D.C. GRIDLOCK...StopGap Measures for The Short-Term

WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday was set to try to move forward on a bipartisan bill meant to stop the government from shutting down in just five days, while the House sought to push ahead with a conflicting measure backed only by Republicans.

• The split between the two chambers suggested that the federal government was increasingly likely to enter its fourth shutdown in a decade on Sunday, a pattern of partisan gridlock that has begun to darken Wall Street's view of the U.S. government's credit.

PBS

Congress enters crisis mode as Senate unveils bipartisan bill to avoid a government shutdown

The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a package of government funding bills, but it's unclear if McCarthy has the support needed.

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47 mins ago

Dueling US Senate, House views on funding raise likelihood of government shutdown

By David Morgan, Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton

September 26, 20232:04 PM PDT Updated 2 hours ago

CNN

Senate leaders reach deal on short-term spending bill in push to avert shutdown

With just days to go before the government runs out of money, the Senate has unveiled a bipartisan stopgap bill in a bid to avert a shutdown...

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1 hour ago

With just days to go before the government runs out of money, the Senate has unveiled a bipartisan stopgap bill in a bid to avert a shutdown – but there’s no guarantee that it will be able to pass in the House as a bloc of conservatives rail against the prospect of a short-term funding extension.

• The Senate stopgap bill would keep the government funded until November 17 and includes $6.2 billion in Ukraine aid. 
• The addition of Ukraine funding could further exacerbate tensions with the House since many conservative Republicans are opposed to sending further aid to the war-torn country. The bill also includes $6 billion for natural disasters.

Schumer said earlier Tuesday, “We will continue to fund the government at present levels while maintaining our commitment to Ukraine’s security and humanitarian needs, while also ensuring those impacted by natural disasters across the country begin to get the resources they need.”

But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters that funding for Ukraine should not be included in a short-term spending package, and instead should be a standalone bill.
“Would it be on the CR? My answer would be no, that should be dealt with in a supplemental,” the California Republican said, a reference to a continuing resolution, or CR, which would be a short-term funding patch.
“I don’t quite understand when you have all these people across the country talking about the challenges happening in America today, that people would go and say, ‘Oh we need to go and do Ukraine and ignore what’s happening along our border.’ I think that would be the wrong approach,” he said.
McCarthy has remained noncommittal on whether he would put a bipartisan Senate-passed stopgap measure to avert a shutdown on the floor this week ahead of the deadline.
Now that the Senate has unveiled its own stopgap measure, the chamber will still need to pass it before it can be sent to the House and any one senator can slow passage under tight time constraints.

McCarthy faces leadership test in the House

Meanwhile, lacking the GOP votes to pass a stopgap bill, McCarthy is turning attention early in the week toward an effort to advance a series of spending bills, including for the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

• Passing those bills won’t stop a shutdown at the end of the week, but as conservatives demand the passage of full-year funding bills, McCarthy had been hoping that momentum on the measures might swing enough holdouts to support a Republican stopgap bill. 
• However, it is not clear that even those bills can advance amid deep divisions within the House Republican conference.

McCarthy is expected to face yet another test of his leadership on Tuesday as House GOP leadership has indicated that they plan to hold a procedural vote on a rule to advance those measures. The expected vote comes after hardliners tanked a similar procedural vote for a defense bill last week in a major embarrassment for the House GOP leaders. All eyes will be on the House to see if that spectacle repeats itself.