WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington talks on debt and spending are heating up, pitting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell against hardliners in the White House.

Talks between Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appear to be progressing. Mnuchin on Monday told reporters, “I think we’re very close to a deal.”

Still, he cautioned that “these deals are complicated.”

Mnuchin says increasing the $22 trillion debt limit needs to be done this month to avert any risk of a U.S. default on obligations like bond payments.

Mnuchin says he doesn’t think there will be a government shutdown, nor does he think that “either party or anybody wants to put the credit of the United States government at risk.”