World

US budget agreement reached by Congressional committee

13:57 pm on 11 December 2013

A cross-party Congressional budget committee convened after a shutdown of the US goverment in October has reached an agreement on funding federal services.

The BBC reports the deal finances the government for two years and reduces the federal deficit by $US23 billion. It also avoids automatically triggering another government shutdown on 15 January.

The budget deal also offsets $US63 billion in previously enacted automatic military and domestic spending cuts triggered in January by a failure to reach a budget compromise.

Congressman Paul Ryan (Republican) and Senator Patty Murray (Democrat), the respective chairs of the House and Senate budget committees, were called on to reach a cross-party budget deal in the wake of a partial government shutdown over federal spending in October.

"We have broken through the partisanship and gridlock," Senator Murray said on Tuesday.

Mr Ryan said he was optimistic the new agreement could pass both sides of Congress.

The BBC reports the measure is expected to come to a vote before the House recesses for several weeks on Friday.