McConnell's timeline would give lawmakers and the White House less than three weeks to work out an agreement on recovery assistance from a recent spate of storms, wildfires and hurricanes.

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His comments come as last week's bipartisan optimism for a deal on the stalled disaster aid bill appeared to fade on Tuesday, Shelby, one of the key negotiators, telling reporters that the negotiations were running into "obstacles."

"It's got some obstacles. Some of them are coming from the White House, some coming from the Democrats," Shelby said.

Shelby indicated that one hurdle is a push to merge Trump's $4.5 billion request for emergency funding for the border with the disaster aid bill. Democrats, he warned, have signaled that it's "something … they aren't interested in at all."

"Well, we have to see what exactly he wants. But you know, again, he complicated up the disaster bill once. Maybe now he's doing it twice. That's what it seems to be," Schumer told reporters.