The Hill News

Following a meeting of GOP lawmakers, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that no agreement had yet been reached to prevent a government shutdown at midnight.

Boehner, in brief remarks following a Republican Conference meeting, said that he'd reached agreement with President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on "almost all" of the policy issues surrounding legislation to fund government for the rest of the fiscal year.

The Speaker maintained that spending, not the controversial policy rider to cut federal support for Planned Parenthood, was the central issue holding up a deal.

"We're not going to roll over and sell out the American people like it's been done time and again in Washington," Boehner said. "We're damn serious about it."

Boehner and Reid have been locked in negotiations to reach a deal before midnight, when the government runs out of money and would face a shutdown. The GOP Speaker has push! ed for the Senate and Obama to take up a House-passed bill to extend funding for another week, while cutting $12 billion and guaranteeing defense spending, but Democrats have rejected that plan.

If a deal were reached soon, though, and the government were nearing a shutdown, Boehner suggested that the House might pass a very short-term extension in spending in order to secure passage for the broader agreement. Obama has said he would be willing to sign such a bill, if substantial enough progress toward a deal had been made.