"I understand that they've come to an agreement," said Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire.
Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ...
and Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the senate, led the negotiations to avert a potentially devastating debt default after an earlier bid collapsed in a bitterly divided House of Representatives.
"I hope that we're nearing the end of this ordeal, this impasse which never should have happened in the first place," said Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who has led efforts to broker a compromise.
Details of the latest agreement were not known, as politicians went in to conference to learn what the leaders had agreed to.
Senate approval of the deal still would have to be ratified by the Republican-controlled House, where a core Tea Party faction has until now vehemently resisted compromise.
The move comes with a midnight deadline. On Thursday the United States is expected to hit the limit of its $16.7 trillion borrowing authority, raising the threat of a default with potentially catastrophic effects on the world economy.
Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind:
I can do this! I can do this!Then the trap sprung...
President Barack Obama
We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us...
urged Congress later on Wednesday to move swiftly to approve the deal to reopen the U.S. government and remove the threat of a potentially devastating default.
White House front man Jay Carney said Obama was grateful to the leaders of the Senate for working together and wanted politicians now to ensure "the government reopens and the threat of default is removed."
"We obviously hope that each house will be able to act swiftly because we're already on Day 16, I think ... of a wholly unnecessary shutdown of government with real consequences for real people," Carney added.
"And we are obviously very close to the point beyond which the United States Treasury no longer has the authority to borrow new money to meet our obligations."