Hello, everyone. Good morning. It is saturday, september 30th. Im amara walker. And im omar jimenez. Youre in the cnn newsroom. The government is barrelling towards a shutdown with no solution in sight. Today is the last day for congress to pass a funding bill to keep the government open. You see the count down. Now the clock is ticking. Right now House Republicans are in a closed door meeting to try and come up with a last minute solution. But just last night House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy once again failed to pass a Stop Gap Bill in his chamber and now he is warning that the senate bill wont pass either, calling their bipartisan bill Dead On Arrival. But Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell says there is only one path forward. The choice facing congress is pretty straightforward. We can take the Standard Approach and fund the government for six weeks at the current rate of operations, or we can shut the government down in exchange for zero meaningful progress on policy. Our team is on the ground in d. C. To bring us the latest developments. Cnns Priscilla Alvarez is at the white house. Shes keeping an eye on how President Biden and his team is preparing for a Potential Shutdown. First lets go to cnn Congressional Correspondent lauren fox on the hill. Lauren, what is the latest right now . What options does mccarthy have . Reporter yeah, House Republicans are night now meeting Behind Closed Doors as a conference. This is their fourth conference in a weeks time. That gives you a sense of the amediacy and crisis the senators and republicans in the house are trying to figure out at the moment. And one thing ill walk through is at the moment it is not clear what House Republicans could do to avoid a shutdown. Mcconnell has made it clear he thinks the option is to work across the aisle with democrats to accept whatever the senate sends over, but last night House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy made it clear that the senate bill was Dead On Arrival because of ukraine funding that was included in that legislation. We also know that Behind Closed Doors this morning leadership gave their members a clear picture that there was not enough republican support for a short term cr for two weeks, 30 day, 45 days, that there remains a number of hard liners who are never going to be yes on those proposals. So that leaves mccarthy certainly facing the prospect that a shutdown is imminent. Now, again, he could potentially put something on the floor to change that calculus and get some democratic support, but doing so, working across the aisle with democrats could potentially mean the end of his speakership, pamela. For a clean cr, thats what we were fighting against all the time. Border, nothing in it for the bord, so, no, i wont be doing it. Well see how it goes. Were supposed to have a budget in 12 separate appropriations bills. We dont in this place and have one massive Spending Bill that doesnt get vetted, doesnt get amendments put on it and you dont get time to read it. And im not going to participate in What Washington has always done. Reporter and you see there a number of those hard liners pledging theyre not going to vote for a shortterm republican solution. That means in the next several hours its possible that House Republicans wont have an option to avoid the shutdown, and it if that occurs it really does build some momentum for the senate. If they send over a package even though mccarthy has said its Dead On Arrival, you can expect that leverage point House Republicans might have had in this negotiation really goes out the window, amara . A lot of calculations on capitol hill today. Were going to see what happens. I want to bring in Priscilla Alvarez at the white house for this conversation. How is the administration preparing . Were a little less than 14 hours on the clock before a shutdown goes into effect. What are they preparing . Theres a lot of Contingency Planning thats happening at the white house and across federal agencies, but over the course of the day the president is going to be briefed on these ongoing negotiations by his staff. And up until now white house officials have said its largely republicans who are going to be blamed for this if there is a shutdown and have accused House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy of going back on a Spending Deal that the two, mckocarthy and the preside had made earlier this year. The Small Business administration not being able to provide Small Business loans as well as Disastry Recovery Projects being put on hold and millions of children and women potentially going without Food Assistance and of course millions of federal workers and active duty troops not getting paid. Again, what federal agencies are doing now is looking at their contingency plans, and over the course of the week they sent notice to the workforce notifying them they may be temporarily furloughed as well as notifying those employees who may be considered essential and therefore having to work without pay. We should also note that Administration Officials tell us that the president is expected to hold a Cabinet Meeting early next week in the event of a Government Shutdown, again, to talk about continuity of government if this were to happen. So the bottom line here is as all of this unfolds on the hill, the white house and federal agencies are preparing for what a shutdown will mean for the government. Omar, amara . And a shutdown that could be a reality in less than 24 hours. Lauren fox, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much. If indeed the government does shutdown, the impact will be felt in almost every aspect of our lives. From travel to Disaster Funding and child care, cnns brian todd explains how you could be affected. Reporter this Wisconsin Food Pantry is bracing for a surge of needy families if the federal government shuts down this weekend. A lot of people might come through and be this is my first time here, how does this work . Reporter federal workers wont get paychecks, and families who rely on Food Assistance could lose it. If they dont get those benefits they might come here every week instead of only once a month. Reporter first to feel the pinch almost all the 3. 5 million workers going without pay. It could be devastating, as a matter of fact it could be a disaster. Reporter over a million are active duty military. These Service Members have rent to pay, mortgages, child care, so those bills are going to mount up. Its an incredibly stressful time. Reporter some workers will still have to work without pay, those deemed essential, for example soldiers, Border Patrol, and airtraffic controllers. It certainly doesnt help for that critical job for them to come to work with the stress of not getting paid. Reporter among those at risk food and water safety inspections, services at National Parks, Disaster Funding for places like hawaii and florida, passport processing. We can expect Airport Delays with many unpaid tsa screeners likely to be absent, and thousands of preschool kids could be shutout of the head start program. Were talking about kids living in extreme poverty. Not having the system up and running would really, really impact the kids in the communities that need it the most. Reporter other impacts, Immigration Court cases put off, and no new Government Aid to help