Threat of another government shutdown lingers as lawmakers have barely begun negotiating new funding bills

The Republican Congress is hurtling towards another self-imposed deadline, even after the House and Senate were unable to reach an agreement to avert impending health care premium spikes for millions of Americans due to begin January 1.

At the end of next month there lies another government funding drop-off when an agreement brokered in November to end the longest government shutdown in history will expire. While Congress isn’t likely to face another battle of quite that magnitude, the path forward for Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune is still tricky.