Government barreling toward shutdown after McCarthy dealt another defeat

Congress remained on track Friday to trigger a government shutdown, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered another high-profile defeat when the House failed to advance a last-ditch stopgap bill to extend government funding beyond Saturday.

The failed vote will ramp up pressure on McCarthy who is facing the most significant challenge to his leadership to date. The speaker is locked in a conflict with hardline conservatives who oppose passing a short-term extension to avert a shutdown, arguing Congress should instead focus on passing full-year spending bills.

After the House failed to pass the stopgap bill, McCarthy told Republicans at a closed-door conference meeting there aren't many options to avoid a shutdown, according to sources in room.

He told his members they can either approve the GOP's stop-gap plan that failed, accept a Senate proposal, put a "clean" stopgap on the floor to dare Democrats to block it - or shut down the government. A large number of House Republicans have already vocally criticized the Senate proposal, making that unlikely to pass in the chamber.

During the closed-door conference meeting, House GOP leadership also proposed that members stay in session the next two weeks to vote on more individual appropriations bills, according to multiple lawmakers in the room.

That plan would not help avert a government shutdown this weekend, but Republicans are hoping that leadership's proposed schedule change might convince some holdouts to support a short-term funding option in the meantime.

With Congress at an impasse, the federal government is preparing for a shutdown when government funding runs out at midnight on Saturday.