Funding for government operations expires at midnight on Saturday, Sept. 30, which is the end of the current fiscal year, unless a short-term temporary funding measure known as a continuing resolution (CR) is passed by the House and Senate and signed into law before then. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was hamstrung from bringing a continuing resolution to a vote on the House floor last week due to approximately a dozen holdouts in the Republican conference who have refused to support a temporary extension. As a result, McCarthy now plans to bring to a vote four individual spending bills that fund certain government functions in the hopes that they can be passed by the House.

Senate Democrats and Republicans are nearing agreement on a funding measure that could be voted on by the House after passage in the Senate, but that would require several House Republicans to vote for procedural measures that would be opposed by the House Republican leadership. Neither the House nor Senate deliberations are expected to lead to a resolution prior to Saturday, and many believe a temporary government shutdown will be required to break the current political logjam.