Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby said the next continuing resolution to fund government agencies beyond the current stopgap’s Nov. 21 expiration might have to run beyond the end of this calendar year — perhaps into early spring.

“Unless a miracle happens around here with the House and the Senate, we will have to come forth with another CR,” said Shelby, R-Ala., noting that next February or March is “probably in the ballpark.”

[Senate clears stopgap, pivots to endgame spending talks]

Shelby said he’d prefer a shorter stopgap but that the House’s impeachment inquiry and possible Senate trial will likely take all of the “oxygen out of the room” until the process is over.

“Looming on the horizon is what’s going on in the House regarding the process of impeachment, if there is an impeachment resolution adopted over there and a trial over here,” he said.