House Republicans will likely meet Tuesday to discuss strategy. | John Shinkle/POLITICO House not moving on debt bill

It will be more of the same this week in the House.

House Republicans have no plans to try to pass a bill to hike the nation’s borrowing limit this week, according to Republican aides.


Instead, Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) chamber will use the week to continue to pass targeted spending bills in an attempt to reopen parts of the currently shuttered government . Those bills have been rejected by Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama.

Time is running short. The Treasury Department says the debt ceiling must be lifted in the next ten days — the most current projection is Oct. 17. Since taking the majority, Boehner’s House has typically preferred to lay down a legislative marker at the outset of a fight by passing a bill with only Republican votes.

But the House GOP has no plans to pass a bill to lift the borrowing limit this week. When the party last planned to hike the borrowing limit in September, a pocket of House Republicans rejected the package, which was filled with GOP policy goodies. Conservatives wanted to see what — if any — concessions they could win from Democrats in keeping government funded. That dynamic has not changed. Several senior Republicans describe their strategy as a staring contest: they are banking on Obama and Reid eventually entering into some sort of negotiation

This strategy is not without risk.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and other Obama administration officials have warned Republicans of waiting until the deadline to lift the nation’s borrowing cap, arguing that it could rattle global financial markets. If the markets react to a lack of legislative movement in Washington, things could change. Lew is testifying on Capitol Hill this week about the debt cap.

It’s also unclear how Republican lawmakers will react when they return to D.C. this week. The GOP is now moving into the second week of the shutdown with the same message: the White House and Senate Democrats should negotiate. The party is considering several legislative mechanisms to try to lure Democrats into discussions. But polls currently show that the public is siding with Democrats’ tactics in the shutdown

It remains to be seen if that message will be enough to satisfy members of the House Republican Conference. Many are already grumbling about the lack of a clear strategy to open the government, avoid a debt default and extract policy concessions from Obama and Reid.

House Republicans will likely meet Tuesday to discuss strategy.

Republican leadership met Monday to plan , but sources involved and familiar with the meeting say little progress was made. There is still no discussion about trying to pass a so-called clean government-funding bill, without legislative add-ons.

At this point it’s almost inevitable that Washington will have to roll the government-funding debt ceiling fights into one legislative discussion. Boehner wants to craft a large-scale fiscal deal to handle both. The White House seems open to that, but wants Congress to reopen government and lift the debt ceiling before those discussions begin. A short-term continuing resolution to fund the government and debt ceiling bill would face a lot of resistance in the House, aides say.