Paul Ryan works with Patty Murray to reach congressional compromise, (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)

In the past few weeks most Americans haven’t been anxiously sitting on the edges of their seats, terrified of yet another government shutdown, but the national economy isn’t in the clear just yet.  Even if people have been more concerned with the state of the Universal Care Act, the government has approximately nine days to sort out its economic mess before the House recesses.  

A congressional panel have been working to keep the government afloat in the new year, and it looks as if they are in the final stages of drafting a “mini-deal,” that may reach the floor of the House in the next week.

Under the leadership of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, the new proposal is built around the compromise that Democrats would accept revenue from increased user fees in return for Republican approval of expanded federal spending. 

Working along 27 other members in the bipartisan panel, Ryan and Murray are trying to negotiate budget savings to prevent automatic spending cuts set to occur on Jan. 15. Current negotiations involve setting the government spending cap somewhere in the $990 billion to $1 trillion range—a compromise between the Republican’s preferred $967 and the Democrat’s ideal $1.058 trillion. 

While the two parties are making strides towards compromise and cooperation, on Wednesday Murray announced that “there are still issues to be resolved.” 

Read more here. 

Contact Executive Producer Sara Newman here. Tweet her here.