Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have agreed to work on a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown Oct. 1, weeks before the election.

“The speaker and I have agreed, we don’t want to see a government shutdown,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Mnuchin said his expectation is that this so-called “continuing resolution” would extend government funding into December – although the date has not yet been agreed on.

Without action by Congress, agency funding would expire at midnight Sept. 30 and the government would begin to shut down. Mnuchin’s comments confirmed reporting from The Washington Post and other outlets on agreement for a stop-gap spending bill to avoid this outcome.

Mnuchin’s comments appear to suggest that the White House is not girding for a clash over this spending deadline, though White House officials have in the past tried to negotiate deals with Democrats in Congress only to have President Trump announce he is opposed at the last moment.

A spending bill into December would allow lawmakers to return to the Capitol for a “lame duck” session following the election and complete spending legislation for the 2021 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Short-term spending bills have become routine for Congress in recent years as lawmakers have failed to reach agreement in a timely fashion on the 12 annual must-pass spending bills that fund government agencies such as the Pentagon, the Education Department, and the Health and Human Services department. This so-called “discretionary spending” accounts for about one-third of the overall federal budget, while programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that continue automatically from year to year make up the rest.

Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, confirmed earlier this week that Pelosi supports passage of a so-called “clean CR,” meaning a government funding bill without extraneous legislation attached.

“The good news is we’ve agreed on a clean C.R., and I hope by the end of the week, we can begin moving forward with that, because that’s important to the American people,” Mnuchin said.

“The most important thing is to make sure at the end of the month, we don’t shut down the government and we get something past the election,” he said.

At the same time, Mnuchin repeated his view that more stimulus is needed for the economy.

Talks on additional coronavirus economic relief legislation broke down in August and have remained stalled. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Tuesday, and leaders in both parties say they hope to reach agreement on a new coronavirus relief bill.

But they remain far apart and it’s unclear if a deal will be possible. Democrats are unwilling to agree to legislation that spends less than $2 trillion, while Republicans say that figure is too high.

Senate GOP leaders have been hoping to try to advance a slimmed-down bill costing somewhere around $500 billion, but they’ve struggled to reach agreement even on that. The latest hang-up involves a push by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for a school choice provision opposed by some fellow Republicans.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., a member of the Senate GOP leadership, said Sunday that Senate Republicans anticipate opposition from Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to their emerging bill.

“We have a targeted package that the Republicans want to put forward to help people get back to work,” Barrasso said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“There’s paycheck protection money in there for our small businesses to continue. I expect Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to block that,” Barrasso said.

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