国会周一开始返回华盛顿，面临一个熟悉的困境:随着时间的流逝，国会不得不在周五的最后期限前为几个关键政府机构重新提供资金。
由于参众两院都没有采取行动，国会将在周五结束时面临政府部分关闭的局面，这是几个月来的第四次。
几个关键机构的资金将在周五晚上用完，包括农业部、住房和城市发展部、交通部和退伍军人管理局。一周后的3月8日，如果国会不采取行动，其余八个政府机构的资金将到期。
议员们仍有时间进行干预，在最后一刻达成妥协并不罕见。
但就目前而言，没有关于如何通过政府拨款法案的明确计划，因为众议院议长·迈克·约翰逊和参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默仍在如何进行的问题上陷入僵局，尽管双方正在进行谈判。
周一，舒默在参议院呼吁众议院共和党人与参议院民主党人合作，防止政府部分关闭。舒默说，政府拨款只是国会在未来几周必须完成的众多工作之一。他说完成这些项目的“误差幅度”非常小
“参议院复会后，国会必须做很多事情，但几乎没有时间采取行动。舒默说:“在不到一周的时间里，联邦政府将开始关闭，除非双方共同努力延长资金。”
参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)周一敦促国会保持政府完全开放，称议员们“有办法、也有足够的时间在本周在最后期限前就年度拨款取得重大进展”。
麦康奈尔说:“所以我要在一开始就说每次国会面临这种威胁时我都说过的话:关闭政府对国家有害。”
各方有望在周末发现政府资助的清晰性。然而，周日晚上，由于尚未出台防止周五部分关闭的计划，国会领导人反而发表声明相互抨击。
舒默在给同事们的一封信中写道:“尽管我们原本希望本周末就能通过立法，让议员们有充足的时间审查文本，但现在很明显，众议院共和党人需要更多时间来理清头绪。”“由于众议院如何通过拨款法案并避免本周关门的不确定性，我要求所有参议员保持灵活的时间表，以便我们能够努力确保不会发生毫无意义和有害的资金短缺。”
在舒默发出这封信的几个小时内，约翰逊进行了反击，指责舒默使用“适得其反的言辞”来传达他的信息。约翰逊表示，“众议院一直在马不停蹄地工作”，以便在3月1日和8日的最后期限之前与参议院就政府拨款法案达成协议。
“现在不是小打小闹的时候。约翰逊在声明中说:“众议院共和党人将继续真诚地努力，并希望尽快达成结果，尽管我们仍然坚持必须立即解决我们自己的边境安全问题。”
这次的问题是:众议院共和党人希望在政府拨款法案中纳入民主党人反对的某些政策条款，比如阻止拜登政府与气候相关的举措，以及削减对世界卫生组织和其他联合国机构的拨款。约翰逊坚持认为，在他承认政府拨款法案的总成本后，其中一些条款将纳入一揽子计划。在他自己的会议上，许多人拒绝了政府拨款法案。
2023年11月2日，众议院议长迈克·约翰逊在华盛顿特区国会大厦与记者交谈。
J.斯科特·阿普怀特/美联社
但尚不清楚领导人将如何度过这一僵局，在仅剩几天时间采取行动的情况下，如果议员们希望防止政府关门，他们可能必须通过另一项短期融资法案。
这是自去年10月以来国会第四次下调政府拨款的最后期限。自那以来，国会已经在三个不同场合通过立法，为自己争取更多时间就长期融资法案进行谈判。
但每一个即将过去的最后期限都会加大赌注。乌克兰援助、边境安全条款和凯文·麦卡锡议长职位都是此前政府资助混乱的牺牲品。
最近的政府融资僵局是选举年政治紧张局势加剧的最新后果。
约翰逊和舒默已经就一项参议院本月早些时候通过的大规模乌克兰援助计划但约翰逊表示，他不会在众议院进行审议，尽管该立法可能会在众议院获得通过。
由于这两个问题目前都阻碍了国会的进展，美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)周二已将参众两院的最高国会领导人召集到白宫。
预计会议将重点讨论即将到来的关闭以及乌克兰、以色列和台湾的融资法案。
Here we go again: Congress faces looming government shutdown deadline
Congress started to return to Washington on Monday facing a familiar predicament: its back against the wall as the clock ticks down to renew funding for several key government agencies before a Friday deadline.
