Indeed, 24 Republicans voted against their own party’s bill early on Friday morning, because it did not cut enough current-year spending even though an agreement reached in July with both parties to raise the debt ceiling set the spending levels.

Without an agreement on a bill to pay for federal operations beginning Oct. 1, the government would run out of money before lawmakers returned unless some resolution was found. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has postponed several repair projects, and the money in its disaster bank is at its lowest levels in history.

On Friday, four governors from states hit by natural disasters — Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Bev Perdue of North Carolina, both Democrats, and Chris Christie of New Jersey and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, two Republicans — issued a statement criticizing the Congressional impasse.

“Within 10 days of Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed and the president signed over $60 billion in aid for the Gulf Coast,” the governors wrote. “It’s been 28 days since Irene and Lee started battering our states. We urge this Congress to move swiftly to ensure that disaster aid through FEMA and other federal programs is sufficient to start rebuilding now.”

For the entire day, both Democrats and Republicans expressed outrage and confusion over events. Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Senate Republican, appeared to be instructing Senator Kelly Ayotte, a freshman New Hampshire Republican, on what precisely they were voting on the floor of the Senate. Spokesmen for various leaders of both parties exchanged Twitter barbs. News conferences in overly air-conditioned conference rooms were held, with Republicans and Democrats accusing one another of bad faith.

Speaker John A. Boehner said Friday that the only way to advance the legislation would be for the Senate to capitulate and accept the House bill. “With FEMA expected to run out of disaster funding as soon as Monday, the only path to getting assistance into the hands of American families immediately is for the Senate to approve the House bill,” he said. “This is no time for delay.”

As the spending bill stalled, a spokesman for President Obama expressed alarm at the inability of Congress to reach a deal.

“The members of Congress work for the American people,” said the spokesman, Jay Carney, in a briefing with reporters. “They work for the constituents who sent them here, in their districts and states. We are absolutely confident that the vast majority of those constituents are not asking very much when they insist that Congress perform the basic functions that they were sent here to perform, and that they do not let politics get in the way of what should be a relatively straightforward exercise of funding the government.”