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 teeing up the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill approved earlier Thursday by the House to stave off a possible government shutdown that would begin at midnight Friday.

McConnell filed cloture on the mammoth funding bill from the Senate floor early Thursday evening.

The move sets up an initial vote on the legislation for early Saturday morning — roughly an hour after the deadline to prevent the third shutdown of the year — at the earliest.

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After that, senators could drag out debate on a bill for an additional 30 hours, which could set up a final vote on Sunday.

Republicans have made it clear they want to vote Thursday , allowing lawmakers to leave for a two-week recess as scheduled.

Paul, who forced an hours-long shutdown last month, has kept his colleagues in the dark about his intentions.

Instead, he's been tweeting out his progress reading the 2000-plus page bill.

4:30 p.m. "Page 281 of 'crumni-bus,' " he tweeted shortly after

Republican senators acknowledge they have no idea what he's planning.

– This story was updated at 7:30 p.m.