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The same Republicans who campaigned on doing away with legislative crises are careening toward government shutdown in less than two weeks with still no concrete plan to stop it. It’s not that Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) leadership team is hiding their best hand. They have no trick up their sleeve, no ace in the hole — pick your cliché. Nearly everyone in House and Senate leadership recognizes a simple reality: At some point in the next two weeks, they will move on a bill free of provisions to strip Planned Parenthood of its government funding. It just depends how long it takes, how painful it is and whether Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) team stumbles into their second government shutdown in three years. (Sherman and Palmer, 9/17)

House Republicans continued to evaluate their options on Planned Parenthood funding Thursday as the number of scheduled legislative days until a government shutdown shriveled to six. After back-to-back closed-door conference meetings Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, GOP lawmakers said they have yet to decide whether to include defunding language in a must-pass continuing resolution. Outraged conservatives want to use the spending bill as a way to respond to videos targeting the women’s health group and its handling of fetal tissue. (Hallerman and McCrimmon, 9/17)

President Barack Obama met with top Democratic leaders behind closed doors at the White House Thursday as Congress scrambles to avoid a government shutdown. Speaking to reporters outside the West Wing following the hour-and-a-half-long huddle that focused on budget negotiations, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced that he, Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were in agreement on a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government running and allow time for negotiations on a "meaningful" budget. Democrats want to keep pressure on Republicans to negotiate a broader budget deal that would remove the across-the-board forced spending cuts, known as "sequestration," that are in place now. The sooner they reach a deal, the sooner domestic programs would potentially be less impacted by these budget cuts. (Holmes and Walsh, 9/17)

Reid and Pelosi met with Obama for about 90 minutes to prepare for negotiations. They said they are willing to back a continuing resolution to keep the government open, but insisted that such a stopgap measure be a short-term one and include the same size increases for military and non-military spending. They said that they will also demand that it not include any language about ideological issues, such as funding for Planned Parenthood. (Mufson and Snell, 9/17)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi huddled with Speaker John Boehner Thursday evening to discuss the looming government funding crisis. The roughly 20-minute meeting came after Pelosi had been pressuring him for weeks to start negotiations on legislation that would keep the government open past Sept. 30. ... Congressional Republicans are currently logjamed over funding for Planned Parenthood with a group of more than 30 conservatives refusing to vote for any spending bill that doesn't strip the health care organization of its federal money. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that proposal is unlikely to pass the Senate meaning that Boehner may have to rely on Democratic votes to pass a continuing resolution. (French, 9/17)

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn't decided how next week's floor schedule will go. But Republicans are clearly entertaining a scenario in which the Senate must take the lead on avoiding a government shutdown on Oct. 1. "I guess he deserves credit for doing the right thing in ultimately passing a clean [spending bill], but it's a hell of a gamble since it leaves no time for a plan B," a senior Democratic aide said of McConnell, who opposes hardline tactics that could result in a shutdown over Planned Parenthood's funding. Cornyn said it remained unclear whether the House or Senate would vote first on the bill to defund Planned Parenthood. (Everett and Haberkorn, 9/17)

Republican leaders are eyeing an obscure budget tool called reconciliation to end funding for Planned Parenthood -- although it wouldn't necessarily prevent a government shutdown. House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday morning that "reconciliation is an option." A Republican move to defund Planned Parenthood was killed in the Senate in early August because Democrats had enough votes to block the measure. Reconciliation's appeal lies in the fact that it requires only a simple majority to pass the Senate instead of a filibuster-proof 60 votes. (Kaplan, 9/17)

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton expressed uncertainty Thursday about whether budget reconciliation can be used to defund Planned Parenthood, one of the options that Republicans are considering to starve the family planning group of federal funds, appease unhappy conservatives and still avoid a government shutdown. “I don’t know that we can do that in reconciliation,” the Michigan Republican said in an interview with CQ Roll Call. His comments are significant because Energy and Commerce is one of three committees in the House that would be tasked with writing reconciliation legislation that likely would be focused on repealing parts of the 2010 health care law (Krawzak and Attias, 9/17).