeared to diminish after a day of negotiating on Capitol Hill, The Hill reported.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., predicted there would be no shutdown, arguing the Trump administration is "extremely flexible" in striking a spending deal.
Republicans and Democrats appeared to be working toward an agreement to spend $1.6 billion on border fencing and other barriers, similar to what the Senate Appropriations Committee approved earlier this year, and $1 billion for other immigration efforts.
Democrats balked at the additional $1 billion being spent on the wall, calling it a
"slush fund."
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump would seek wall funding from other sources, telling Fox News he has "other ways to get to that $5 billion," The Hill reported.
"At the end of the day we don't want to shut down the government, we want to shut down the border from illegal immigration."
She later told reporters Trump had asked all Cabinet agencies to come up with unspent funds, a maneuver Democrats said was legally questionable, The Hill reported.
Lawmakers face a Friday deadline to approve funding for seven government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.
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