We begin a  fast moving day on Capital Hill with a timetable is shrinking fast. The debt ceiling deadline is now just 3 days away. The shutdown entering its 3rd week after working over the weekend, Senate lawmakers  were back at it today. Senate majority leader, Harry Raid and minority leader Mitch McCanel continuing their talks behind closed doors and then on the Senate floor, making a point to say they are optimistic. They'll reach the deal soon. A key meeting between Congressional leaders and the White House were supposed to happen this afternoon. That was postponed. Democratic Senator Amy C. of Minnesota has been in the thick of the bipartisan Senate negotiations on the debt ceiling and the government shutdown. She joins me tonight.   

 

"Senator, you've been in the heart of this bipartisan compromise talks. How close is the Senate to ta deal right now?"

 

"Well, very very close. It's been an incredibly productive day after a long long week and we feel very good about this.  I think the two major focuses were to open up the government again and then to make sure that they would not defaulting, that we'll pay our bills and get some reasonable amount of time to actually negotiate the long term budget. So, we don't lurch from financial crisis to financial crisis."

 

"So, at this point, whether the major sticking points?"

 

"Well, I... You know, I think ti's probably not a good idea to negotiate it on your show. It's fun as it would be. But I think the main points, of course, is the dates. And I think it's really important to have a shorter time period to try to get that budget negotiations going. The Senate has passed the budget. The House has

 

passed the budget. And in that old song-School House Rock, a bill on Capital Hill to get the bill down, you have to meet and that is a process that will be started with this agreement because we gonna have a limited time. You know, whether it's 2 months, 3 months to be able to get that done. And I think that's gonna be helpful as well as a clear message to the entire world that we gonna pay our bills and we are not gonna have a stock market plummet like we had back in 2011."

 

"I mean, I get with you don't want to, you know, go into some of this sticking points. As we understand that the Republicans have gotten some of minor affordable care act provisions into the current deal. The president has said he won't use changes to the health care law ransom for either reopening the government or  lifting the debt ceiling. So, why are the Democrats now on board with it? Are they so minor? Are they symbolic?" 

 

"Again, I think we have to wait until the entire agreement is announced but I think the main point here was the words we are hearing from the House, the bills that are coming out of there were major partisan poison bills, delay the affordable health care act for a year. Messing around with the birth control provisions. Whatever agreements they're talking that the leaders are talking about now are much more focused on individual issues that had been raised in the past. Sometimes, by both sides." 

 

"So, it's not gonna be something like delaying the individual mandate for a year?"

 

"That is not what we are hearing. No, Anderson.  It's not gonna to be something that we would significantly change a major policy simply with the threat of government shutdown."

 

"Republicans in the House are really concerned about Democrats trying to change the s. They said that you're moving to the goal post. To that, you say what?" 

 

"I said that our job is to score a touchdown for the American people and we do that by opening the government again. So, we've got approves going, cancer clinical trials going and so that we also send a message we are gonna pay our bills. What's happen here, if it's similar to the agreements we've been talking about in our partisan group of 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans is that we wanna try to get a date that hits before the next stage of s. hit which is Jan 15th. That will give both sides a chance to make their cases to try to get an agree upon budget that could possibly still have cuts. I believe it will. But we could change the amounts or we could do different things by replacing them with other things, whether it's revenue, whether it's government reforms. Those are the things we're gonna be able to look at. "

 

"The government begins defaulting on loans Thursday, 3 days. How confident are you that you and your colleagues will reach an agreement by then? "

 

"Well, I'm confident about the Senate simply because we've already had a strong bipartisan group led by Senator Co. and we've been meeting throughout the weekend. But also because the Senate is a place where deals take place the last 3 years. We passed the farm bill, waiting action with the House, passed the immigration bill, waiting on the House. A number of bills have passed after the midst,  in the midst of financial crisis, like the fiscal cliff on the end of the year last year.  That was passed in the Senate first and then had had to go over to the House. It was a very difficult time in the House but they finally got it done. So this is a pattern that we've seen developed. That despite the Senate hard filibuster rules and despite disagreement, we have in the end found common ground and come together on a bill. And that's what you're going to see in the Senate."

 

"Senator K., appreciate your time tonight. Thank you."

 

"Thank you."