Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell want to get all 12 spending bills passed by the end of this year, but a standoff over President Donald Trump’s border wall remains the biggest obstacle in bipartisan talks to avoid another government shutdown.

Pelosi and McConnell spoke on the phone Monday and agreed that “the goal” was to finish all appropriations bills by Dec. 31, according to multiple people familiar with the conversation.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also told Democratic committee chairmen that any short-term funding measure to keep the government open shouldn’t extend past year’s end, and that he understood that to be McConnell's position as well after a recent conversation with the Senate GOP leader.

And White House officials met with Republican and Democratic aides from both the House and Senate on Tuesday to discuss outstanding issues on spending bills, although there’s no consensus on whether any progress was made or not. Current government funding lasts through Nov. 21.

Trump signed into law a two-year budget agreement in August that was supposed to end the threat of another shutdown. But despite that deal — which was hammered out by Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — there has been almost no progress on the individual appropriations bills that must be passed for fiscal year 2020.

Some Democrats complain that the White House wants to negotiate over border wall funding, something Pelosi and her leadership team have refused to do. House Democrats are currently suing Trump over his move to divert billions of dollars in Pentagon funds for the wall project, which Democrats have blasted as a violation of Congress’ power over the purse.

Republicans say there should be room to negotiate on Trump’s border wall. The White House is seeking $8 billion for the project as part of its budget request, which Democrats have dismissed as a non-starter. The Homeland Security Department funding bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee includes $5 billion for the wall despite strong Democratic objections.

But Republicans are warning that if there is no deal and a full-year continuing resolution is enacted, Trump will grab funds for the wall anyway using his executive authority.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he was encouraged by Tuesday’s session with Hill aides and White House officials, saying it showed “some progress.”

But he also criticized Trump.

“The president’s meddling and erratic behavior caused the last government shutdown, the longest in our nation’s history,” Schumer said. Trump demanded more than $5 billion for his border wall and eventually reopened the government without getting Congress to give in.

“It’s way past time for Democratic and Republican appropriators to sit down and hammer out a bipartisan agreement on allocations to the various agencies, known as the 302Bs. That’s’ how we got this done in the past,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. Schumer also urged the White House — specifically Trump — to stay out of the spending fight.

“I believe there was a meeting yesterday, and I think some progress was made,” Schumer added. “Let’s continue moving in that direction — the four corners of the Appropriations Committee, House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans — and put together an agreement that we can all support.”

Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) was mum on whether a Tuesday meeting between his staff and administration officials yielded progress.

Senate Democrats are expected to block an attempt by Republicans to take up a defense spending bill this week, as long as Republicans stick to their plan of delivering billions of dollars to Trump's border wall while shortchanging domestic programs.

But Shelby was optimistic that the House and Senate would make more headway on appropriations after the upper chamber passes a non-controversial package this week that would fund the departments of Agriculture, Justice, Commerce, Transportation and other agencies.

When asked whether his staff received any indication that the White House might come down on their wall funding request, Shelby said, “That’s a great question!”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, also said he thinks sentiment on Capitol Hill is improving.

“Sen. Shelby and I have been working,” Leahy said. “We even met in the gym this morning to work on it. So we’re getting somewhere. We’ll see.”

Sarah Ferris, Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma contributed to this report.