Lawmakers Look to a Short-Term CR to Avoid a Shutdown While They Finish Omnibus Spending Bill

Hopes for a com­pre­hens­ive pack­age of tax breaks began dim­ming Tues­day, as con­gres­sion­al ne­go­ti­at­ors lowered their ex­pect­a­tions to a con­tinu­ation of cur­rent law, even as lead­ers threatened a rare week­end ses­sion to fin­ish talks over a catchall spend­ing bill.

Ne­go­ti­ations over the two pack­ages of le­gis­la­tion—one a six-year, $800 bil­lion ex­ten­sion of sev­er­al pop­u­lar tax breaks and the oth­er a $1.1 tril­lion bill fund­ing every as­pect of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment—had be­come in­ter­twined in re­cent days. But House Speak­er Paul Ry­an sought to put some dis­tance between the two on Tues­day, as lead­ers in­tro­duced a two-year, clean reau­thor­iz­a­tion of sev­er­al ex­pir­ing tax pro­vi­sions as a fall­back plan.

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