Lawmakers are edging closer than they ever imagined to forcing a second government shutdown in four years.

The Senate will vote Tuesday on a bill to keep the government funded through Dec. 9, but the measure is widely expected to fail, with Democrats demanding that aid to help Flint, Mich., be added to the package.

Only one Democrat has agreed to support the bill, and at least two GOP senators have vowed to oppose it.

ADVERTISEMENT

The bill also might not pass the House, where Republican lawmakers are under pressure from the influential conservative group Heritage Action for America to vote it down.

Given the Flint demands from House Democrats, it’s not clear that Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) would be able to cobble together a majority.

The government will shut down on Saturday if Congress doesn’t approve legislation to keep it open.

“When this vote fails, we’re nowhere, and we’re three days away from the shutdown,” one Democratic appropriations aide said Monday.

Few expected Congress to reach this point in an election year, when both sides want to be back in their home districts campaigning.

The funding package includes money to help flood victims in Louisiana and Maryland, along with $1.1 billion to tackle the Zika virus. Those provisions are incentives for some lawmakers in both parties.

But the same pattern that has plagued the Obama era is back, with lawmakers playing chicken over other demands with little time to work out a deal.

Democrats want the bill to include $220 million in aid to help Flint and other cities with water contamination crises. House GOP leaders say that funding should be dealt with in a separate bill, but have also offered some conflicting signals.

Ryan last week said he supported dealing with Flint in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) scheduled to receive a vote in the lower chamber this week.

“We’re bringing the WRDA bill up next week,” Ryan said at a Sept. 22 press conference. “That is a water resources bill; that’s where that belongs, that conversation.”

Other Republicans say it might be impossible to actually include money for Flint in that bill. They say the legislation was drafted by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has oversight of the Army Corps of Engineers and deals with Corps water projects but doesn’t have jurisdiction over the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the piping used to deliver clean drinking water.

An amendment to add Flint funding to WRDA, sponsored by Rep. Dan Kildee, the Democrat who represents Flint, failed on Monday after Republicans argued that it wasn’t allowed.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) blasted the GOP lawmakers for choosing to stick by the rules despite a public health emergency.

“We’ve waived the rules 245 times already in this Congress, and I think it would be really reprehensible to let technicalities get in the way of doing the right thing,” Slaughter said just before the vote, which failed 2-7.

Republicans had argued that the Flint issue doesn’t fall under the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's jurisdiction.

In the Senate, WRDA was approved by the Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), who has led the water bill, suggested that he didn't think Flint funding belonged there at all because it would be spending federal dollars on a local issue. Other GOP lawmakers did signal that they would support it in a later version of the water bill, however, including House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and appropriations panel member Rep. Ted Cole (R-Okla.).

Sen. James Inhofe James (Jim) Mountain InhofeChamber of Commerce endorses McSally for reelection Overnight Defense: Top admiral says 'no condition' where US should conduct nuclear test 'at this time' | Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings Top admiral: 'No condition' where US should conduct nuclear test 'at this time' MORE (R-Okla.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote in a Huffington Post piece that WRDA is the right place for the Flint aid, and that he’s committed to keeping the provision in the bill.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday declined to say definitively whether the Flint aid would be added to the House’s version of the water resources bill this week.

Instead, he deferred the decision to the Rules Committee, while adding that the money for Flint “will get done this year.”

Timing is a major problem for Democrats.

Money for Flint could be added to a water package approved by the House, but only if a bill without that money was first put into a conference with the Senate bill.

That would delay a vote until the lame-duck session.

“[Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellGraham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Trump puts Supreme Court fight at center of Ohio rally The Memo: Dems face balancing act on SCOTUS fight MORE (R-Ky.)] is asking Democrats to put our faith in the idea that the House will recede to the Senate position on Flint in WRDA and that’s going to get done by both chambers,” the Democratic aide said. “I don’t see how that happens.”

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidOn The Trail: Battle over Ginsburg replacement threatens to break Senate Democrats fear Russia interference could spoil bid to retake Senate Graham signals support for confirming a Supreme Court nominee this year MORE (D-Nev.) has been firm that he won’t back down on Flint without a firm promise from Republicans that the money will be included in the water resources bill.

“Senate Republicans claim they’ll address the needs of Flint when we return after the election,” Reid said. “We’ve heard that before, haven’t we? That is Senate Republicans’ go-to move for funding for Flint. They always claim they will do it at a later time.”

Kildee said he’s fighting to move the Flint funding anywhere possible, but the continuing resolution offers “the only sure path.”

He condemned Republicans for supporting new funding to help flood victims in the South — money that’s not offset by changes elsewhere in the budget — while opposing the Flint provision, which is fully paid for.

“The contradiction is irreconcilable,” he said.

Even if the Flint language does make it into WRDA, there are other fights that could prevent a final deal.

Republicans stripped out language that would have empowered a government program called the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to spend more of its collected shipping fees on shoring up the nation’s ports.

Some Florida Democrats have indicated that they’re ready to support the funding measure — even without the Flint money — in order to expedite new Zika money for their home state, where the spread of the virus is most severe. Sen. Bill Nelson Clarence (Bill) William NelsonDemocrats sound alarm on possible election chaos Trump, facing trouble in Florida, goes all in NASA names DC headquarters after agency's first Black female engineer Mary W. Jackson MORE (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection in 2018, is the only Democrat to say he’ll vote for the bill.

But GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamGraham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Fox's Napolitano: Supreme Court confirmation hearings will be 'World War III of political battles' Grassley, Ernst pledge to 'evaluate' Trump's Supreme Court nominee MORE (S.C.) and Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeeMcConnell shores up GOP support for coronavirus package McConnell tries to unify GOP Davis: The Hall of Shame for GOP senators who remain silent on Donald Trump MORE (Utah) are planning to join Democrats voting against the legislation. Graham cited the controversial Export-Import Bank, and a Lee spokesman said the senator would continue his streak of voting against every continuing resolution put before him.

Republicans also came under pressure on Monday from Heritage Action, the lobbying affiliate of The Heritage Foundation, to oppose the bill. Heritage Action said it would negatively score votes for the package.

Dan Holler, a spokesman for the group, said the bill could get even worse for conservatives because McConnell will need to win over at least some Democrats to pass a bill by Friday.

“The conventional wisdom is, Democrats are demanding [money for] Flint and something will get added in for that,” Holler said.

White House press Secretary Josh Earnest on Monday declined to say whether a lack of Flint funding was a “red line” for President Obama.

After pushing Congress to provide aid for Flint for months, Obama is “disappointed” with the bill, Earnest told reporters, and “Congress has some more work to do.”

Mike Lillis, Jordain Carney and Jordan Fabian contributed.