A deal to avert a second shutdown is reportedly close — but will Trump sign it?

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Bipartisan congressional negotiators working on a federal spending deal to avert a second partial government shutdown reported Friday afternoon they are close to reaching an agreement.

Talks will continue over the the weekend, and negotiators from both houses of Congress hope to have a finalized proposal Monday so a vote can take place well before their deadline of Friday, Feb. 15.

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"I think the political reality is we can't get to [$5.7 billion]," said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), a GOP negotiator who is aiming for $1.6 billion in wall funding. "I think [Trump] understands that we're operating under a divided government scenario and we've got to get the best deal that we can get."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.