WASHINGTON -- With just over two weeks left to reach a deal to avoid another government shutdown, a group of negotiators on Capitol Hill met for the first time Wednesday. North Carolina Congressman David Price was among them.

"First of all, I think everybody wants not to have another shutdown," Price said in an interview after the meeting.

The Tar Heel state Democrat, along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the House and Senate, is tasked with coming up with a border security deal by Feb. 15. If they do not, funding will again run out for a handful of government agencies.

Much as it was during the recently ended shutdown, the fight continues to be over what to do about the president's long-promised border wall.

Outlining their plan Wednesday, Democrats did not include any money for the president's wall. Even so, all sides appear to be showing some wiggle room.

"We have to have an on the level discussion about border security and what it will take to secure it," Price said. "Everything's on the table, so to speak."

"I do think we need a wall, a physical barrier, where the barrier works. But that’s only part of it. We need all of the above, we need technology," said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn.

For 35 days, part of the government was shutdown as Democrats and the President squared off over the president's demand for $5.7 billion for a wall along the southern border. Roughly 800,000 federal workers missed two paychecks.

It was the longest shutdown in U.S. history and ended when the president agreed to open the government for three weeks without receiving any money for the wall. 

While new talks begin, the question remains what the president will sign on to. 

Hours before the meeting began, he weighed in on Twitter, writing that if the lawmakers are "not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!"

With the deadline fast approaching, it remains unclear whether there will be another shutdown.

"I think if it was left to Democratic and Republican appropriators, we could work this out," Price said. "We’ve done it before, we can do it again."

The president has indicated that if he does not like the plans produced by Congress by Feb. 15, he could go around the legislative body and declare a national emergency to build his wall. That sort of declaration would likely end up in court.