US Congress makes last-minute bid to avert government shutdown

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided and chaotic U.S. Congress will make a last-minute attempt to avert a partial federal government shutdown on Thursday, less than 48 hours before funding for some federal agencies is due to expire.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is expected to take up a short-term stopgap measure that would extend by one week federal funding that expires at midnight on Friday (0500 GMT Saturday) and set a March 22 funding deadline for other government agencies.

But the effort to get the measure through the House and Democratic-led Senate and onto President Joe Biden's desk in time could face hurdles, especially in the Democratic-led Senate, where some hardline Republicans are expect to demand amendment votes in exchange for fast-tracking the bill.

The stopgap, the fourth needed to keep federal agencies open in fiscal 2024, which began Oct. 1, is intended to give the House and Senate time to pass 12 appropriations bills to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.

About two months have passed since Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed on a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the fiscal year. House and Senate leaders on Wednesday reached agreement on a slate of full-year appropriations bills to fill in the details.

Representative Tom Cole, a senior Republican appropriator, expected the stopgap to pass the House without difficulty.

"Congress has already voted not to shut down," Cole told Reuters. "People want to keep working."

But the measure, known as a continuing resolution or "CR," already faces hardline opposition in the House and could need a majority of House Democratic votes for passage.

That could mean problems for Johnson, who has been pressured by hardline Republicans to use a shutdown as a bargaining chip to force Democrats to accept conservative policy riders.

"We're doing what the Democrats want to do, so that it'll pass the Senate and be signed by the White House. And that's not a win for the American people," said Representative Bob Good, chairman of the hardline House Freedom Caucus.

Passage of the CR on Thursday would give the Senate less than two days to enact the measure and require Schumer, the top Democrat in Congress, to win an agreement from Senate Republicans to circumvent a web of parliamentary rules and procedural hurdles that could take a week to navigate.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican maverick with a track record for delaying must-pass legislation before, said he and other hardliners could consent to such a deal if allowed to offer amendments to reduce spending and the federal debt.

"We won't just say we're going to roll over and let them continue to ruin the country," Paul told Reuters.

Major ratings agencies say the repeated brinkmanship is taking a toll on the creditworthiness of a nation whose debt has surpassed $34 trillion.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Michael Perry)