Congressional leadership appears to have enough support to pass another short-term continuing resolution, said White House chief of staff John Kelly on Wednesday.
With a partial government shutdown looming — midnight on Friday — Kelly told Fox News' Bret Baier his sense was that there would be a sufficient number of votes.
"I spent a fair amount of time on the Hill today speaking to members of Congress, both sides of the aisle ... and it would seem to have the votes to continue funding the military, take care of the child health care issue, and perhaps some other things. As I understand it, they have the votes and they're fairly confident," Kelly said.
The House is expected to vote on a stopgap measure as soon as Thursday, which, along with reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program for six years, would also include a few "sweeteners" aimed at drawing in GOP and Democratic votes.
Baier noted that another CR is "not really what you wanted" as opposed to a long-term deal.
"No, the CR is getting in the way of an awful lot of things but that's the reality of life in Washington," Kelly replied.
Despite Kelly's assurances, some Republican lawmakers are throwing the short-term funding debate into question.
House conservatives and defense hawks are demanding more military funding and a vote on a tough border security bill in exchange for their help in passing a short-term spending bill later this week — the fourth temporary spending bill for fiscal 2018.
