House Republicans appeared to be moving closer to agreement Wednesday on an opening bid for stopgap funding legislation that would keep the lights on at federal agencies beyond Sept. 30 and pave the way for their chamber to take up its full-year appropriations bills. At least a handful of conservative holdouts still maintained their opposition as of Wednesday night, which would be enough to sink a revised bill unless GOP leaders are able to change some minds in the next few days. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is expected to keep the chamber in session on Saturday if necessary.
Even if GOP leaders’ new effort is successful, however, it was starting to look more like a bid to reopen the government after a brief shutdown, given the deadline is 10 days away and the Senate is likely to ping-pong a much different bill back to the House. Read more