Washington (CNN) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that lawmakers are "very close" to a stop-gap funding announcement to avert a government shutdown. But, behind the scenes, bipartisan discussions are at an impasse as disagreements over the length of the spending bill as well as partisan fights over election security money, the census and funding for a farm loan program remain key sticking points. She acknowledged, however, that lawmakers have not yet come to an agreement on the length of the stop-gap measure. "That is a question that we are still negotiating," she said when asked if the bill will extend until December or go past that. The tentative goal had been to strike a bipartisan agreement on the spending bill by this afternoon to keep the government funded beyond September 30, but little progress has been made in the last 24 hours.

Source: CNN September 18, 2020 18:33 UTC