On Saturday, the House leadership unveiled a short-term spending bill that would keep the government funded through December 22. Because none of the 12 annual spending bills have been signed into law for FY2018, which started October 1, a continuing resolution (CR) was needed to keep the government open at current levels until negotiations over funding could be completed. The current CR expires at midnight, December 9. The new CR is designed to allow negotiators to make further progress on FY2018. Several Congressional leaders are acknowledging that another CR, beyond the one that would run through the 22nd, will likely be needed.
At this point, there is no agreement on how much money overall is even available for the federal budget in FY2018, making decisions on the size of each individual bill even more difficult to reach. Without a compromise on a total spending level for FY2018 that would increase the current budget caps in place, both defense and non-defense programs would see cuts below the FY2017 levels.
Republicans will need help from Democrats to pass this short-term CR but it is far from assured that the Democrats will support it.