GOP pressing plan to avert government shutdown on Dec. 8

WASHINGTON – House GOP leaders are looking to keep the government’s doors open through Dec. 22. They’re hoping that talks with Democrats over spending and immigration could head off a government shutdown that neither side says it wants.

Republicans are preparing a bill to head off a government shutdown next Friday the government operating through Dec. 22. The idea is to win a bipartisan agreement on spending increases for the Pentagon and domestic agencies — whose budgets otherwise would be frozen — and pave the way for a catchall, government-wide spending bill in January.

But battles over immigration and President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall would still threaten to spark a government shutdown, either just before Christmas or in January.