Absent action from both chambers, Congress is staring down a partial government shutdown at the end of the day Friday -- its fourth time in as many months.
Funding for several key agencies will run out on Friday night, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Transportation Department and the Veterans Administration. One week later, on March 8, funding for the remaining eight government agencies will expire if Congress fails to act.
Lawmakers still have time to intervene, and it's not uncommon to reach a last-minute compromise.
But for the moment, there's no clear plan for how to pass government funding bills as House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer remain at an impasse over how to proceed, despite ongoing talks between the two.
On Monday, Schumer took to the Senate floor to call on House Republicans to work with Senate Democrats to prevent the partial government shutdown. Government funding, Schumer said, is just one of the many things Congress must finish work on in the coming weeks. And he said the "margin of error" to complete these items is "razor thin."
"The Senate gavels back into session with a lot that Congress must do but with little time to act. In less than a week the federal government will begin to shut down unless both sides work together to extend funding," Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday urged Congress to keep the government fully open, arguing lawmakers "have the means and just enough time this week to make serious headway on annual appropriations" before the deadline.
"So I'll say at the outset what I've said every time Congress has faced this threat: shutting down the government is harmful to the country," McConnell said.
There was hope the parties would find government-funding clarity over the weekend. However, on Sunday night, with no plan yet it in place to prevent a Friday partial shutdown, congressional leaders instead issued statements sniping at one another.
"While we had hoped to have legislation ready this weekend that would give ample time for members to review the text, it is clear now that House Republicans need more time to sort themselves out," Schumer wrote in a letter to his colleagues. "With the uncertainty of how the House will pass the appropriations bills and avoid a shutdown this week, I ask all Senators to keep their schedules flexible, so we can work to ensure a pointless and harmful lapse in funding doesn't occur."
Within hours of Schumer issuing his letter, Johnson shot back, calling out Schumer for using "counterproductive rhetoric" to get his message across. Johnson said the "the House has worked nonstop" to reach an agreement with the Senate on government funding bills ahead of the March 1 and 8 deadlines.
"This is not a time for petty politics. House Republicans will continue to work in good faith and hope to reach an outcome as soon as possible, even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately," Johnson said in the statement.
At issue this time around: a House Republican desire to include certain policy provisions in the government funding bills that Democrats find objectionable -- such as blocking the Biden administration's climate-related initiatives and cutting funding for the World Health Organization and other United Nations' agencies. Johnson was insistent that some of their provisions would make it in to the package after he conceded to an overall cost of the government funding bills that many in his own conference rejected.
But it's not yet clear how the leaders will navigate through this standoff, and with just days left to act, lawmakers will likely have to pass another short-term funding bill if they hope to prevent a shutdown.
This is the fourth time since October that Congress has stared down a government-funding deadline. Congress has already passed legislation to buy itself more time to negotiate long-term funding bills on three separate occasions since then.
But each passing deadline ups the stakes. Ukraine aid, border security provisions, and Kevin McCarthy's speakership have all been causalities of previous government-funding snafus.
This most recent government funding deadlock is the latest consequence of heightening political tensions in an election year.
Already, Johnson and Schumer are at loggerheads over amassive Ukraine aid package that the Senate passed earlier this monthbut that Johnson has said he won't take up for consideration on the House floor, despite the fact that the legislation likely has the votes to pass the lower chamber.
With both issues now halting progress in Congress, President Joe Biden has called the top congressional leaders from both chambers to the White House on Tuesday.
The meeting is expected to focus both on the looming shutdown and on the funding bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
