UPDATE: White House praises Senate budget deal

1:50 p.m.

The White House is praising a Senate budget agreement, saying it meets the administration's priorities on defense spending and providing a two-year budget plan.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the deal will provide "certainty" for the next two years and achieves a "much needed" increase in funding for the national defense. The deal was also praised by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Sanders says it will move the White House away from "crisis to crisis budgeting."

The Senate agreement on a two-year, nearly $400 billion budget deal would provide Pentagon and domestic programs with huge spending increases. It would contain almost $300 billion over current limits on defense and domestic accounts.

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1:12 p.m.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is celebrating a new a budget agreement as providing needed funding for health, drug abuse and social service programs.

But the New York Democrat made little mention about what isn't coming with the new two-year agreement — a plan to protect the "Dreamer" immigrants.

The Democratic leader has dropped his push to use the budget talks to extract concessions on immigration from Republicans, leaving aside threats to shut down the government over the issue.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer focused on the new agreement as a rare moment of bipartisanship and cooperation. He called it "the best thing we've done" for the middle class and the economy.

"We have reached the budget deal that neither side loves but both sides can be proud of," Schumer said.

Schumer said he hopes that House Speaker Paul Ryan will do what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to do and hold a "fair and open process" to debate a measure to protect young "Dreamer" immigrants.

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12:55 p.m.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is ignoring a request by White House officials to use President Donald Trump's immigration proposal to begin Senate debate on the issue.

Instead, the Kentucky Republican says the initial measure before lawmakers will be a bill that doesn't address the politically charged subject. He says the two parties will then alternate offering immigration plans in a battle that has no clear outcome.

McConnell said Wednesday he's following through on his promise for a debate that "will be fair to all sides."

Trump would create a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. It would also provide money for his border wall and curb legal immigration.

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12:50 p.m.

The Senate's top Republican says there's Senate agreement on a two-year, almost $400 billion budget deal that would provide Pentagon and domestic programs with huge spending increases.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the pact, joined on the Senate floor by top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. It would contain almost $300 billion over current limits on defense and domestic accounts.

McConnell said the measure would rewrite existing defense limits that have "hamstrung our armed forces and jeopardized our national security."

The measure, aides said, also contains almost $90 billion in overdue disaster aid and an increase in the government borrowing cap that would prevent a first-ever U.S. government default on its obligations.