Speaker Paul Ryan and his top lieutenants plan to bring a short-term government funding bill to the House floor Thursday despite internal resistance — in hopes of averting a shutdown and then leaving town for the holidays.

GOP leaders are betting that their conference doesn’t want to trample on its tax victory by shuttering federal agencies. They plan to call up the bill, along with a separate $81 billion disaster package for hurricane relief.

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If the House passes the funding patch Thursday, the Senate will move on it as quickly as possible, GOP aides said.

With House Democrats united against a short-term spending plan that doesn’t include their top priorities, Ryan is being forced to rely on his divided conference to carry the bill over the finish line. GOP defense hawks and conservatives alike spent Wednesday criticizing Ryan’s current plan. But Republican leaders think they can garner the needed 217 votes nonetheless.

On Wednesday night, House GOP leaders also added language to the hurricane relief bill to address the concerns of Democrats that Puerto Rico was not receiving sufficient help to recover from Hurricane Maria. They inserted a provision stabilizing Medicaid programs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

The changes were made to garner Democratic votes, as Ryan and his team knew they didn’t have the GOP votes to pass it alone.

The $81 billion relief package has run into problems in the Senate, however, and may get pushed into next year. That, however, would infuriate Texas and Florida lawmakers who have vowed not to leave town for the holidays until they get the disaster funding approved.

The last-minute drama shows just how difficult it is for Ryan to corral his fractured caucus, even just hours after his biggest win a speaker. Hill Republicans celebrated passage of their most significant legislative achievement, tax reform, at the White House on Wednesday afternoon only to return to the Hill to spar over thorny spending issues.

During a closed-door conference meeting, House GOP tensions were on full display. Pentagon allies stood up and railed against a new leadership plan to fund the government until Jan. 19 without a full-year boost for the Pentagon.

GOP House Armed Services Committee members, including Austin Scott of Georgia, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Mike Turner of Ohio, reminded leadership that they endorsed a yearlong military boost just two weeks ago and criticized their sudden change of course.

Some Republicans reminded leaders that they backed a short-term spending agreement just a couple weeks ago because leadership promised that it would “fight” for Pentagon money before Friday’s shutdown deadline.

“The reason I voted ‘yes’ for a CR two weeks ago was for the defense bill, as conferenced and passed by the House, and a clean CR,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), an ex-Marine.

GOP leaders responded by telling the conference that there were not 217 votes to pass the original Pentagon-CR plan. Texas and Florida Republicans whipped against the idea when it did not include their own hurricane funding. Then, when leaders added the provision, some conservatives flipped from yes to no because it was not paid for.

Ryan also told the conference that Defense Secretary James Mattis had given his blessing to a short-term funding plan. Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri, who has a son is in the military, also grew emotional when she argued that the House needed to pass a straight CR for the men and women in uniform.

House Freedom Caucus conservatives, meanwhile, are balking at GOP leadership’s plan to temporarily reauthorize the government’s surveillance authority as part of the spending patch. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act divides the conference between libertarians and hawks — and conservatives are loath to support even a short-term patch without a commitment from GOP leaders that certain changes will be made in the future.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina would not give details on what the group was requesting of leaders on the matter. But Freedom Caucus board member Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said he could be a yes on the stopgap if leadership took FISA out of the CR.

Across the Capitol campus, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) complained that the disaster bill — while almost double the Trump administration's initial proposal of $44 billion — "still does not treat Puerto Rico, California and the U.S. Virgin Islands as well as Florida and Texas."

Senate aides believe there was some support for postponing final action on the disaster package until January, although this possibility would anger lawmakers from Texas and Florida, who want the bill approved before the holiday recess. Some told GOP leaders that they would vote against a spending package if the disaster package doesn’t pass.

Senior appropriators who’ve seen the last-minute holiday theater expressed confidence that leadership would get it done.

"I think the speaker's plan gives us the best chance to reach our long-term goals, given the Senate's parameters, to finally get defense spending where we want to be in the budget cap talks," said Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), a former chairman of the Appropriations Committee who is still on the panel.

When asked whether the CR would pass, Rogers said, "I think so."

Sarah Ferris and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.