Budget talks pick up speed as deal begins to emerge

``In the Senate, negotiations remained "very fluid," one senior aide cautioned, but the contours of a potential deal have begun to come into focus: The debt limit would be raised into early 2014, not past next November's midterm elections, as Democrats had initially sought. Government agencies would reopen, with money provided until roughly mid-December. That timing would be a win for Reid because it would allow negotiations on a longer-term spending measure before a new round of across-the-board spending cuts -- the so-called sequester -- is scheduled to begin in January.''