House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is pictured. | Getty GOP begins to plot strategy to avoid shutdown House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise will lead the effort.

House Republicans are leaning toward pushing a bill to keep the government open through mid-December, in an attempt to remove the threat of a government shutdown this fall, according to multiple GOP sources.

But they have not decided how to deal with government funding of Planned Parenthood, and House Republican leaders will hold a series of "listening" sessions this week with GOP lawmakers to figure out how to quell an uprising over the group's funding. The sessions will be announced Wednesday morning at a closed GOP meeting.


House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.) will lead the effort. They hope to come to a conclusion on how to proceed by the end of the week, or at latest, over the weekend. A vote on a funding bill is almost certain to come next week.

The options to address Planned Parenthood's funding and avoid a shutdown are becoming clear. One scenario is to schedule a vote on a government-funding bill that also defunds Planned Parenthood. That bill would not pass the Senate and would not get President Barack Obama's signature.

Another plan under consideration would be to pass a so-called "clean" continuing resolution that funds the government but does not directly address Planned Parenthood's government funding. But at the same time, House leaders would schedule a vote on stand-alone legislation that would halt government funding of the women's health organization. GOP leaders might also try to shift its funding to other health clinics. In the meantime, the House GOP majority would continue its investigation of Planned Parenthood.

But there's a new part of the plan, which has been discussed by some senior Republicans. Congress could try to go after Planned Parenthood's funding in the reconciliation process, a fast-track budgeting procedure. This could allow the GOP to more directly target the organization's funding that comes in mandatory spending programs like Medicaid.

Senior GOP leadership sources caution that these plans could change, depending on their meetings with the rank and file this week. But there's not much time: Funding runs out Sept. 30, and after this week, there are only eight legislative days remaining before a shutdown.

Pope Francis' address to Congress on Sept. 24 will also occupy some of the schedule this month.