GOP congressional leaders on Tuesday swung behind a hard-won agreement to prevent a new government shutdown and finance construction of more barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, selling it as a necessary compromise even as some Republicans on the right voice opposition.


It's not clear whether President Donald Trump will support the deal, although GOP negotiators said they were hopeful.


"You've got to remember where Nancy Pelosi was. She has said, 'No money for a wall.' That's not the case," McCarthy said on CNBC Tuesday morning. "The Democrats have now agreed to more than 55 miles of new barrier."

However, negotiators said it's pretty much the deal that Trump could have gotten in December. Aides revealed details under condition of anonymity because the agreement is tentative.

Republicans and the White House were desperate to avoid another bruising shutdown. They tentatively agreed Monday night to far less money for Trump's border wall than the White House's $5.7 billion wish list, settling for a figure of nearly $1.4 billion, according to congressional aides. The huge funding measure, which combines seven spending bills into one, runs through the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

Details might not be released until Wednesday, but the pact came in time to alleviate any threat of a second partial government shutdown this weekend.

At the White House on Tuesday, spokesman Hogan Gidley was noncommittal: "We want to focus on what's actually in the document. Until we see that, it's going to be very difficult to have a conversation about what we will and won't accept.





The pact also includes increases for new technologies such as advanced screening at border entry points, humanitarian aid sought by Democrats and additional customs officers.



But Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity, a Trump ally, said the barrier money in the agreement was inadequate. He warned late Monday that "any Republican that supports this garbage compromise, you will have to explain." Conservatives like Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who has the ear of Trump, also came out in opposition.

"I would hope that Sean Hannity and all the other people you mentioned aren't running this government. This was a bipartisan deal, Senate and House, Republican and Democrat," Democrat Lowey said on CNN.



Trump aides are discussing using executive action to access other pots of money to build the wall without Congress, even if Trump backs the compromise.

"We'll take as much money as you can give us, and then we will go off and find the money someplace else - legally - in order to secure that southern barrier," acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Friday. He said more than $5.7 billon had been identified that Trump could tap.

Democrats carried more leverage into the talks after besting Trump on the 35-day shutdown but showed flexibility in hopes of winning Trump's signature. After yielding on border barriers, Democrats focused on reducing funding for detention beds to curb what they see as unnecessarily harsh enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

The agreement yielded curbed funding, overall, for ICE detention beds, which Democrats promised would mean the agency would hold fewer detainees than the roughly 49,000 detainees held on Feb. 10, the most recent date for which figures were available. Democrats said the number of beds would be ratcheted down to 40,520 by year's end.





"The president still has a few more tools in his toolbox," GOP Leader McCarthy said.




Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey, Darlene Superville and Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Jill Colvin in El Paso, Texas, contributed to this report.