Another government shutdown deadline is nearly here. Here’s what to know.

Congress is lurching up against another deadline to prevent a government shutdown, with lawmakers set to vote on a short-term federal funding bill - the third in four months - by the end of the week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) have reached a $1.66 trillion compromise to finance the government for the 2024 fiscal year, but Congress has run out of time to pass that complex proposal before federal funding expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Instead, leaders in both chambers say, Congress needs to pass a short-term spending measure, called a continuing resolution, or CR, to keep the government open. But far-right House Republicans, furious with Johnson for cutting a deal that does not cut spending, are hinting they may throw obstacles in the way - pushing the country again to the brink of a costly government shutdown.

A similar dispute in September and October led House Republicans to oust Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker, and some GOP hard-liners are threatening Johnson with the same fate.

Here’s what you need to know about Congress’s path to averting a government shutdown, and what it means for you.

What’s in Congress’s deal to prevent a government shutdown?

There are two plans to avert a shutdown: a short-term plan and long-term plan.

The short-term plan is another stopgap funding bill, called a continuing resolution, or CR. This bill would extend the current expiration dates for government funding - Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 - until March 1 and 8, maintaining the staggered approach favored by Johnson. Congress needs to pass that and get it to President Biden to sign before 12:01 a.m. Saturday to prevent a partial shutdown.

The long-term plan is a set of annual spending bills, or appropriations, that would fund the government until the end of the 2024 fiscal year, on Sept. 30. Johnson and Schumer would authorize $1.66 trillion in spending, while clawing back $20 billion from the Internal Revenue Service and $6.1 billion in unspent emergency coronavirus funds.

That agreement has bipartisan support, but hard-right lawmakers in the House oppose it and have thrown up procedural roadblocks.

When are the new proposed government shutdown deadlines?

The new proposed government shutdown deadlines are March 1 and March 8.

On March 1, funding would expire for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. That would affect programs like veterans’ assistance and housing aid. Food assistance programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) or WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) have contingency funds that can carry over past the government funding deadline. But that funding only lasts so long, meaning a protracted shutdown, a month or more, could make some aid disbursements difficult.

On March 8, funding would expire for the departments of Commerce, Justice, State, Defense, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. That covers roughly 80 percent of the federal government.

The roughly 1.3 million active-duty U.S. military service members would remain on the job without pay during a government shutdown. They would receive backpay after the shutdown ends, as would all the other federal workers forced to keep working during the period.

The State Department will continue issuing passports and visas in the United States and abroad because the work is considered essential to national security, and most funding is covered by the fees that passport applicants typically pay.

Some passport locations, however, are located in government buildings run by agencies more deeply affected by a government shutdown. If those buildings are closed, the State Department might suspend consular and passport services, it said in its shutdown contingency plan.

When could Congress pass a budget for 2024?

Congress has the framework of a budget deal, but needs more time to hash out the details and pass it through both the House and Senate. Schumer and Johnson agreed to that $1.66 trillion deal in early January.

Now lawmakers need to allocate funds among the 12 appropriations bills. Then they need to draft the legislative texts, a cumbersome, legalistic process, and members need time to review the measures. In the Senate, each bill needs support from at least 60 members in a process that could require as many as 30 hours of debate to dodge a filibuster.

Realistically, that process could take between two weeks and a month, lawmakers say. Bills can move faster in the House than the Senate - House leaders can exert more control over floor time - but far-right opponents of the spending bills could jam up the works, at least temporarily.

A drawn-out budget process could land Congress up against another deadline. The House and Senate are in session together for only six days between Friday and March 1, and for 10 days between Friday and March 8. Lawmakers from both chambers will continue negotiations even when they’re not in Washington, but any holdups could force Congress to consider yet another stopgap funding bill.

Will House Republicans remove Speaker Mike Johnson from power?

Republicans across the ideological spectrum are keenly aware of the unnecessary pain wrought when eight GOP opponents of Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) succeeded in removing him from the speakership in October. It took three grueling weeks for the conference to unanimously elect Johnson as a replacement.

Even though Johnson is leading in the same way McCarthy did on government funding, he is expected to survive any similar removal effort - for now - because hard-liners believe Johnson to be an honest broker who’s negotiated with them in good faith.

That hasn’t stopped Reps. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from floating the prospect of trying to oust Johnson if he crosses them on spending and immigration issues. But many Republicans recognize that removing the speaker would only result in more dysfunction, especially in an election year when the GOP is desperate to prove it can govern and expand its narrow majority.

When were the last government shutdowns?

The most recent government shutdown started in December 2018 during a dispute between President Donald Trump and House Democrats over the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. It lasted 34 days, which made it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Before that, the government shut down for three days in January 2018 over an immigration policy dispute, and for a few hours in February 2018 after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) filibustered a spending agreement.