Washington DC - Members of Congress raced Monday to avert a weekend government shutdown with a funding deal loudly backed by President Donald Trump as he pushes a polarizing plan to drastically downsize the federal bureaucracy.

Republicans have released a stopgap bill to keep the government funded through September 30 that would give Trump time to push his agenda of tax cuts, deportations, and boosted energy production through Congress over the summer.

Lawmakers hope to advance the bill through the House on Tuesday, with Senate approval envisioned before Friday night's midnight shutdown deadline.

A handful of fiscal conservatives reliably vote against stopgaps – known as continuing resolutions (CRs) – because they mostly freeze spending levels, squandering opportunities for budget cuts.

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At least one House Republican so far has opposed the 99-page CR, while several others have been noncommittal.

A lapse in federal funding over Saturday and Sunday would have a limited impact on the public overall, as long as the funding was cleared by the start of the working week. But a longer pause could result in thousands of public employees being sent home without pay and an array of government operations and services being hit – plunging the country into chaos early in Trump's second term.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is betting on the president pressuring any potential party rebels after the Republican leader endorsed the measure in a social media post urging Republicans to "remain UNITED – NO DISSENT."

Trump was asked by reporters over the weekend if he was confident of a shutdown being averted, responding that it "could happen" – although he immediately added that he expected the CR to pass.

Congress needs to pass the continuing resolution because it is so evenly split that it has been unable to approve the 12 separate bills that allocate full 2025 budgets for various federal agencies.

But with Johnson leading a tiny majority, he can likely afford to lose only one or two votes from his own side for the stopgap.

The bill would drop domestic spending by about $13 billion from 2024 levels, while increasing defense spending by about $6 billion, and almost all House Democrats are expected to vote against it.

But the tussle is something of a minefield for the left, which is under pressure to offer strong opposition to Trump's agenda, but wary of being blamed for a shutdown.

The latest funding fight comes with Trump pushing unprecedented federal firings as he begins unilaterally shrinking or shuttering agencies from USAID to the Department of Education.

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The drive is being spearheaded by Trump aide Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who has enraged much of the country and Congress – including Republican lawmakers – with his seemingly haphazard approach.

Musk is deeply unpopular among ordinary Americans, according to polling, and his cuts have sparked angry confrontations between Republicans and their constituents at town halls.

Courts have been hearing a flood of challenges to Musk's authority, and Republican senators have urged the SpaceX and Tesla boss to seek congressional approval for his cuts – the sole lawful means for the White House to block spending approved by lawmakers.

Although there is no appetite on either side for a shutdown, the prospect of the stopgap making it to Trump's desk before the deadline was hanging by a thread as party leaders prepared to muscle it through the Rules Committee on Monday.

Senate Republicans have to clear anything the House passes by a 60-vote threshold, and one conservative has indicated he will be a no, meaning Majority Leader John Thune needs the support of at least eight Democrats.

Patty Murray, the top Senate Democrat on government funding negotiations, called the stopgap a "slush fund continuing resolution that would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal spending."