WASHINGTON (AP) - A top House leader predicted Monday that Washington will avoid stumbling into a government shutdown next week over a tea party-backed drive to take away Planned Parenthood's funding.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy added, however, that Congress may need additional time to work through a massive, $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill that tops the agenda as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill for a two- or three-week sprint to finish this year's session.
McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters that "I do not hear people shutting the government down over it right now," referring to demands by some conservatives to attach language to "defund" Planned Parenthood to the must-do spending bill. Such a move would guarantee gridlock.
Other business includes highway spending, taxes and a rewrite of the George W. Bush-era No Child Left Behind education law.
The Senate's top Democrat, exiting a meeting with the chamber's GOP leader, offered a downcast assessment on prospects for a successful wrap-up of such a long roster of unfinished business.
"I'm not optimistic about anything. Seriously," said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., as he left Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office after a 20-minute meeting. "Going to wait and see what happens."
There are less than two weeks until a deadline to pass the massive spending bill, which would fund every Cabinet agency and avoid a holiday season government shutdown.
If the process doesn't go smoothly, a last-minute temporary funding measure would be required to keep the government open when the current stopgap measure expires Dec. 11.
"I'm hopeful to get it all done and voted on by the 11th. If not, we're here until the 18th and it won't make any difference. We'll get it done," McCarthy said.
The so-called omnibus spending bill represents a challenge for new House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who took over the top House job after former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was forced out this fall over his penchant for looking to Democrats to help pass major legislation like year-end spending bills, among other reasons.
Ryan is sure to have to do the same this time around, despite pressure from outside groups like the Heritage Foundation to use the omnibus bill to force battles over federal money that reaches Planned Parenthood or heightened worries about Syrian refugees after the Paris attacks.
But the renegades who ran Boehner out aren't in any mood to rough up Ryan just yet.
"I think it's unfair to hold Paul Ryan accountable for this particular omnibus. The Dec. 11 crisis that our leadership created is one of the reasons we got rid of our leadership," said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a tea party favorite. "It's not of his making, and I personally would not write him off if something doesn't happen on this omnibus, whether it's Planned Parenthood ... or something else."