“Our leaders have made clear it’s in our interest to fund the government. That’s been my message to him,” Shelby told reporters, referring to Trump. “The border wall is toxic to some people. That may have to wait until a later date.”

Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, predicted there wouldn’t be a shutdown and that a stopgap continuing resolution would be signed. “I think we’ll fund the government,” he said. “A few of the minor bills may pass but the rest will be a CR.”

President’s Promise

Trump promised McConnell and Ryan in a July 25 meeting that he wouldn’t force a shutdown, which would close national parks and curtail some government services, before the midterm elections, lawmakers and aides have said.

The top Republican leaders argued that doing so would cloud the clear victory of a Brett Kavanaugh confirmation to the Supreme Court, and raise questions about the ability of Republicans to govern. Instead, they have tried to sell Trump on the idea of enacting multiple appropriations bills by the Oct. 1 deadline for the first time in more than a decade.

Days after the Ryan-McConnell meeting, Trump said publicly he would have "no problem doing a shutdown" over border funding although he didn’t specify that he would veto a stopgap spending bill without the funds before the election.

Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, predicted a stopgap spending bill at the end of the month because there are few legislative days left in it.

The federal government already shut down twice this year: once in January when Senate Democrats tried to force Trump to agree to protections for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and again briefly in February when Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky delayed a vote to protest an increase in spending levels.

Ryan and McConnell have pursued a step-by-step strategy designed to delay any confrontation over the wall until after November.

The first test of their plan comes Wednesday as lawmakers meet face-to-face to negotiate the first package of fiscal 2019 spending bills. The bills, financing the legislative branch, energy and water programs and the department of Veterans Affairs has been stalled over veterans health spending levels.