Pelosi, Mnuchin Agree to Avoid Government Shutdown in October

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have agreed to work to avoid a government shutdown right before the election, and not let the stalemate over virus-relief legislation hold up a vital stopgap spending bill.

Their informal agreement was made in a Tuesday phone call, according to people familiar with the discussion. While clearing the way for the government to keep running at the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, it doesn’t resolve the standoff over a new stimulus or whether some relief measures might be included.

Nancy Pelosi

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

Republicans and Democrats in Congress, seeking to avert a ...