House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), one of Capitol Hill's top defense hawks, said today congressional leaders are nearing a budget deal, but stopped short of promising it would prevent another government shutdown. "My sense is that they are very close to a budget agreement," he told reporters at a GOP retreat in West Virginia. But Thornberry would not say whether he'd support another short-term continuing resolution to stretch the federal government's funding beyond Feb. 8, when the...
