With time running out before a debt-ceiling deadline, spokesmen for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday evening that the leaders' talks were back on, after House Republicans scrapped a vote on their own bill to reopen the federal government and prevent a default on U.S. debt — which economists say could tip the global economy back into recession.

A spokesman for Reid said the two Senate leaders "are optimistic that an agreement is within reach" but offered no timetable. The Senate adjourned around 10 p.m. Tuesday, to recovene Wednesday.

After a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, indicated early Tuesday evening that the body could take up the bill, the House Rules Committee subsequently voted to postpone, leaving the House bill in serious doubt. The House also adjourned Tuesday evening, to reconvene Wednesday.

Top House Republicans unveiled their plan earlier Tuesday, which sought far fewer concessions from President Barack Obama than they initially sought. It would also set up another battle with the administration early next year. The proposal sought to suspend a new tax on medical devices for two years and take away the federal government's contributions for lawmakers' and top White House officials' health care coverage in return for funding the government through Jan. 15 and giving Treasury the ability to borrow normally through Feb. 7.

Though the House Republican bill was opposed by tea party members of its own caucus, it also drew scorn from the Senate.

"It's nothing more than a blatant attack on bipartisanship," Reid said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Meanwhile John McCain, R-Ariz, also blamed House Republicans, telling The New York Times that "Republicans have to understand we have lost this battle." He added that "we would not be able to win because we were demanding something that was not achievable."

After Congress failed to pass a bill to continue funding the government, a partial federal shutdown — now entering its third week — put hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of work. Lawmakers must approve a measure to increase the nation's borrowing limit by Thursday or risk that the United States will not be able to pay its bills on time.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings placed the United States' AAA credit rating on negative watch Tuesday, saying that resolving the negative review "would necessarily reflect developments and events, including the duration of any agreement to raise the debt ceiling."

Both legislative measures — passing a budget and addressing the U.S.'s borrowing limit — are normally routine but have encountered intransigence among some in the Republican Party who are holding out against passing a clean bill on either matter. Instead they have called for conservative add-ons — such as a delay of Obama's health care reforms and commitments to severe spending cuts — before they vote any measure through.