The House is expected to take up a GOP stopgap bill to extend government funding on Friday -- but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appears to lack the votes to pass it and Congress is still on track to trigger a government shutdown.
The Senate and House are at an impasse over how to keep the government operating, and a shutdown is now imminent with funding set to expire on September 30.
McCarthy is gearing up to have his chamber consider a GOP stopgap bill with border provisions attached as House GOP leaders have insisted that border security must be addressed as part of the spending fight.
But if the bill comes to the House floor, it is likely to provoke a major confrontation between McCarthy and hardline conservatives who have railed against the prospect of a short-term funding extension, arguing that Congress should be focused instead on passing full-year spending bills.
As a shutdown looms, McCarthy faces the most significant challenge to his leadership as speaker to date as some House conservatives have threatened the possibility of a vote to oust him from the position.
The speaker refused to say on Thursday whether he would try to cut a deal with Democrats if conservative hardliners bring down his stopgap measure.
"I still got time, I got time to do other things," McCarthy responded when asked by CNN's Manu Raju what will happen if the stopgap bill fails.
Pressed further on whether he has a plan B, McCarthy said, "In this job you got to have an ABCDEF and G," and he laughed when asked what letter he was currently on.
"I haven't spelled my name out completely," the California Republican said.
As the shutdown deadline rapidly approaches, the federal government has begun preparing for its effects.
A shutdown could have enormous impacts across the country, in consequential areas ranging from air travel to clean drinking water, as many government operations would come to a halt, while services deemed "essential" would continue.
Separately, House GOP leaders brought a series of spending bills to the floor Thursday evening as they try to show conservatives they are working in good faith to advance full-year funding bills.
The House passed several of those spending bills, but the measures would not stop a shutdown and have no hope of passing in the Senate.
At the end of the night, a bill to fund the Department of Agriculture failed to pass on the floor with 27 Republicans voting against it, highlighting once again the difficulty Republicans have had coalescing around spending bills.
Meanwhile, the Senate is working to advance a bipartisan stopgap bill that would keep the government open through November 17 and provide additional aid to Ukraine and disaster relief. McCarthy has so far dismissed that bill.
It could take until Monday to pass the Senate's bill to keep the government open if GOP Sen. Rand Paul slows down the process -- as he has vowed to do -- over his demand that the bill drop the $6.2 billion in aid to Ukraine it contains, according to senators. That would put it past the Saturday evening shutdown deadline.
