WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic and Republican leaders on Wednesday reached final agreement on a deal to reopen the government and extend its borrowing authority into February, with final passage looking increasingly possible by Wednesday evening.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced completion of the agreement shortly after noon, and the Senate Republicans who had led the push to shut down the government unless President Obama’s health care law was gutted conceded defeat and promised not to delay a final vote.
“This is not a time to point fingers of blame,” Mr. Reid said. “This is a time of reconciliation.”
The deal, with the government shutdown in its third week, yielded virtually no concessions to the Republicans, other than some minor tightening of income verifications for people obtaining subsidized insurance under the health care law.
Under the agreement, the government would be funded through Jan. 15, and the debt ceiling would be raised until Feb. 7. The Senate will take up a separate motion to instruct House and Senate negotiators to reach accord by Dec. 13 on a long-term blueprint for tax-and-spending policies over the next decade.
Mr. McConnell stressed that under the deal, budget cuts extracted in the 2011 fiscal showdown were not reversed as some Democrats had wanted, a slim reed that not even he claimed as a significant victory.
The deal “is far less than many of us hoped for, quite frankly, but far better than what some had thought,” he said. “It’s time for Republicans to unite behind other crucial goals.”
