GOP pushes for a 1-week funding bill to avert government shutdown

— -- To avert a government shutdown at the end of the week, lawmakers are hoping that a stopgap measure will provide congressional leadership more time to negotiate a larger funding bill.

The deadline for Congress to pass a spending bill is midnight Friday — coincidentally, President Donald Trump's 100th day in office.

But a short-term continuing resolution, or CR, introduced late Wednesday by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., would extend funding to May 5, until Congress can pass a bill that would fund the government through September.

"This continuing resolution will continue to keep the government open and operating as normal for the next several days in order to finalize legislation to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year," Frelinghuysen said in a statement released last night.

He added, "I am optimistic that a final funding package will be completed soon."

House Speaker Paul Ryan said today he was "confident" the short-term CR would pass, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted, "We expect to pass a short-term funding bill" before Friday's deadline.

"The reason this government funding bill is not ready is because Democrats have been dragging their feet," Ryan said today. "So the reason we need an extension in the first place is because Democrats are dragging their feet ... People need to be able to read the bill, so it inevitably, under any scenario or circumstance, requires a short-term extension."

While Republicans believe the CR will pass the House and the Senate, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said that Democrats will support the measure but that it "depends on what form it takes."

She said the Democrats' position is that if they're ready to cut a deal on the larger spending bill, they'll support the CR being pushed by Republicans and "allow another week."

"But if it's just more time kicking the can down the road to have the same back-and-forths and unknowns injected into the debate, we're not there," Pelosi said.

She acknowledged that some Democrats don't want any stopgap bill passed, saying, "They think that ... there's been plenty of time and they're not going vote for the CR. But depending on where we are on this bill, I think some will. I will."

"We are never going to shut the government down," Pelosi said. "We are hoping that we will be able to resolve these differences."

The negotiations on an all-encompassing funding bill have focused on funding for Trump's proposed border wall and Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Ryan said the bill would not include key Obamacare payments to insurers, which Democrats were hoping to protect. However, Republicans have offered Democrats a deal that doesn't include funding for the wall.

Ryan told reporters Wednesday on Capitol Hill, "We're getting really close" to a final spending bill. "Now it's just kind of getting down to the final details."

ABC News' Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.