states cope with migrants. New federal funds will not be available to help states like new york deal with the Asylum Seeker crisis. Reporter Social Security and medicare payments will continue uninterrupted, but service those who want to apply for a new claim, that wont happen. A person having an issue with their benefits, theyll have no one to call, no one to talk to. Reporter the broader economy would take a hit, experts say, because things like permitting for construction projects, and loan approvals for farms and Small Businesses could be paused. A Government Shutdown is just yet another drag on the economy because it ends up disrupting lots of Supply Chains and lots of services that people and businesses rely on them to keep other parts of the economy running. Brian todd, thank you. Joining me now is cnn political analyst laura barone lopez. Good to see you on this shutdown eve, well see. Thats my question here. With House MembersBehind Closed Doors how likely is it to avoid a shutdown tonight . Its looking highly unlikely, omar, because of the fact House Republicans dont appear to be able to come to an agreement on any type of shortterm Spending Bill. They continue to disagree about the length of it, what should be included in it whether its ukraine aid or Disaster Relief aid. And mccarthy has a choice. He could very well put on the floor a bill that is passed by that is likely to be passed by the senate, a shortterm cr that includes funding for Disaster Relief, but he doesnt want to put that on the floor because he his speakership would very likely be threatened even though that bill from the senate, it would likely have more than more than the votes needed because it would have democrats voting for it as well as a number of moderate House Republicans, but mccarthy doesnt want to do that. Thats the fight within the fight here. Of course theyre trying to piece together legislation but also politics. Theres a faction of the house gop that has threatened to oust or at least spark up a vote to oust speaker Kevin Mccarthy if they dont go with their demands. How does mccarthy balance essentially what is his job versus what is the responsibility of his job to get something that the senate might be able to pass . Well, so far to date all of the things that Speaker Mccarthy has said and all of the things that Speaker Mccarthy has done has shown that he chooses to side with the hard right republicans, that he even when he became speaker he ended up striking an agreement with them, which was not necessarily made public but which they say he hasnt held to. And every time he has been faced with the choice to either do something that could potentially be more favorable to his moderate republicans, the very republicans that made his majority, those 18 House Republicans that are in bidenwon districts and are facing very tough reelections or doing something that the hard right republicans really want, he ends up going with what that hard right faction wants, and were seeing that happen again right now because he could very well put a bill on the floor that would have overwhelming democratic support, and he would just need, you know, a handful or a few dozen republicans to go over and vote for it to keep the government open, and hes choosing not to do that. And to be clear there is a growing faction of the Republican Party on the house gop side that is upset with the matt gaetz of the world and others who have been pushing a more Hard Line Approach and have threatened mccarthys speakership. Now, on the democratic side one of the big dividing issues i guess for both sides is the funding for ukraine. Do you think its realistic that democrats will be able to pass a Stop Gap Bill without any money going to ukraine to avoid a shutdown and appease some on the republican side . Its looking more and more difficult for for the white house, for democrats, and mind you Senate Republican leadership. Mitch mccomwants that ukraine funding attached to a cr. He wants it something on ultimately passed to keep the government open, but its looking as though that is becoming increasingly difficult because of the House Republicans that appear to be growing in opposition to any type of aid to ukraine as well as some consternation among Senate Republican who dont necessarily want that to be attached to any Government Funding resolution. So opposition appears to be growing to that despite the fact there are a number of Senate Republicans including leadership who wants to see u. S. Support for ukraine continue well into next year, and its only going to get harder. And of course even if they are able to on the democratic side get past some of those disagreements, weve got disagreements between the senate and house gop. And so you sort of end up back in a similar cycle here. Obviously this is not happening in a vacuum. We are going to the 2024 election. We are very much in a Campaign Season for a lot of people that are running for reelection or for new offices in cases. What sort of ramifications do you think this is going to have here . The Government Shutdown, omar . Yes, the Government Shutdown. Sorry. No, the Government Shutdown is not beneficial to the lawmakers that are involved. And right now it appears as though the American Public has their eyes on House Republicans because of the fact that that House Republicans have decided to not go along with the deal that Kevin Mccarthy struck with joe biden in may on spending levels. Thats something that Senate Republicans are willing to go along with Kevin Mccarthy and House Republicans werent. So its not politically beneficial. A shutdown never is, and right now voters, of course, are very concerned about the economy, and this impacts their ability to have Food Assistance and other necessary paychecks. Well, well see what happens. Thank you so much. Amara . All right, this just into cnn. Were learning new details about a potential house vote that is supposed to take place this afternoon. Lets go now to cnns lauren fox on the hill. Tell us more about this vote that were hoping will take place but its not to avert a shutdown, is that correct . Reporter amara, let me take you inside the republican Conference Meeting still ongoing at the moment. Basically the Republican Whip walked members through what he believes the real te, theres not enough votes to keep the government funded, to have this sort of prolonged negotiation with the United States senate. And so what was presented to members is they are trying to basically soften the blow of a Potential Shutdown by putting legislation on the floor that would extend faa authorization, also deal with some Flood Insurance issues and would pay american troops while a shutdown was ongoing. Now, this is very fluid at the moment. And i just want to be very clear this is a sign potentially that we are headed into a shutdown, but it also has been changing by the minute, so we want to be very careful and clear that these things are moving quickly, and the House Speaker has been sort of all over the map in terms of what hes been eyeing, and so obviously if theres a vote today on these measures, it is an opportunity for republicans to try to put democrats in a hard spot, force them to have to decide if they think americas troops should be paid during a shutdown, but none of the bills they are talking about or entertaining would prevent a Government Shutdown at this