Speaker Paul Ryan speaks while flanked by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Dec. 5. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images GOP leaders tamp down opposition to shutdown strategy House Republicans have been divided over a short-term spending bill, even as President Donald Trump blamed Democrats for a possible government shutdown.

House GOP leaders believe they have the votes to avert a government shutdown Friday without Democratic help after spending much of Wednesday wrestling with internal Republican opposition.

Speaker Paul Ryan and his team huddled with unhappy conservatives and other opponents of their plan to keep the government open for two weeks. The House Republican Conference is broadly eager to avoid a distraction that might derail tax reform legislation. But they've been struggling to reach a truce to keep the government running.

Even allies of Ryan, including appropriators like Rep. Tom Graves, despise the strategy being pushed by the top. Graves said in an interview that short-term funding bills are a tactic of the minority and argued that Republicans are “squandering” their power of the purse.


Graves also noted that the House passed its GOP spending bills eight weeks ago — and the Senate has totally ignored them.

“The Senate needs two more weeks? I’m asking: 'What have you done the last eight?'” said the Georgia Republican, who is close with Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. "I want to see Senate action, and I think they owe it to the House to show us those next steps."

Despite the opposition, GOP leadership sources said they believe Republicans will fall in line and vote for the "continuing resolution" on Thursday. So too did conservatives, who have voiced their own objections.

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“I’ve had more fruitful conversations with leadership on this issue in the last eight hours than I’ve had in the last eight days," said Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows Wednesday evening. "That being said, there is no agreement at this point, but I fully expect that if there is CR through the 22nd that is put on the floor tomorrow, then it will pass.”

The White House endorsed the bill Wednesday night in another sign that Congress would avoid a shutdown at week's end. Still, the administration reiterated its firm position that military and national security funding — including a border wall — “must be prioritized” in a broader spending agreement later this month.

Just hours earlier, President Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed Democrats for a possible government shutdown.

"It could happen," Trump said of a shutdown at the White House Wednesday afternoon. "The Democrats are really looking at something that is very dangerous for our country. They are looking at shutting down... They want to have illegal immigrants pouring into our country."

In fact, the real problem has been Republican infighting, according to multiple House GOP sources.

In a rare move, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) crossed the Capitol Rotunda Wednesday to meet with some rank-and-file House Republicans in McCarthy's office, including Graves. He told them that if they pass a two-week stopgap right away, he could keep it "clean" — without policy riders demanded by Democrats or moderate Republicans.

Late last month, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) suggested McConnell would attach key Obamacare payments to a must-pass spending bill by the end of the year, an idea that infuriated House Republicans. McConnell's comments to the small group, however, suggest that he has no such plans to add the measure to the CR.

"He was there mostly to make the pitch: ‘Hey send us this two-week bill, that will help us on the tax front. We think we can keep that one clean,'" summarized Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who was in the meeting with McConnell. "They think the longer they make it, the more likely it is that something will come back with some kind of mischief you don’t like attached to it."

Cole added: "I think that argument is beginning to win over most of our members.”

However, some House Republicans left the meeting with McConnell even more frustrated than when they went in. Pressed on why the Senate had not taken up the House GOP appropriations package, McConnell said, effectively, he didn't have time for it.

That rubbed many in the room the wrong way. McConnell also told the members he is open to taking recommendations. But when Graves told him he should announce plans to take action on the House-passed government funding bill from September, McConnell said, "I don't have an answer to your question," according to one source in the room.

Even if GOP leaders ease the worries of their allies, conservatives still spent much of Wednesday warring with them.

House Freedom Caucus leaders have been asking for a commitment GOP leadership does not believe it can give them: a promise to "hold the line" and refuse Senate Democrats' demands for increased spending on non-defense programs.

GOP leaders do not believe that's realistic since the Senate needs at least eight Senate Democrats to overcome a filibuster and pass any long-term funding deal. And those on the left have demanded equivalent increases for defense and non-defense spending to win their votes.

"This is not a new theme that comes up: [Democrats] know that Republicans want to fund the military... so what they do is they hold that hostage in trying to get things that are not in the best interest of the American taxpayer, and so it is truly trying to have a real plan to break that" trend, said Meadows. "It's all about tactic and strategy."

It's a different tune than the conservatives sang Wednesday morning upon exiting a House Freedom Caucus meeting. Conservatives emphasized the need to get tax reform finished immediately, mirroring the argument GOP leadership has been making to try to get conservatives to back their short-term spending patch.

“I think the real focus for all of us is tax reform and getting tax reform done,” Meadows said earlier in the day. “That was the crux of the conversation we had today: that we gotta get across the finish line on tax reform. Any distraction from that is a problem.”

The back and forth highlights the dilemma conservatives face — whether to back the measure to keep the focus on tax reform or use their leverage to try to win a harder line on year-end spending.

Trump is leaning on Congress to send him the tax bill as soon as possible. And GOP leaders on both sides of the Capitol want to iron out their differences and clinch a much-needed legislative win within the next 10 days.

An internal spending war would only create more hurdles for tax reform in an already packed December, leaders say.

If the conservative faction ultimately backs the package, it would likely seal the GOP’s hopes of avoiding the need for a last-minute deal with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who could demand additional concessions to keep the government open. Many Democrats are vowing to vote against government funding legislation if it doesn't also provide deportation relief for Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants who came to the country as minors.

Indeed, without the Freedom Caucus votes, Ryan warned that he would need to bring Democrats into the talks to keep the government funded past Friday.

Schumer, Pelosi, Ryan and McConnell will meet with Trump at the White House Thursday to discuss year-end spending and immigration issues.

Earlier this week, GOP leaders floated an olive branch to the far-right to try to win them over: a promise that if they back a two-week spending patch, leaders will fight for conservative principles on the second stop-gap funding due in mid-December.

During a closed-door GOP Conference meeting Tuesday, lawmakers discussed the idea of the House passing a spending bill that includes a full year of spending for the Pentagon — but only for the Pentagon — in a week or two. Conservatives, however, don't believe GOP leaders will stick with that position when it's rejected by the Senate and want a commitment that they will reject any spending bill later this year that increases spending for non-defense programs.

Some House Republicans have said they would try to jam legislation through the Senate by peeling off votes from red-state Democrat who are up for reelection in 2018. They believe attaching bipartisan priorities like funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and hurricane recovery could sweeten the pot.

But multiple Democratic senators said this week they would oppose a spending bill that funds the Pentagon but leaves domestic programs in the lurch — even if it includes some of their priorities like children’s health funding or disaster relief dollars.

“We have to have domestic priorities also,” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) told reporters Tuesday when asked about the GOP's full-year defense plan, though she added that she'd need to see the House bill to make a final decision.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, a top member of the defense spending panel, also ruled out the idea. "Just defense?" he said in response to a reporter’s question. "No."

Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.