Budget Battle: Congress reaches deal

WASHINGTON (AP) – Negotiations on Capitol Hill have yielded a modest budget agreement to ease automatic spending cuts and replace some of them with savings from future-year cuts.

Details on the pact by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray were to be announced by the duo Tuesday evening.

The agreement would ease the harshest spending cuts set to strike the Pentagon and domestic agencies for a second year.

It would require federal workers to contribute more to their pensions, increase premiums on companies whose pension plans are insured by the federal government and increase security fees paid by airline travelers.

The pact by Ryan and Murray comes after several failed attempts at broader budget pacts.