It’s December and it’s three days before funding for the government runs out, so of course there’s a mad scramble by congressional Democrats to figure out how to avert that and of course there’s a group of Freedom Caucus maniacs, egged on by their Republican accomplices in the Senate, trying to force a shutdown over (checks notes to see what it is this time) vaccine mandates. The House had hoped to put a stop-gap continuing resolution on the floor Wednesday, but those plan have been scuttled by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to agree to a duration for the short-term funding.

That’s according to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. “We’re waiting for the Senate to decide what date they can agree on, which is ridiculous,” he said. In a private caucus meeting Wednesday morning, he reportedly told members “I have no idea what the schedule is, I’m being honest. Stand by.” McConnell’s agreement—along with the rest of Senate Republicans’—is necessary for moving the bill to the floor quickly, in time to pass before midnight Friday.

Democrats want the stop-gap funding to end either in late January or early February. Republicans want to drag it out as long as possible, forcing a Democratic president and congressional majority to live with the funding levels approved in 2020, under Trump. “Right now, the date is definitely a struggle,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat told Politico. “It’s very evident what the Republicans are trying to do. … They want to make sure Trump’s budget just keeps going.”

There’s also this:

It’s bitterly ironic that Republicans are making a bodily autonomy argument about vaccines on the very same day their latest Supreme Court Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, posited in court that it’s fine to force people to stay pregnant for nine months because they can just give up the baby at the end of it. No, they will not be bothered by the hypocrisy of being “pro-life” while being so virulently anti-public health.

So far, McConnell hasn’t commented on that. McConnell is insisting that there won’t be any shutdown, that a deal will most certainly be made, and he’s probably right, though there could very well be a few days’ lapse in the process. The bill has to pass the House first, and the House can’t pass anything until there’s a deal in the Senate, and a deal won’t happen in the Senate until 10 Republicans promise they’ll uphold it.

“To avoid a needless shutdown, Republicans will have to cooperate and approve the government funding legislation without delay,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Tuesday. “If Republicans choose obstruction, there will be a shutdown entirely because of their own dysfunction.” Nothing in that has changed now that it’s midday Wednesday.