A top House Republican said Saturday that he’s hopeful “cooler heads will prevail” to open up the government before Christmas, predicting the vote would happen by unanimous consent without calling lawmakers in either chamber back to Washington.

Sessions, who lost his reelection race in November, said he’s been encouraging other lawmakers to go home, and has freed his own staff to do the same, in expectation that if a deal is reached it will move through both chambers unanimously.

“If we do have a deal, I’ll come back here immediately, but I think any deal that’s cut now — if there is a deal — it’ll be by [unanimous consent] in the House and the Senate, and we would not bring our members back,” he said.

But House conservatives quickly revolted, insisting that the $5 billion for the border wall be included in the package.

On Wednesday night, Sessions declined to move the Senate-passed CR through the House Rules Committee, setting the stage for a tense gathering of the GOP conference Thursday morning, where more conservatives piled on in opposition to the Senate’s “clean” CR.

“The president’s standing up for it, and I made sure as chairman of the Rules Committee that I did not take what the Senate had done the other night, and I advised the committee we would not do it and we did not do it,” Sessions said Saturday.

“And then in a conference, my conference said, ‘What Pete did is the right thing.’ ”

The House opposition — combined with attacks in the conservative media — seemed to embolden Trump, who reversed course on Thursday and began demanding the $5 billion in wall funding.

The House, on Thursday evening, passed the Senate CR with two additional provisions: $5.7 billion in wall and border security funding; and $8.7 billion in emergency disaster relief to address damage from natural disasters across the country.

McConnell said Saturday morning that he’s simply standing by waiting for some resolution between Trump and Schumer.

“The talks that count are between the Senate Democrats, whose votes you need, and the administration,” McConnell said. “So I’m pulling for them."

“Whatever the president and the Senate Democrats can negotiate is what we’re prepared to pass,” he added.

McConnell was wearing a red Louisville sweater — a gesture of hope, he said, that policymakers can break the impasse before Christmas.

Sessions, for his part, said he’s optimistic that a deal can be sealed before Tuesday’s Christmas holiday.

“Would I think we would get something potentially done before Monday morning? I think cooler heads would find a way,” he said.

Still, Sessions also encouraged Trump not to back down from the $5 billion demand for new wall funding, framing the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border as “an honest, legitimate national crisis.”

“If we do not have a wall to protect this nation, millions will simply run into our country — millions that we have no idea who they are,” he said.

“If the president can’t stand up for it, and the House of Representatives can’t stand up for it, then the American people are in trouble.”